LC Off Topic Thread (2015/16)

Blue giant

DublinArnie wrote: »

Consonata wrote: »

Has anybody gotten the ebook from 625points.com it's nine euro and I was wondering if it was worth it?

Just had a quick glance through the site. Honestly it does seem like great value, a concise book filled with English tips and so on.

Three years in Ireland and she achieved 8 A1s...

EDIT:
She has a few sample essays on the site, seems like a good idea to pick out good phrases etc and use em.

They might well be very good essays but I can't help but feel a bit skeptic about someone who sells their own notes online. You'd benefit a lot more by writing your own notes about the poets, comparative etc. There's also almost no point in learning off essays or even paragraphs anymore as the questions have been getting more and more precise in the last few years.

legocrazy505

Blue giant wrote: »

DublinArnie wrote: »

Consonata wrote: »

Has anybody gotten the ebook from 625points.com it's nine euro and I was wondering if it was worth it?

Just had a quick glance through the site. Honestly it does seem like great value, a concise book filled with English tips and so on.

Three years in Ireland and she achieved 8 A1s...

EDIT:
She has a few sample essays on the site, seems like a good idea to pick out good phrases etc and use em.

They might well be very good essays but I can't help but feel a bit skeptic about someone who sells their own notes online. You'd benefit a lot more by writing your own notes about the poets, comparative etc. There's also almost no point in learning off essays or even paragraphs anymore as the questions have been getting more and more precise in the last few years.

The most I've gotten in terms of revision books is the key notes book for English Higher Level, that's because the teacher recommended it though. I've turned down offers for any of the less stress books because in Junior Cert I hardly used them.

MmmPancakes

DublinArnie wrote: »

Anyone come to an ultimatum for your 1st Choice?

Decided I'm set on doing science TCD for first choice.

What modules do you have in mind?

DublinArnie

MmmPancakes wrote: »

What modules do you have in mind?

Don't know to be honest, but I want to do biology, Chemistry and maths.

Unfortunately a lot of the electives require two of biology modules etc in first year.

MmmPancakes

DublinArnie wrote: »

Don't know to be honest, but I want to do biology, Chemistry and maths.

Unfortunately a lot of the electives require two of biology modules etc in first year.

I don't take maths with people who do general science, but if you're interested I can send you the timetable for a few of my maths lectures (I do TP) and you can show up to them, if you like. A few friends do Gen. Sci (none of them take the full maths module though) so I can find out the biology/chem times too for you. If you want to see what lectures will be like

(physics #1.. )

DublinArnie

MmmPancakes wrote: »

I don't take maths with people who do general science, but if you're interested I can send you the timetable for a few of my maths lectures (I do TP) and you can show up to them, if you like. A few friends do Gen. Sci (none of them take the full maths module though) so I can find out the biology/chem times too for you. If you want to see what lectures will be like

(physics #1.. )

We allowed to randomly walk in like that? :P I know you can arrange a visit on the tcd website.

It definitely would be interesting to see the lectures, wonder how intense TP is!

Would there be much difference between a pure physics science degree and a TP degree? I know you can do electives for physics.

Thanks for the offers

MmmPancakes

DublinArnie wrote: »

We allowed to randomly walk in like that? :P I know you can arrange a visit on the tcd website.

It definitely would be interesting to see the lectures, wonder how intense TP is!

Would there be much difference between a pure physics science degree and a TP degree? I know you can do electives for physics.

Thanks for the offers

Yeah you can, just make sure its one where the lecturer doesn't like to ask a bunch of questions (or email them beforehand) - I have went to a few computer science lectures to pass time in the mornings when I catch the bus with a friend in CS and it was fine.

TP is 40 credits maths, 20 physics for the first two years. We have the same physics lectures as general science except their module on motion is special relativity for us (we have a module called 'mechanics' taught by the school of maths, actually). We have maths lectures with pure maths and maths TSM people rather than science.

The difference between physics through gen sci and TP is all the maths you miss out on through gen sci. As a result TP's get to study the really math-heavy portions of physics like General Relativity (in 4th year) that you can not take if you pursue physics through science. If you like maths and physics more (quite a bit more) than bio/chem then definitely consider it, it will make a big difference!

