Written Entry Test

captainstacy

Hi
I have applied to NUI Maynooth as a mature student and received a letter today to attend an hour long written test in a couple of weeks.

I presume that it will be some form of an essay question but other than that I know nothing.

Has anyone done one of these entry tests in the past and have any info about the type of questions asked or standard expected.

I ahven't written an essay since the leaving cert over 15 years ago.

Kinski

I did one for media studies a few years back. It was fairly handy, just a selection of questions from which you choose one and write an essay. If you haven't written anything in that long it's probably worth practicing essay-writing at home before taking the test.

captainstacy

Cheers Kinski.
Any chance you remember a few of the question so I could give myself a few practice runs and answering them myself?

Kinski

Don't remember exactly, but they were specific to the subject area anyway. The one I answered was something like 'Discuss the news media's reporting of the war in Iraq.'

prankerson

Subject?

captainstacy

Media Studies

CnaG

Just on not having written an essay since the leaving cert, I don't know how long you have to write the essay (edit: just re read your first post and you say you have an hour) but they won't be expecting master pieces like. Basically, you'd need to structure your argument something like this:

First of all, before you start writing READ THE QUESTION CAREFULLY! Underline the important parts of it. Then brainstorm. Spend 5 - 6 mins jotting down things about the question, and try sort out in your head (and on the page if you can) what order you're going to address them in.

Introduction: re-state the question (this helps you remember what it is you need to talk about), say it's an interesting question/example (whoever wrote the paper is likely to be marking it, no harm in buttering them up - just don't overenthuse :-P), then say what you're going to talk about. Keep it relevant to the question, and MAKE SURE YOU AREN'T MISSING ANY PART OF THE QUESTION! Try keep what you're going to talk about to three, maybe four main points, as you're unlikely to get more than that done in an hour. (I'm presuming you only have an hour). If there is a very important point you're not going to talk about you might want to say why (in no more than a sentence - no sense wasting time - just say it's interesting but unfortunately beyond the scope of the essay/ needs more time to be addressed fully)

The introduction is very important. I actually can't overstate the importance of it, both for clearing up your own thinking, for structuring your essay (so you don't ramble) and for telling the examiner what you are going to/would like to talk about. This last bit is especially important if you're likely to run out of time.

The next bit is a matter of personal preference/style really. You need to break your argument up into paragraphs. Some people write lots of short paragraphs, mine are usually a longer and there tends to be less of them... but then brevity is not my strong point. However, as a basic rule when you're writing a paragraph each one should contain one point. And you should have a good few paragraph breaks on each page. It just makes it eaiser to read, and let'd be realistic, you want your essay to be easy to read and several pages of writing with no breaks is not only hard to read, but it's likely to be waffle. So keep paragraphs consise, to the point, and relevant to the question.

You start out making a claim in the first sentence. You then back up/offer evidence for this claim in the next few sentences. You then, importantly, say why this is important to the question asked, i.e. what it demonstrates about the topic of the essay. Writing like this helps you make sure you're still being relevant, and it a good way of showing what you know to the examiner. I've pasted a paragraph from an essay I wrote at the end of this. I think it might actually be a conclusion, but I think it's a reasonable example. (I'm not a great judge of my own work though...). Don't worry about knowing page numbers or names and stuff like that - it's not expected in an exam essay.

Your last, or concluding paragraph is just as important as the introduction. In it you need to sum up the main points of your argument. You could do this by having one short sentence about each of the paragraphs, or a longer one summarising several paragraphs. You're really just re-iterating your main points for the examiner, so they remember them. If you were being a total lick-arse, you could include something to the effect of: "this is a really interesting topic, and with further study it would be possible to gain further insight into (whatever it's about)" - just to show you would be interested in further study in that area. It's also a good idea to deal again with the question and offer a conclusion on it in your final sentence or two.

About 10 minutes from the end of the exam I'd advise starting to wrap up and write your conclusion. You might find you don't have enough time to say everything you want to (it nearly always happens to me). In this case, keep your last few parapgraphs really sparce (try not to resort to bullet pointing though) and mention in your conclusion that unfortunately you didn't get to address everything you had said you would in your introduction. At least you're acknowledging it, and in any case they won't expect you to have much experience writing essays in exam situations - good timing only comes with practice and they'll probably be bearing that in mind.

