A guide to the Scholarship Examinations

Hey ho, I've just completed an FAQ of sorts on Schols which hopefully should provide some insight into the examinations. Given that I'm not a Scholar myself, I'd be greatly appreciated if anyone who has gone through the examinations could post here to give a personal idea of what it is about - I can only cover so much!

I also should inform you that there will be an evening dedicated to giving information about the Scholarship Exams at 6:15pm on Thursday the 19th of January, in the MacNeill. There will be a general Question and Answers session here, and your answers will be given by the Scholars' Secretary, David Rickard. Come one, come all.

Dónal


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What are Schols?

Scholarship Exams (Schols) are a special set of examinations held in the Hilary Term break of each year. They are usually based on material from your Junior Freshman and Senior Freshman years.


What’s so special about that?

If you choose to go for Schols in your Senior Freshman year, and you get an overall mark of a II.1 (60%) or more, you may be exempt from sitting some or all of your summer exams.

If you obtain an overall mark of I (70%) or more, you become a Scholar. There are foundation and non-foundation Scholars - Foundation Scholars “own” part of college, and there can be a max of 70 at one time.


Sounds good, but why should I give up my time?

Well, both foundation and non-foundation Scholars are entitled to several things:

*Commons (evening meal) each weekday, free of charge;

*An entitlement to a room free of charge (for up to 9 months of the year);

*An annual salary of €253.95;

*Their college fees paid for if they are not receiving free fees from the government, or if they are non-EU then the fees will be reduced to the appropriate fee level of an Irish student;

*All of the above for up to 5 years, if you continue as a postgraduate.

Also, if a scholar does not wish to take the Commons or the Room, they can receive cash in lieu of these.


Do I have to be in second year to apply?

Actually, no! You can apply if you are in JF, SF, JS, SS or if you are entered on college’s books as a Bachelor. Most students do try to do the exams during their second year of college, but several try in their third year of college.


When do I have to sign up by?

The deadline for applying for Schols is the 1st of February. You can get forms at the Examinations Office, which is located here.

Or else you can obtain one at the following address:

http://www.tcd.ie/Senior_Lecturer/teo/teopdf/fsapp2006.pdf


Will I get full exemptions from the SF summer exams or not if I get over 60%?

In order to find out, contact your relevant department / school. A lot of courses do give full exemptions, but even with no summer exams you will still be required to attend lectures/tutorials.


When are the exams planned for?

They will take place sometime between the 14th of March to the 31st of March. The timetable will be available from your department / school closer to those dates. Also, the library won’t be closing earlier at those times (as it normally does out of term), but it will be closed on St. Patrick’s Day (17th March).


Where can I find out more information?

There are Schols Exam Papers from previous years available on the web. Simply go to here:
http://www.tcd.ie/Local/Exam_Papers/

Also, the college calendar has a lot of information on Schols in the “Prizes and other awards section”: http://www.tcd.ie/Secretary/College_Calendar/Part_I/

It would also be a good idea to talk to your lecturers if you’re thinking about going for Schols, as they may give some advice on what to study. Contact them yourself, or ask your class rep to ask for you!

Finally, you could try to make contact with those who took the exams last year. Good luck!


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Studying for exams is a stressful time for everyone. The following student services offer guidance, advice and support:

*Your Own Tutor (email available from Student Information System, if you’re unsure)

*Senior Tutor’s Office (stosec@tcd.ie)

*Student Disability Service (6083111)

*College Health Service (6081556)

*Chaplaincy (6081260)

*Students’ Union:
Education: Dónal 6468439 or education@tcdsu.org, Welfare: Steph 6468437 or welfare@tcdsu.org.

Student Counselling offers a wide range of supports to students, including study skills, exam preparation etc. For more information, go to http://www.tcd.ie/Student_Counselling or phone 6081407.

pseudonym

I got schols last year, and can say that if you do get it, it is definitely worth all the work etc that you need to put in, which is an awful lot, at least in the hamilton end subjects anyway!

I can imagine that if you put in a lot of work and just miss the mark it would be very depressing, and exemptions mightnt be all the consolation they might seem, or you could just miss out on exemptions, and have to sit another set of exams at the end of the year, even more depressing.

As for the exams themselves, they're very similar to end of year exams, exept harder, and you have to sign a big book and write your name and your fathers name etc...

I would recommend checking out previous exam papers online if you are thinking of sitting the schols, as I found there tends to be a lot of repetition of questions, and also theyre good practice.

If you do sit them, you find out whether or not you have exemptions the first week of trinity term, but dont find out if ou got schols or not till the monday after lectures end, a long wait!