Take Your Pants Off

I thought id just post here instead of creating a new thread about it. I have 5 colleges which I am really interested in going: Ucd,Tcd,Nuig,Ucc and Ul(This will be my 2nd last option, not that I don't like the college, I think the campus and social life(lifestyle) is amazing, also taking in their sport facilites, being one of the best in Ireland. But I had already lived in Limerick for around 10 years and want to try something new)

Due to some circumstances Ul, was the only open day I could go to, so I had been heavily relying on online opinions on the other 4 colleges. I also have the prospectuses. Which I used.
I really would like a college like UL, just in a different city. Ucd is top in pecking order to matching UL's modern campus, facilities etc. Which is what I really am looking for.
On the other hand, cork and galway, from what I can see from pics and reading, seem dull, but offering courses more then another. Also taking in consideration Cork seems a good place to live in.

And then comes trinity which atm is my last. From what I hear is for posh people. And youd get not much lets say ''craic''(lol) there as the other 4. It looks really gloomy and boring to me. And there is not much sport focused in terms of facilities, clubs.(which is a req in the college I will go) But theres some courses which I would only like doing in trinity then the other colleges(lets take psychology for this example. Or even dentistry being the 1 of the 3 colleges that offer this in Ireland)

I dont want to start a debate about which college is better, just trying to workout what suits me personally.
What are peoples opinions(everyone has their own opinions) on the 5 colleges and what has made you attracted to them ?

X6.430macman

I went to the UL open day, my humble opinion,
the place is MASSIVE, I have never seen anything like it, at the open day I lost my friends as they were on another bus and it dropped them somewhere else. Going around for 2 hours looking for them, decided to go to subway, gave an hour looking for it. overall I was well impressed with the campus, real modern as you say. It wouldn't put me off going there even though you may be looking for a change of scenery from Limerick.

Troxck

X6.430macman wrote: »

I went to the UL open day, my humble opinion,
the place is MASSIVE, I have never seen anything like it, at the open day I lost my friends as they were on another bus and it dropped them somewhere else. Going around for 2 hours looking for them, decided to go to subway, gave an hour looking for it. overall I was well impressed with the campus, real modern as you say. It wouldn't put me off going there even though you may be looking for a change of scenery from Limerick.

UL campus is pretty big but the buildings are essentially all together unlike say UCC.

TCD is a good college if interested in say Humanities, Business or Arts. I was put off it due to the fact you don't get a B.Sci but rather a BA. UL also has really good connections to industry. You get snobby people wherever you go and it's not just in TCD you'd find "posh" people. That's just an overused and outdated stereotype.

What course are ye both interested in doing?

X6.430macman

Troxck wrote: »

UL campus is pretty big but the buildings are essentially all together unlike say UCC.

TCD is a good college if interested in say Humanities, Business or Arts. I was put off it due to the fact you don't get a B.Sci but rather a BA. UL also has really good connections to industry. You get snobby people wherever you go and it's not just in TCD you'd find "posh" people. That's just an overused and outdated stereotype.

What course are ye both interested in doing?

All the buildings over the bridge in UL, are they all recently built, they look brand new. Only went to UL as my school were going on a trip there, have nothing to suit me. Was thinking about doing agricultural engineering/mechanisation. don't know where I could do it though.

Troxck

X6.430macman wrote: »

All the buildings over the bridge in UL, are they all recently built, they look brand new. Only went to UL as my school were going on a trip there, have nothing to suit me. Was thinking about doing agricultural engineering/mechanisation. don't know where I could do it though.

The Health Science, School of Music and Graduate medicine are there. They're new enough and so nice inside.

UL has Mechanical Engineering if that's any good? I think WIT and UCD have the courses you'd be looking for tbh.

