Ok lets talk about...... repeat exams

Jonny Arson

Basically I'm just asking people what is repeating your exams like? I f**ked up in 1st year Sociology paper 1 today (only answered half and the other half was quite not good and its going to be the same scenario on Paper 2) so I know I will be repeating it in August but I'm confident I'll scrape passes in my other 2 subjects. Simply I want to know what the pressure of the repeats are? How much study would be recommended during the summer? Do they go easier on you in terms of marking in the repeats?

Gawwwd I sound like such a little 1st year...... eh well I am.

AngelofFire

I`d a pretty bad sociology paper 1 myself, i spent too long on the marx theory of alienation essay and only got one question done on stephen mennells section. My second topic on Kieran Allens course wasn`t the best either. Im hoping paper 2 will prop me up. Ive handed up just one essay all year and missed tutorials more often than i have attended them.

sinjin_smythe

well imo they went easy on me i had three to repeat so the pressure was all there but i wouldnt want to rely on repeats to pass the year

funktastic

Zane seriously you freak out way too much! Leaving an exam an hour early isn't that bad. It isn't that hard to get bang on 40% in a subject in first year. I'm in third year history and geography. Just do a bit for your next one and you'll be fine. Relax and just address the question with a few facts and examples, they just want to see that you've attended lectures and have a good enough knowledge of the subject.
Good luck.

Mr.Nice Guy

weedhead wrote:

well imo they went easy on me i had three to repeat so the pressure was all there but i wouldnt want to rely on repeats to pass the year

When you repeat do you only repeat the exam you failed or do they make you repeat all three over again?

Vainglory

You only have to repeat the subject you failed.

Like, if you fail History, and you do French, History, and Geography, then you'll just be resitting History in August.

But you have to repeat all the papers in that subject. You can't pass the Revolutions paper, fail the Colonies one and just repeat the Colonies paper.

Mr.Nice Guy

Vainglory wrote:

You only have to repeat the subject you failed.

Like, if you fail History, and you do French, History, and Geography, then you'll just be resitting History in August.

But you have to repeat all the papers in that subject. You can't pass the Revolutions paper, fail the Colonies one and just repeat the Colonies paper.

I see. It would be a b*stard if you had to repeat every subject. How much does it cost to repeat roughly speaking?

Vainglory

As far as I know it's about 90 euro per subject in the August repeats, but I could be wrong on that.

Then if you fail those, it's 1100euro to repeat externally, and a **** load more to repeat internally.

Aren't I just the encyclopedia of examination knowledge. :rolleyes:

blondie83

Zane from MTV2 wrote:

Basically I'm just asking people what is repeating your exams like?

Repeating in not nice at all, but I reckon you're just freaking out Zane, you'll prob be grand! On the off chance that you actually do have to repeat:

Exams cost apr €67 per subject

Repeats generally start around the 10th August

It is entirely possible to get a job for the Summer, then leave at the end of July/start of August to study for the exams!

How much you want to study depends on whether you just want to pass, or whether you want to do so well in the paper that you know you must have passed and so won't be worrying about getting the results! I reckon if you do 10 days at about 8 hours a day you would be more than grand. Alternatively if 8 hours a day isn't your thing do 15 to 20 days at 4 hours a day - whatever suits ya like.

And finally - if the reason you failed is because you didnt go to lecturers or do any work for the exam, then don't worry about failing your repeats, because I guarentee you you will work for them - in fact if this is the case you'll prob double or triple your previous score! (I quadrupled mine once ) If however you worked really hard for an exam, and still failed I would suggest getting out the books now and starting to study for the repeats! Most ppl fall into the first bracket though

Red Alert

:mad: I did terribly in maths today. TWO of the guys did the unthinkable, they changed the questions in a way they'd NEVER been changed before. I think i may as well book my ticket for the summer

Ed

repeats are the best fun ever!

Well...... not really.

Seriously though. Don't assume you've failed, it's never as bad as it seems.
You still have plenty of time to make it up in your other papers if you're willing to put in the work.
If it does happen that you fail and have to repeat, try not to let it ruin your summer. It's very possible to work for the summer and do your repeats aswell. The requirements for your repeats in terms of study time are the same as what they are now. Except odds are you'll only be studying for one subject instead of three.
The best bet is to get a good head start on it. Start off by doing the main readings and going through your lecture notes. And as you get closer to the exams just pick up the pace until you have a good, broad knowledge of everything on the course so you're in the position where nothing will surprise you and you're not praying for specific things to come up.
For sociological theory(marx,weber, durkheim etc.) get hold of george ritzer's 'sociological theory' from the short loan section, it gives a good overview of all the main theorists(and if you're thinking of keeping sociology up for the 3 years you might think of investing in it, it's expensive but it'll see you all the way through, or you could just photocopy all the relevent bits).

kittenkiller

Hi Ed!
Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.......