Trinity Monday (the day of the announcement) is great fun if you get them. You get to get dressed up in gowns and tuxes and meet "famous" people (the provost) and have your back slapped by professors etc, and you get a great dinner in the dining hall (several course, lots of wine, port etc.) and its also probably the only time you'll be dressed well enough to get into lilys bordello afterwards!

Its also handy to remember that you only have to AVERAGE 70% or higher, not get over 70% in each subject.

Oh, and if you do fail, it doesnt look bad on your permanent record or anything since you dont have to sit them.

Hope some of this waffle was someway useful.

Time Magazine

Fair play D. One question though:

EduMyth wrote:

Do I have to be in second year to apply?

Actually, no! You can apply if you are in JF...

Are you positive?

whyamihere?

You can sit the schols in any year of your course, defo. A couple of JS got it last year.

If you do it in any other year though, you do not get exempted from the end of year exams.

Angry Banana

Angry Banana wrote:

Fair play D. One question though:

Are you positive?

Yep... I cleared it with Exams Office today. Was going to put it online before today, but waited until I got the all clear. The reason that it is ok is because...

Statutes, Chapter VI wrote:

No person shall be eligible for election, or be elected, as a Scholar on the Foundation or as a non-Foundation Scholar, who is not entered on the College Books as a Junior Freshman, Senior Freshman, Junior Sophister, or Senior Sophister, or Bachelor, and, in the opinion of the Board, of good conduct and character.

and...

College Calender, 2004/5 T6, 2005/6 S6 wrote:

11 No students may compete for a scholarship until after their names have been entered on the
College books as Junior Freshmen, i.e. they cannot compete as rising Junior Freshmen.

Time Magazine

Grand so. I take your word on it!

'Tis very weird though:

College Calender, 2004/5 T6, 2005/6 S6 wrote:

...they cannot compete as rising Junior Freshmen.

Is that not contradictory? Do save my mind and explain D .

Nietzschean

rising junior freshmen would be the time before you register at the start of first year....so like you haven't started college really...makes sence...

The rising Junior Freshman thing I've taken to mean they cannot compete as "incoming" or "soon to be" Junior Freshman, not as Junior Freshman advancing to another level. Even if this is wrong, the statutes contradict the college calendar.

Time Magazine

Again, I don't doubt your word on it, but that really seems weird by my interpretation.

The Statutes (1966 Consolidated, I presume?) say no person shall be eligible etc., as opposed to deeming students as ineligible; and thus a Calender rule could deem one as ineligible without contradicting the statutes.

And I always thought "rising JF" meant "continuing JF".

Interesting, that.

I suppose, seeing as there's no CAO-offers between Schols and Trinity Monday, the "rising" clause refers mostly to deferred entry students and what not. 'Tis odd. I was definitely under the impression I could not sit them last year.

Nietzschean

Angry Banana wrote:

And I always thought "rising JF" meant "continuing JF".

if you mean the summer between JF and SF, thats rising SF....

ApeXaviour

Angry Banana wrote:

And I always thought "rising JF" meant "continuing JF".

Same here.. That's where my confusion came from dónal..

Enda wrote:

I was definitely under the impression I could not sit them last year.

Let's be honest, it's not like you would have anyway..

I mean if a fresher sits and gets them, they really shouldnt be a fresher..

Pet

Yeah, here was me thinking "deadly, I can try this year" til I realised I'd be doing second year material not even covered yet..

Heh. Exams Office gave me the all clear at any rate, so meh. The fun thing is that in the past, first years have gone for Schols and gotten it

Crash

Hell of a lot of work though, even in comparison to schols normally.

Ron DMC

EduMyth wrote:

The fun thing is that in the past, first years have gone for Schols and gotten it

Freakin nerds

By the way Enda, drop up to the office sometime. I have a collection of college calendars, one of which dates back to 1962-3. Given your appreciation of Trinity Knowledge, I'm sure you'd love to see it. Has to stay within the confines of the office, for obvious reasons though!

But the quote from the college calendar for the scholars section is the same then (and throughout most of the years I've looked at) as it is now.

Agent Smith

EduMyth wrote:

By the way Enda, drop up to the office sometime. I have a collection of college calendars, one of which dates back to 1962-3. Given your appreciation of Trinity Knowledge, I'm sure you'd love to see it. Has to stay within the confines of the office, for obvious reasons though!

isn't that " internet grooming?"

By the way, there's no plans for exams on saturdays for the Schols.

EmmB

Isn't it too late to start studying now for the Schols? R what kinda study is really needed, considering you need to know 1st year stuff as well as 2nd year it must be an awful lot

Anyone I've talked to who have gotten it have told me that this is the time they started studying properly.

