CK402 (bio&chem)

Laur33

I've been looking at courses in UCC and I'm thinking about applying for CK402 (biological and chemical sciences) this is the course I'm most interested in but I want to hear more about it from people thay actually do it.
thanks in advance!

Miighty

Lectures are optional and it becomes evident after 2 weeks in that alot of people will choose not to attend especially biology, physics and maths.

You must attend the biology practicals. There are 2 practicals for every module IIRC so 1 every 3 weeks or so. If you dont attend a practical you cant sit the MCQ test and fail first year. Each practical is worth between 10-15% of the total.

Chemistry lab every week. They are mandatory and you must have a doctors note if you repeatedly miss them I think. They are worth a small percentage each. You will have to write up a lab report each week which is graded. Chemistry is one module only for the entire year. Although there are small MCQ's worth 5% each throughout the year with a written end of year exam.

w*ww.ucc.ie/calendar/science/sci002.htm*l will show you more info on modules. I cant post urls so delete the *'s

Main points though.
-Weekly online homework in both chemistry and physics which can be accessed without attending lectures.
-9am lectures are killer especially after a Tuesday and Thursday night.
-9am lectures every day. Can be finished for the day by 11 usually no later than 1 unless you have a lab
-You can pass biology by working hard in the practicals and guessing the answers in the MCQ's. Negative marking is gone.
-Physics is mandatory. The standard is leaving cert but dressed up. The standard is abysmal though. You must pass it. If you did physics last year you will be laughing, you'll also be hated by others!
-Maths 1 module each term-Get 40% and forget about it really. No homework.
-Gender Ratio 50:50
-Points are 445 I think but its still full of high scorers in the 500's so dont let its "low points" deter you.

You find all sorts in there. From people who love biology (obviously) to a few only interested in chemistry. There will be some people who you wonder how the ended up picking biochem.Not rare at all to talk to people in smoking areas on nights out and find they are doing biochem too. Its a big course and enjoyable.

It's easy not to put in enough effort during the term though. Answers to the physics homeworks are already available online and swapping and copying answers for the chemistry (and physics) is easy.

Laur33

Thanks so much! You said everything I wanted to know.
I'm just wondering why would people not attend biology lectures? I'm guessing you'd go to them if you were planning on doing one of the biology degrees in the end?

Unfortunately I'm not doing physics for the leaving cert so I hope I won't struggle too much with that.

For some reason I thought there would be a lot more guys than girls probably because of gender stereotypes in science really haha(I'm a girl myself).

Also why do you say 445 is "low points"? I wouldn't really call that low myself as I only do one ordinary level subject for the LC and I get mostly As and Bs But I always seem to get around 440-460 points in exams.

Miighty

People dont attend because they are optional, they are lazy or they are hungover and most of the biology lectures are at 9. There is also no roll call for lectures.

Youll be fine in physics. The standard is abysmal so any work will put you above 90% of people. To get above 90% of people you probably need just to pass the term tests. There are practicals every 2 weeks which will boost up your marks towards the end of year along with the homework. Theres also PAL. Which is peer assisted learning where a student who has passed the module helps you. I dont really no as I dont need the help. There are workshops as well again I dont know much but they are to help weaker students.

There is next to no support outside of lectures for biology.

Im not 100% sure how they decide who gets first pick for the biology options in 2nd year but most seem to want to go down the biology route. I know Chemistry of Pharm. Compounds the places go to those who want it with the highest chemistry results.

The reason its points are not higher is because the place numbers have increased. Im dont know why I said low points, guess its a relic of when I used to compare its points to the points of other courses I was interested in when organising my CAO back in secondary school

AoifeBurke

"You can pass biology by working hard in the practicals and guessing the answers in the MCQ's. Negative marking is gone."

Negative marking still applies. Guessing the answers is definitely not enough to pass.

AoifeBurke

Laur33 wrote: »

I've been looking at courses in UCC and I'm thinking about applying for CK402 (biological and chemical sciences) this is the course I'm most interested in but I want to hear more about it from people thay actually do it.
thanks in advance!

Any specific questions you'd like me to answer?

Miighty

AoifeBurke wrote: »

"You can pass biology by working hard in the practicals and guessing the answers in the MCQ's. Negative marking is gone."

Negative marking still applies. Guessing the answers is definitely not enough to pass.

I disagree on both.

Laur33

AoifeBurke wrote: »

"You can pass biology by working hard in the practicals and guessing the answers in the MCQ's. Negative marking is gone."

Negative marking still applies. Guessing the answers is definitely not enough to pass.

So is there still negative marking or not? I wasn't planning on guessing in exams anyway because I want to do well in colllege and I'm definitely not naturally smart haha

Also what does MCQ stand for?