Anytime i've had to repeat it's been €150ish for as many subjects you desire.
Still, chin up my dear, even after the results are put you can still contest your grade or go to the lecturers with some sort of sob story!

rainbow kirby

Repeats aren't the end of the world. Okay, so it f*cks up your summer, takes away from valuable working time and forces you to go through the stress of study and exams again, and gets you very familiar with a certain snobbish part of the southside known as Blackrock... but it's worth it if you pass.
Just a word of warning... DO NOT FAIL 2ND SCIENCE IN THE SUMMER!!! To qualify for an honours 3rd year course, you need to pass all 3 subjects at one sitting, so if you fail one subject then you repeat everything. Though that was always going to be the case for me last summer, since kirby in her infinite wisdom managed to fail all 3 subjects in May.

Alana

Vainglory wrote:

As far as I know it's about 90 euro per subject in the August repeats, but I could be wrong on that.

Then if you fail those, it's 1100euro to repeat externally, and a **** load more to repeat internally.

Aren't I just the encyclopedia of examination knowledge. :rolleyes:

Roughly just under 4k...fun fun happy times...why did I have to be so indecisive last year, d'oh, meh, hopefully it's worth it...well we'll see after my exams!!

rainbow kirby

Or my next 2 years.
2nd year part deux: €3800 if I do 8 units, otherwise €2300 for 4
3rd year: €5500

blondie83

Red Alert wrote:

:mad: I did terribly in maths today. TWO of the guys did the unthinkable, they changed the questions in a way they'd NEVER been changed before. I think i may as well book my ticket for the summer

Noooooo, is nothing sacred any more? Maths is the one exam in Engineering that you could always bank on for being predictable and easyish...why would they do something like that? Wasn't Quigley by any chance was it? If he changes our maths course this year my whole class will be screwed.

Red Alert

It was himself (i was banking on 1, 2, and 3) and maths D guy as well. maths b guy changed 3 and put the hardest q2 that is ever asked! maths d guy got rid of the first two questions and made up new ones! i'm still hopping mad about it! :mad:

blondie83

Oh not good...very much not good...this means we actually have to understand whats going on as opposed to just learning off techniques for doing set questions

tribulus

any of you engineerring heads i.e mathemathical geniuses (compared to me) wanna take time out from your studying to give a poor 1st year help with some stats??? dunno if you's do stats but i'm really screwed so i'l put it out there

maths is the only thing that could have me repeating in august i'm no science boy zane would be ashamed of me!!!!!!!!

Ed

jesus, my sympathies dude. Stats is probably the worst subjest in ucd as best i can tell, almost dropped out because of it.
bad, bad ,bad memories.

rainbow kirby

tribulus wrote:

dunno if you's do stats but i'm really screwed so i'l put it out there
maths is the only thing that could have me repeating in august i'm no science boy zane would be ashamed of me!!!!!!!!

I did stats last year (the REALLY evil 2nd math science stats course)... still don't have a clue how I passed.
Thought you were doing science?

tribulus

i am but stats is a part of the maths course now. it's only woth about 20% or less of our summer exam so ~12% of the year but i need any help i can get - will pay

Jonny Arson

Yeah thanks to everyone who got back on that. I know I'm freaking out a bit but I know I failed that exam since i only answered half of it and it wasn't very good what I answered. Jus don't like the thought of repeating it. Never f**ked up on a exam before (not even 1st or 2nd year exams in sec skool) so its a goddam new experience. Got the 2nd Sociology paper tomorrow. Havent even studied anything for it today so it might be similar tomorrow. Despite the fact I've been to most lectures and tutorials, the subject is quite hard for me even though I'm fascinated by the subject. My essays have been marked very tough this year which has put me off quite alot. Ah well... meh

Science Boy wrote:

maths is the only thing that could have me repeating in august i'm no science boy zane would be ashamed of me!!!!!!!!

Hey Science Boy!!!! Cut out the nonsense. You are the resident Science Boy around here. You know everything to do with Science.... you are Science. Jaysus I was only discussing today how you would storm final year medicine exams!!!!! Don't let me down Science Boy!!!!!!!

rainbow kirby

tribulus wrote:

i am but stats is a part of the maths course now. it's only woth about 20% or less of our summer exam so ~12% of the year but i need any help i can get - will pay

What parts of it are you having trouble with?

tribulus

http://www.maths.ucd.ie/courses/math1200/#stats

you should find the web notes there and a sample paper. On the sample paper part C is the stats bit.