ApeXaviour

EmmB wrote:

Isn't it too late to start studying now for the Schols? R what kinda study is really needed, considering you need to know 1st year stuff as well as 2nd year it must be an awful lot

What subjects do you do? My courses (physics/maths in natural science) don't examine 1st year stuff at all. They say they do but they don't. The questions are a little harder though (going by past papers).

And like edumyth said, I reckon if you had your act together and did proper study from now till march you could do well.

Ron DMC

EmmB wrote:

Isn't it too late to start studying now for the Schols?

I'm starting tomorrow, I swear.:o

Crash

Actually i'm going into the library, despite being technically off tomorrow, to do some work and maybe a bit of study. go me.

punka

pseudonym wrote:

Oh, and if you do fail, it doesnt look bad on your permanent record or anything since you dont have to sit them.

not sure what you mean by that
but on your official student record it does say whether or not you took schol and what grade you achieved.

ApeXaviour

TheGrinch_000 wrote:

Actually i'm going into the library, despite being technically off tomorrow, to do some work and maybe a bit of study. go me.

Well done.. I do that every friday. No labs n such.

Oh the joys of repeating :rolleyes:

Thirdfox

pseudonym wrote:

Its also handy to remember that you only have to AVERAGE 70% or higher, not get over 70% in each subject.

Are you positive? Does that mean I can get 55% in one subject, four 75%s and still qualify for schols?

Also how are foundation scholars chosen?

Time Magazine

It depends on your department, Thirdfox. I know I can't get three 100% marks and three 40% and get Schols. In my dept they're "paper grades". You need three I's and three II.1's etc. (with an average leaning towards the former). You have to get a majority of I's.

Foundations Schols get all I's, and are the top seventy Schols students, afaik.

Kwekubo

I saw in a copy of Trinity News that foundation scholarships will probably be abolished (at least partially) starting this October. is this true? Just when I'm looking to get into the place... :rolleyes:

punka

Angry Banana wrote:

Foundations Schols get all I's, and are the top seventy Schols students, afaik.

you don't have to get all firsts, anyway, but I think it's meant to be the top-marked scholars spread evenly across faculties (so you'd have 2 from arts letters, 2 from arts humanities, 2 from bess, etc etc). there can only be 70 foundation scholars at any one time, in practise this means about 14 or 15 are elected each year.

thirdfox, the lowest mark i know of someone getting in a single paper and still getting schols is a 56, but as angry banana said it depends on your department

Ron DMC

punka wrote:

I think it's meant to be the top-marked scholars spread evenly across faculties (so you'd have 2 from arts letters, 2 from arts humanities, 2 from bess, etc etc).

Didn't they do away the bess faculty?

Kwekubo

Kwekubo wrote:

I saw in a copy of Trinity News that foundation scholarships will probably be abolished (at least partially) starting this October. is this true? Just when I'm looking to get into the place... :rolleyes:

There is a review under way of the schols exams, but they are guaranteed to happen under the statutes, which is just damn messy to change. What is planned is a change, but only calendar changes, not statute changes, so they should still be given out on Trinity Monday, though I'm unsure how that'd work given that it'd be about 10 months after.

To elaborate more, the Senior Lecturer (main college guy in charge of academic activities) wants to shift the Schols Exams currently held in March somehow to the summer exams. The group is only reviewing it, and the full proposal could come to University Council in June.

Schols will continue on, the benefits of being a Scholar might change throughout the years (as it has done in the past) but it will continue on. FACT!

Time Magazine

Aye. Tis now under the Diocese of Social and Human Sciences, under Archbishop Paul Walsh.

But I'd say he was referring to BESS-subjects, as opposed to the faculty itself.

Time Magazine

EduMyth wrote:

To elaborate more, the Senior Lecturer (main college guy in charge of academic activities)

This fella. Who managed to hide the domain registration details from whois attempts :mad:.

David19

I don't think this has been mentioned. I presume its possible to attempt the schols exams more than once? Like if you don't get it in 2nd year can you go for it again in 3rd?

ApeXaviour

David19 wrote:

I don't think this has been mentioned. I presume its possible to attempt the schols exams more than once? Like if you don't get it in 2nd year can you go for it again in 3rd?

Yep I know someone who did that and got it on his second attempt, also got a 1st in JS too.

punka

Angry Banana wrote:

Aye. Tis now under the Diocese of Social and Human Sciences, under Archbishop Paul Walsh.

But I'd say he was referring to BESS-subjects, as opposed to the faculty itself.

yes, i was giving random(ish) examples of how foundation scholarships are spread across faculties. ie they're not all given to science & maths people who presumably do the best percentage-wise

David19

ApeXaviour wrote:

Yep I know someone who did that and got it on his second attempt, also got a 1st in JS too.

Thanks for the response.

Another couple of questions. It says to qualify for schols the "previous conduct of candidates must have been satisfactory". Do they really look at that? Would repeating a year rule you out?