Blue giant

Take Your Pants Off wrote: »

I thought id just post here instead of creating a new thread about it. I have 5 colleges which I am really interested in going: Ucd,Tcd,Nuig,Ucc and Ul(This will be my 2nd last option, not that I don't like the college, I think the campus and social life(lifestyle) is amazing, also taking in their sport facilites, being one of the best in Ireland. But I had already lived in Limerick for around 10 years and want to try something new)

Due to some circumstances Ul, was the only open day I could go to, so I had been heavily relying on online opinions on the other 4 colleges. I also have the prospectuses. Which I used.
I really would like a college like UL, just in a different city. Ucd is top in pecking order to matching UL's modern campus, facilities etc. Which is what I really am looking for.
On the other hand, cork and galway, from what I can see from pics and reading, seem dull, but offering courses more then another. Also taking in consideration Cork seems a good place to live in.

And then comes trinity which atm is my last. From what I hear is for posh people. And youd get not much lets say ''craic''(lol) there as the other 4. It looks really gloomy and boring to me. And there is not much sport focused in terms of facilities, clubs.(which is a req in the college I will go) But theres some courses which I would only like doing in trinity then the other colleges(lets take psychology for this example. Or even dentistry being the 1 of the 3 colleges that offer this in Ireland)

I dont want to start a debate about which college is better, just trying to workout what suits me personally.
What are peoples opinions(everyone has their own opinions) on the 5 colleges and what has made you attracted to them ?

I'm in UCD and I am liking it. The campus is nice enough but fairly huge. It's bigger than any other campus in Ireland. The sport facilities are probably the best of all the colleges in Ireland. Loads of pitches, gym and swimming pool. There's clubs and societies for just about everything you could want.

I'm presuming you would be living in campus accommodation which is great craic. Even if you don't get on great with your housemates you'll make plenty of friends that live around you. There's also loads of nights out where you'll meet loads of people. My three best friends so far are people I met on a night out.

What course do you want to do?

Take Your Pants Off

Troxck wrote: »

UL campus is pretty big but the buildings are essentially all together unlike say UCC.

TCD is a good college if interested in say Humanities, Business or Arts. I was put off it due to the fact you don't get a B.Sci but rather a BA. UL also has really good connections to industry. You get snobby people wherever you go and it's not just in TCD you'd find "posh" people. That's just an overused and outdated stereotype.

What course are ye both interested in doing?

''UL campus is pretty big but the buildings are essentially all together unlike say UCC. ''
Same goes for NUIG, their buildings are all over the city, lol, from the map on the prospectus it seems like it anways.

I am trying to do a science or business degree, I have not really made my mind up just yet, going to sit down in the Christmas holidays and have a real depth look.

Take Your Pants Off

Blue giant wrote: »

I'm in UCD and I am liking it. The campus is nice enough but fairly huge. It's bigger than any other campus in Ireland. The sport facilities are probably the best of all the colleges in Ireland. Loads of pitches, gym and swimming pool. There's clubs and societies for just about everything you could want.

I'm presuming you would be living in campus accommodation which is great craic. Even if you don't get on great with your housemates you'll make plenty of friends that live around you. There's also loads of nights out where you'll meet loads of people. My three best friends so far are people I met on a night out.

What course do you want to do?

Every UCD student I talk to has the same thing to say. Hence, the reason atm its my preference, only downside is that I will be most likely putting dentistry 2nd or third(or even put psychology), which UCD does not offer a dentistry course, and their psychology is a BA(teacher told me that's just how their are awarded, from different colleges, its the same as BS from UL) .

Blue giant

I think you'd be better off picking what course you want to do first. Then seeing what colleges offer it. There's no point in going to UCD or UL if the course you want to do is offered in NUIG. Also unless you're talking about the weather I wouldn't say that Galway is that dull of a place :P

DublinArnie

MmmPancakes wrote: »

Yeah you can, just make sure its one where the lecturer doesn't like to ask a bunch of questions (or email them beforehand) - I have went to a few computer science lectures to pass time in the mornings when I catch the bus with a friend in CS and it was fine.

TP is 40 credits maths, 20 physics for the first two years. We have the same physics lectures as general science except their module on motion is special relativity for us (we have a module called 'mechanics' taught by the school of maths, actually). We have maths lectures with pure maths and maths TSM people rather than science.