So finally, the best of luck to anyone doing an exam. Do try to leave yourself out of the essay. Unless the question expressly asks 'offer your personal opinion' or something to that effect, it's probably best not to use the words 'I think' unless you have some evidence to stand your opinion up. Even then it'd be better to say something like '(such and such) could be seen as having a biased viewpoint' rather than 'I think his viewpoint was biased'

Anyhow, here's that sample paragraph, again, bearing in mind that it is a conclusion (the question was "Which of the following theories of power (Marxist, elite, corporatist, pluralist, radical) do you think are most useful when it comes to understanding Irish state-society relationships?" - it's a final year question so you won't get anything which requires any knowledge as specific as that, so again, don't worry)

Irish state-societal relations are infinitely complex and difficult to characterise in terms of any one, or even two of the theories of power. Corporatism and Pluralism go a considerable way towards describing state-societal relations since 1987 and the rise of social partnership, while certain Marxist, elitist and radical theorists are also very useful for understanding the limitations of these theories with regards to the Irish case. In the early days of the state, elite corporatism was a fair description of church/state relations, but Irish state-society relations are particularly difficult to characterise in the present day. Never entirely equal, it would appear that social partners have been increasingly marginalised while the state maintains an ‘illusion of consensus’. In particular the creation of NAMA flies in the face of what social partnership has achieved. It may be the case that the partners will choose to hang on to their remaining vestiges of power despite the affront. It seems unlikely they will readily abandon corporatism (because, despite its limitations, it has allowed the partners access to policy-making power). On the other hand, if the various disaffected partners choose to withdraw from partnership in protest, NAMA could prove to be the penultimate step for corporatism in Ireland, with a possible shift to a more pluralist system. Whichever the case may be, the current economic crisis has certainly exposed the flaws and weaknesses in our system.

Hope that helps...

captainstacy

That's a great help CnaG.
I will try to take it all on board
Cheers

meilrichardquin

Hey captainstacy,

doin this myself on saturday morning, been 10 yrs for me so can't wait to see how i hold up in an exam. Applying for psychology through science so no idea what topics i might get.

Good luck anyway though.

neil

captainstacy

Cheers Neil.
I still haven't got a clue what I'm at but sure I will give it a blast.
Good luck on Saturday

meilrichardquin

hey, got some more info here, should help.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055851412

Neil

jimigal

Thanks very much CnaG, that is good advice.
I am doing an exam in Maynooth this Saturday and your advice on essay writing has helped.

meilrichardquin

Done and done, nothing more to do now than wait, Questions were a little different,

1) Outline what Prep you have made for studying for a degree in...

2) Describe what you think would be involved in taking this degree at NUI Maynooth.

sharon68

Hello all,
I did the media exam in Maynooth a few weeks ago. Has anybody had any results yet? I was very stressed out about it but actually enjoyed it !

captainstacy

Hi sharon68

I've heard nothing either. Has anyone any idea how long it takes?

meilrichardquin

My letter said id here back the week starting the 26th April...

captainstacy

Did you receive a letter since the test?

sharon68

No news = good news !

captainstacy

Positive Mental Attitute

meilrichardquin

nope, just the letter that told me the exam date...

captainstacy

Cool.
There was no date on my letter other than the date of the test

meilrichardquin

probably different for each course, i'd say most are around the 3/4 weeks bracket. All you can do is wait and hope, good luck...

captainstacy

Cheers.
Good luck to everyone

meilrichardquin

everyone in the world or just people who applied for a mature student course in Maynooth?

captainstacy

I have to say to everyone now or you'll all be having a go at me

meilrichardquin

Good save, hope to see ur round the halls of NUI...

captainstacy

fingers crossed. I'd say there will still be interviews to come.
Then I have to figure out how I can afford it!!

sharon68

Are any of you going to check out the open day?

captainstacy

hope to

captainstacy

I got a letter today asking me to attend for interview in the first week of May

sharon68

Hi all - received interview letter today - woo hoo !
anyone else hear anything?
Wonder what they will ask and how many people they will interview?

strictlyelvis

I sat my written test for MH 102 this year in March and am still waiting for results.
Does anyone know how long it takes for results to be posted??
Knd rgrds
p.

javagal

strictlyelvis wrote: »

I sat my written test for MH 102 this year in March and am still waiting for results.
Does anyone know how long it takes for results to be posted??
Knd rgrds
p.

My fiancee did this too with no word yet!

strictlyelvis

Hi Javagal,

I contacted the college today by phone.
The Admissions dept tell me that the Music dept are short-listing people who sat the written test - (which incidently was 32 people in total on Sat March 26-2011) - for interviews this month!!!!

They will send letters shortly to notify weather we have been sucessful or not sucessful!

They could not tell me however, how many will be called for interview and reminded me that they will except a max of 8 MATURE students for this course.

So I hope they only short-list 8 people in total for the interview...., HA!!
Fat chance of that happening, anyway,

Good luck to your fiancee.
Phil.K

javagal

Thanks Phil, I'l let you know how he gets on!!
Good luck to you too

strictlyelvis

Just got my interview letter in the post today!
Javagal, hope you guys have good news too.
Phil.

auds1

Hi everyone,

I am just reading all of your posts and looking for advice as I have a written test in Maynooth tomorrow for MH116 Community and Youth Work...any more tips please?

Thanks