Also, when it says scholars are entitled to remission of the annual fee if they don't qualify for free fees does it mean they'll refund you the fees if your repeating the year you get schols? Or will they just not charge you fees from then on if you happen to not qualify for free fees? I'm guessing the latter.

Angry Banana

Angry Banana wrote:

And I always thought "rising JF" meant "continuing JF".

I had a flick through the 1911/12 calendar today, and there was a line in it which explained the rising JF thing, saying that (going on memory) that it is someone who has been granted access to Trinity but has yet to take up their studies. Not sure why they took out the full explanation.

Schols Talk is tomorrow by the way, starting at 6:15 (not 6 - I can't edit the above post!) in the MacNeill.

xeduCat

Previous conduct is a blurry phase - the court of examiners recommends you based on your results and their general feeling (allegedly) - so the language provides a shield against legal challenges and so on. But there's no formal bar to students who have failed in the past, and I know people who have done so and gone on to Schol and more.

Schol results are not part of your academic record, except for subjects that get you exemptions. Failure to get it has no negative consequences whatsoever, apart from your general happiness and sanity.

Multiple attempts are fine, and treated formally as first time around (although again, there is discretion at examiner level that is not exercised in accordance with a rulebook!).

Award of Foundation Schols (of which I'm one ) ) varies from year to year. Last year, for example, there were 14 available, so the 'best two' in each of the 6 faculties, plus TSM, were given. There are 70 at one time, so on average, one-fifth are replaced each year, giving a complete cycle in five years. Because the Found/Non-Found distinction is of quite little importance, the system for filling in the foundation places tends to change, but best in faculty and getting 'all firsts' are definitely factors that have been used in the past.

Nietzschean

EduMyth wrote:

Schols Talk is tomorrow by the way, starting at 6:15 (not 6 - I can't edit the above post!) in the MacNeill.

I can, done.

logic1

Apologies for dragging up an extremly old thread but can part time students (i.e. BSc CS by night) take part in Schol exams?

And if awarded what are the guidlines on awarding accomodation to part time students?

.logic.

Right_Side

Anyone going in for Monday?

europerson

logic1 wrote:

Apologies for dragging up an extremly old thread but can part time students (i.e. BSc CS by night) take part in Schol exams?

And if awarded what are the guidlines on awarding accomodation to part time students?

Yes, evening-course students can take the Schols: see p.13 of this.

From the same, it would appear a student taking an evening course would qualify for rooms too.

europerson

Right_Side wrote:

Anyone going in for Monday?

I'll be in to congratulate whoever I know who gets Schols.

Right_Side

europerson wrote:

I'll be in to congratulate whoever I know who gets Schols.

Yeah me too.

I want to see the whole ceremony and the traditions and such, should be interesting.

Thirdfox

I took a look at the schols result list for Law students... doesn't seem like there's many who got it (i.e. at least full exemptions)... (I think around 12 people went for it there).

Is that the same situation with other faculties? e.g. how many apply from BESS and how many get at least full exemptions (not even schols)...

europerson

Thirdfox wrote:

how many apply from BESS and how many get at least full exemptions (not even schols)...

I think this has been posted elsewhere: sixty BESS students did the exams, and thirty-one got full exemptions. A handful got partial exemptions.

Thirdfox

So are schols mainly BESS students then?

Are there statistics for how many schols each department/faculty(?) churns out a year?

Nietzschean

Thirdfox wrote:

So are schols mainly BESS students then?

not really....

and full exemptions != schols ... i know lots of people will full exemptions who didn't get schols(69% what a stinger...)

Right_Side

Thirdfox wrote:

So are schols mainly BESS students then?

Are there statistics for how many schols each department/faculty(?) churns out a year?

Well you said 12 went for it, probably about 6 got full exemptions. This is the same % as BESS.

BESS produces the highest number of Scholars because 1) It's one of the biggest courses. 2) A lot of people do it because, unlike other courses, it is highly encouraged.

The important thing to realise is that as a % BESS doesn't produce any more Scholars than others but as a number it does.

E.g. I think 8 got it in BESS last year and I think 70 did it. So thats about 11%.
Say 12 did it law last year and 2(Guess) got it. Thats 16% and a therefore higher percentage get it in Law.

It's like there were 101 deaths on the road in Spain over Easter and 9 in Ireland (I think). Does that mean Spain has a worse safety record than here? No because it is the % that is important because Spain has a much higher population (just like BESS). Unfortunate example I know but it is the first thing to come to mind.

Thirdfox

I think only 2/3 law students got full exemptions (and as Nietzschean has rightly said full exempt. does not = schols).

So which faculty churns out the most scholars then? Arts or sciencey ones?