The difference between physics through gen sci and TP is all the maths you miss out on through gen sci. As a result TP's get to study the really math-heavy portions of physics like General Relativity (in 4th year) that you can not take if you pursue physics through science. If you like maths and physics more (quite a bit more) than bio/chem then definitely consider it, it will make a big difference!

Interesting.

The engineering course has a lot of physics modules, I wonder how they relate with the Gen. Science and TP physic modules.

I'm probably best off doing Gen Science because I'm not sure what branch of science I want to head off into. Why can't there be a Phemologist?!

Thanks for your offer, already have a few people in TCD that I can pester for timetables ha.

DublinArnie

Blue giant wrote: »

I think you'd be better off picking what course you want to do first. Then seeing what colleges offer it. There's no point in going to UCD or UL if the course you want to do is offered in NUIG. Also unless you're talking about the weather I wouldn't say that Galway is that dull of a place :P

Hey, on the bright side, Galway has free showers unlike the campuses around Dublin. :pac:

X6.430macman

DublinArnie wrote: »

Hey, on the bright side, Galway has free showers unlike the campuses around Dublin. :pac:

WHAT!!! You have to pay for showers down on top of accommodation and all other fees in Dublin????????????

randylonghorn

Take Your Pants Off wrote: »

''UL campus is pretty big but the buildings are essentially all together unlike say UCC. ''
Same goes for NUIG, their buildings are all over the city, lol, from the map on the prospectus it seems like it anways.

They're not really, they're probably not spread over any bigger area than UCD, just it's a bit more broken up with non-college property. Plus outlying bits are usually associated with particular faculties / departments.

UCD has a rep for being very hard to get to know people due to the huge numbers, unless you're lucky enough to know a few going in and you can socialise together in the first week or two and start making new friends that way.

X6.430macman wrote: »

WHAT!!! You have to pay for showers down on top of accommodation and all other fees in Dublin????????????

In general, Dublin and especially UCD is more expensive for the extras, especially accommodation (on-campus or off)

hubluh

Is anyone else who's applying for UCAS struggling to find stuff to put in their personal statements?

spurious

hubluh wrote:

Is anyone else who's applying for UCAS struggling to find stuff to put in their personal statements?

Be honest. They will smell BS a mile off.

Blue giant

randylonghorn wrote: »

UCD has a rep for being very hard to get to know people due to the huge numbers, unless you're lucky enough to know a few going in and you can socialise together in the first week or two and start making new friends that way.

I think it depends on the person really. One of my housemates always says that it's impossible for him to make friends in engineering. All he does is just go to lectures and come straight back to the apartment after. It's no wonder he hasn't made any real friends in his course.

I didn't know anyone coming up to UCD at all but I've made a nice few friends by now. Some of them are from my peer mentor group, which all large courses have. My two best friends are probably two lads I met on Sci Soc night out. If you make an effort to make friends you will more than likely know plenty of people within a few weeks.

Troxck

Blue giant wrote: »

I think it depends on the person really. One of my housemates always says that it's impossible for him to make friends in engineering. All he does is just go to lectures and come straight back to the apartment after. It's no wonder he hasn't made any real friends in his course.

I didn't know anyone coming up to UCD at all but I've made a nice few friends by now. Some of them are from my peer mentor group, which all large courses have. My two best friends are probably two lads I met on Sci Soc night out. If you make an effort to make friends you will more than likely know plenty of people within a few weeks.

It is harder to make friends in larger courses too though. My friend doing Engineering knows barely anyone in his course but everyone in my course has gotten on since day one just due to how small the course is.

Saying that, clubs and socs are the best ways to make friends. It's cliché but you should really join them

Blue giant

Troxck wrote: »

It is harder to make friends in larger courses too though. My friend doing Engineering knows barely anyone in his course but everyone in my course has gotten on since day one just due to how small the course is.