Basically i need help with all of it. The notes aren't great and stupid me "valued sleep more than getting in to my 9 o' clock lectures" i.e. stats :mad:

don't laugh at my sh1ttiness in maths :eek:

chebe

Oh repeats are fine, unless you fail Second Science and realise you have 11 exams in 9 days (including a Sunday)! I'm so happy semesterisation is here!

blondie83

tribulus wrote:

any of you engineerring heads i.e mathemathical geniuses (compared to me) wanna take time out from your studying to give a poor 1st year help with some stats??? dunno if you's do stats but i'm really screwed so i'l put it out there

maths is the only thing that could have me repeating in august i'm no science boy zane would be ashamed of me!!!!!!!!

Interestingly pretty much the only mathematical thing we haven't done in engineering is Stats! Pity too cos I really enjoyed it during the leaving cert. I had a look at the paper - you have to do Q11 and one other Question from that section by the looks of things. !2 and 13 don't look too bad, if you know the theorm and maximum liklihood thing that he's on about. Anyway I gave Q11 a shot, heres the answers, just in case you wanted to check them:

(i) 1/6
(ii) 4/14
(iii) 0.117
(iv) 0.5 (50% chance)

Disclaimer: these could be wrong, like I said I havent done stats since the leaving! We do do a bit of probability stuff in our other courses though which is where I got part 4 from. Maybe if Red Alert sees this he'll check just to make sure they're right! Anyway one great thing about statistics is that its really quickly to do - that took me about 4 minutes here. Hope it helps (Oh if you want to know how I got them let me know and I'll send you a more detailed pm)

Sarn

Having to repeat all 2nd Science subjects is a nightmare. Did it myself, the thing is I got two honours in subjects I didn't want to do and missed the one I wanted by 1.4%. 12 exams later and it all worked out nicely.

Might seem crazy doing all that simply to get one subject, but it was what I wanted and I haven't regretted it since (and I came home early from the US to do it!).

Having to repeat isn't the end of the world, although it might seem so at the time.

Jonny Arson

Go into RDS today have Information Studies exam at 9:30, exam goes ok nothing special but did enough to get a good pass. Everything grand.

Two hours later its 1st year Sociology paper 2. F**ked up in it the other day by only being able to answer half of it so confidence is not great going into this one. 2:30 exam starts. The paper is a load of w*nk but there were about 3 qs I could have the ability to answer. 10 minutes into the exam I blank out completely. I can't remember a thing. I'm panicking. I try to waffle but my pen suddenly weighs 10 tonnes. I can't write anything. I try to write something but after 2 lines I'm blank again. The RDS is starting to swallow me up which hasn't happened so far. After a hour I've written a total of 1 page on 1 question and I leave. I was laughing after it but now I'm not finding things very funny, I'm feeling miserable.

I knew after my first paper it would take a near miricle to pass the subject but I never thought this would happen to me. I can't explain what came over me. I'm not sure if the disapointment of the 1st paper took all the motivation away or if I was mentally exhausted after the earlier exam. I will admit I did not study very well for the exam but I know I have far more knowledge and intelligence in my head than wrirting only one page. I don't know WTF happened today and I'm already freaking out about my remaining exams. I've done the Leaving Cert at the 1st go, never had any problems and never blanked. Hs this happened to anyone before? Does anyone know how I can prevent this because if this happens again in any of my other exams i will be f**ked.

arbeitsscheuer

I couldn't give a toss about stayin in UCD this time last year - had almost no mates here, hadn't been to most lectures and tutorials, never had been in the library...

And I still managed to pass Philosophy. Says it all, dunnit?

But anyway, I had to repeat Politics and History in August, and I decided to do the work (cos frankly, what choice did I really have?) over the Summer months. I think it cost about 80 euro per subject, but someone else has already mentioned the cost on this thread already so anyway...

Carysfort Av. is much nicer as an exam hall than RDS, plus ya get the sense you're with "your" people - ppl who for whatever reason have in common with you the fact that they failed. This is a marvellously uniting atmosphere, it really is... Plus the weather is by-and-large better in August (altho there was one day last yr when it rained like a b*tch, God was p*ssin on us that day).

It worked for me anyway, and I passed.

This year, same scenario. Concentratin on passin History so's I only have to repeat Politics in Carysfort.


P.S. If I see ONE more post from some stupid 1st year sayin "Oh, woe is me, I DEFINITELY failed that exam, what is to become of me?" I swear I will not be responsible for my actions. If you failed, you failed, you repeat in August. So what. WTF do you want us to do about it? Do you want us to massage your wounded ego and bruised pride? Jesus... :mad:

Jonny Arson

SebtheBum wrote:

WTF do you want us to do about it? Do you want us to massage your wounded ego and bruised pride? Jesus... :mad:

If you want to thats fine