Laur33

AoifeBurke wrote: »

Any specific questions you'd like me to answer?

just wondering do you find the course difficult? And what have you decided to get a degree in? because I'm planning on doing something in biology and I was wondering what type of jobs you can get from it

AoifeBurke

Miighty wrote: »

I disagree on both.

Uhm. I'm in the course right now. There IS negative marking, and I know people in the course who have failed their exams.

AoifeBurke

Laur33 wrote: »

So is there still negative marking or not? I wasn't planning on guessing in exams anyway because I want to do well in colllege and I'm definitely not naturally smart haha

Also what does MCQ stand for?

I'm in the course; there was negative marking for me last year, and I still have negative marking this year. Obviously you should be studying anyway and not relying of guesses, otherwise there's not much point in even taking the course really.

MCQ stands for "Multiple Choice Questionnaire", where they give you a question and multiple answers, and you select the correct one. You usually get marks for a correct answer, 0 marks for no answer, and negative marks for an incorrect answer. The negative mark may only be -0.25 or 0.5 etc, depending on the lecturers.

AoifeBurke

Laur33 wrote: »

just wondering do you find the course difficult? And what have you decided to get a degree in? because I'm planning on doing something in biology and I was wondering what type of jobs you can get from it

I'm doing Biological Sciences but haven't specialized yet, so I may not be the best person to ask about that! I didn't do Chemistry for the Leaving Cert so I found that very difficult back in first year, but the PAL Sessions (where they get older students to tutor groups of first years who need help) were very helpful. There are also some excellent people that offer grinds, although they can be quite expensive. If Biology is what you're looking into, first year biology is fairly easy and straight-forward, same applies for most of the labs. If you attend those, go to lectures and do a bit of work you'll have no problems at all. Chemistry labs were mostly every week for me, sometimes every second week, which was a bit tiresome, and even though I hated them the lab reports actually helped in getting a decent grade! If you did physics for the Leaving Cert you'll have no problems, if you didn't then taking a look at some of your friends notes or a LC book could help a lot. Basically, some people do seem to struggle but if you're willing to put in the work in you should be perfectly fine Make sure you work hard in second year to ensure that you get your degree stream of choice!

Laur33

AoifeBurke wrote: »

I'm doing Biological Sciences but haven't specialized yet, so I may not be the best person to ask about that! I didn't do Chemistry for the Leaving Cert so I found that very difficult back in first year, but the PAL Sessions (where they get older students to tutor groups of first years who need help) were very helpful. There are also some excellent people that offer grinds, although they can be quite expensive. If Biology is what you're looking into, first year biology is fairly easy and straight-forward, same applies for most of the labs. If you attend those, go to lectures and do a bit of work you'll have no problems at all. Chemistry labs were mostly every week for me, sometimes every second week, which was a bit tiresome, and even though I hated them the lab reports actually helped in getting a decent grade! If you did physics for the Leaving Cert you'll have no problems, if you didn't then taking a look at some of your friends notes or a LC book could help a lot. Basically, some people do seem to struggle but if you're willing to put in the work in you should be perfectly fine Make sure you work hard in second year to ensure that you get your degree stream of choice!

thanks this wad really helpful!:) good luck in college:)

Laur33

AoifeBurke wrote: »

I'm doing Biological Sciences but haven't specialized yet, so I may not be the best person to ask about that! I didn't do Chemistry for the Leaving Cert so I found that very difficult back in first year, but the PAL Sessions (where they get older students to tutor groups of first years who need help) were very helpful. There are also some excellent people that offer grinds, although they can be quite expensive. If Biology is what you're looking into, first year biology is fairly easy and straight-forward, same applies for most of the labs. If you attend those, go to lectures and do a bit of work you'll have no problems at all. Chemistry labs were mostly every week for me, sometimes every second week, which was a bit tiresome, and even though I hated them the lab reports actually helped in getting a decent grade! If you did physics for the Leaving Cert you'll have no problems, if you didn't then taking a look at some of your friends notes or a LC book could help a lot. Basically, some people do seem to struggle but if you're willing to put in the work in you should be perfectly fine Make sure you work hard in second year to ensure that you get your degree stream of choice!

thanks this was really helpful!:) good luck in college:)

Laur33

AoifeBurke wrote: »

Any specific questions you'd like me to answer?

sorry one last question haha, are multile choice questionnaires the only exams you have?

AoifeBurke

Laur33 wrote: »

sorry one last question haha, are multile choice questionnaires the only exams you have?

No bother! For me anyway, in First Year all biology exams were mcq and all in-term chemistry exams were mcq. All maths was written, all physics was written, and end of year chemistry was written and mcq.
After First Year there are more Essay exams.
These might have changed somewhat now because semesterization was brought in this year.
Best of luck with everything!

Era I Wilshere

Laur33 wrote: »

So is there still negative marking or not?

There was no negative marking for first years this year