Saying that, clubs and socs are the best ways to make friends. It's cliché but you should really join them

It definitely is harder in larger courses but my own course science is probably bigger than engineering. I think sometimes going up on your own you're nearly more likely to make friends because you have no choice. Sometimes people who have a few friends from school up with them don't try that hard to make new friends because they still have their old ones up with them. Clubs and socs are also a great way to meet people alright.

Troxck

Blue giant wrote: »

It definitely is harder in larger courses but my own course science is probably bigger than engineering. I think sometimes going up on your own you're nearly more likely to make friends because you have no choice. Sometimes people who have a few friends from school up with them don't try that hard to make new friends because they still have their old ones up with them. Clubs and socs are also a great way to meet people alright.

You're probably right. Essentially everyone I got on with from school is here with me in college, I still managed to make a few new friends though so it wasn't too bad.

Gallagher1

Take Your Pants Off wrote: »

''UL campus is pretty big but the buildings are essentially all together unlike say UCC. ''
Same goes for NUIG, their buildings are all over the city, lol, from the map on the prospectus it seems like it anyways.

Im in Galway, no they are not..at all.
The Clinical Sciences institute for Medical students is the one building not on campus but it is in the hospital right beside the campus.

emersyn

Really getting fed up with English. When writing essays I average at about 15 words per line whereas the person beside me has writing twice as big as mine. My teacher insists that everyone in the class needs to write a certain amount of pages per question, e.g. at least 5 for the comparative, 4 for the studied poetry and so on. Obviously this means that I'm being expected to write twice as much as the person beside me in and most of the others in the class too in order to get to the amount of pages that she expects. The teacher keeps marking me down simply because she thinks I haven't written enough even though if someone else in the class were to write out my two page essay it would be 4 pages long in their handwriting. Surely this isn't fair but I'm really anxious about not having time in the exam to write out so much extra information in comparison to everyone else and getting marked down as a result. Is my best option here to just try to start writing really big or what

spurious

emersyn wrote: »

Really getting fed up with English. When writing essays I average at about 15 words per line whereas the person beside me has writing twice as big as mine. My teacher insists that everyone in the class needs to write a certain amount of pages per question, e.g. at least 5 for the comparative, 4 for the studied poetry and so on. Obviously this means that I'm being expected to write twice as much as the person beside me in and most of the others in the class too in order to get to the amount of pages that she expects. The teacher keeps marking me down simply because she thinks I haven't written enough even though if someone else in the class were to write out my two page essay it would be 4 pages long in their handwriting. Surely this isn't fair but I'm really anxious about not having time in the exam to write out so much extra information in comparison to everyone else and getting marked down as a result. Is my best option here to just try to start writing really big or what

Keep doing your own thing. It sounds like your teacher has no experience correcting exams. There is no set length for answers in the Leaving (unless a word count is specified in the question).

Unless your writing is so small that it leads to difficulty reading it, I wouldn't increase the size.

Bazinga_N

emersyn wrote: »

Really getting fed up with English. When writing essays I average at about 15 words per line whereas the person beside me has writing twice as big as mine. My teacher insists that everyone in the class needs to write a certain amount of pages per question, e.g. at least 5 for the comparative, 4 for the studied poetry and so on. Obviously this means that I'm being expected to write twice as much as the person beside me in and most of the others in the class too in order to get to the amount of pages that she expects. The teacher keeps marking me down simply because she thinks I haven't written enough even though if someone else in the class were to write out my two page essay it would be 4 pages long in their handwriting. Surely this isn't fair but I'm really anxious about not having time in the exam to write out so much extra information in comparison to everyone else and getting marked down as a result. Is my best option here to just try to start writing really big or what

I have really small handwriting too and a lot of the time I write on college ruled paper (smaller lines) just because I find it more comfortable to write on. My English teacher pulled me aside during one class and told me that he understood my handwriting was smaller than average and that when he gives a guide as to how many pages people should be writing that it didn't really apply to my handwriting. I'm sure it's the same for you so honestly don't worry about it!

As long as you're writing enough for the examiner to test your knowledge of the texts/poets and to show your competence with the English language and composition you'll be absolutely fine!