psychology course

musical.x

i'm thinking about taking on this course next year if i get the points. any advice on weither its a good course to pick?
i know everyone says to pick something your interested in and i think i would have a fair interest in it but i'd like to hear from students in the course at the moment what are the hours like? are the lectures interesting?

thanks,
musical.x

Mr_Emmet

musical.x wrote: »

i'm thinking about taking on this course next year if i get the points. any advice on weither its a good course to pick?
i know everyone says to pick something your interested in and i think i would have a fair interest in it but i'd like to hear from students in the course at the moment what are the hours like? are the lectures interesting?

thanks,
musical.x

Hey,
I did Psychology last year and having come through first year in one piece I quite enjoyed it. For first year the psych students will be treated the exact same as ordindary arts students, the only difference being: you have psychology as a mandatory subject (obviously) so therefore chosing legal science and some other subjects is out due to them being in the same group.
As for hours, there are only 4 lectures and one tutorial for psychology (each is an hour). Lectures were interesting as was the subject matter, well I thought so anyway, the assignments are tough but once you complete them they're fine and graded very fairly. Your other atrs subjects will determine your final amount of hours. I did maths, spanish and classics which gave me 23 hours of lectures in total which wasnt bad except some days I had large breaks between lectures which can be good time to meet people who are around or you could go to the library (not likely but you could:D).

musical.x

wow thats really good. the times dont seem too long considering school was around 30 hours per week.

would you recommend reading any books for the psychology class? might be handy to get an overview of what the year will be like
how many were there in your psy. class?

thanks for the info,
musical.x:D

Mr_Emmet

With regards the reading, I'm ashamed to say I only read the books recomended by the lecturers coming up towards assignments but I did buy the first year text book which is massive but very handy to own I found, if a bit pricey (€40 new) and very useful to read. The books for the assignments will be on desk reserve in the library so you can only take them out for 1hr/3hrs/24hrs depending on the set period, so if you go in on a sunday they will more than likely be there, obviously thats not always an option.
The lecture notes posted online by the lecturers are amazing, easy to follow and very concise, it may be a good idea to at least read over these after each lecture as it will cut down your study time at the exams. I didnt do this, and barely took notes at lectures which was not advisable as I just tuned out sometimes but there is alot to be said for listening in lectures, it totally reduces the amount you have to learn if you actually retain the info.
There were around 400 in the psych lectures but numbers rapidly fell after a few weeks and the halls were barely ever full after a week or two. In the actual psych class there are 15 but they are never set apart from the arts students as that would create a divide for the others to join in second year.
Overall it's basically first arts throughout 1st year only you dont have to worry about getting into the top 15 in order to take psych to second year, you just have to do well and pass all your arts subjects AFAIK.

musical.x

thats a massive class! i'm used to classes with like at the most 6 people in it...and thats on a good day :eek:
thats alot of info though thanks a million! i will probably end up buying the books.i cant be bothered waiting for people plus i can mark them for the important stuff (well thats if i even get the course:( )
did the people in your year give ya a hand with assignments or was it all for one and one for all kind of situation? sorry for bombarding you with questions just handy to have the info beforehand from someone with experience in the matter :cool:

thanks,
musical.x:D

Mr_Emmet

Well you'll only be expected to buy one book and thats the core text book, other than that the other books are either really expensive (can be as much as €100+) or not available. The library is the best bet to get them as you'll only need one or two pages from each and I just photocopied relevant pages.
As for the assignments, your tutor will be a big help (tutorials had only 30ish people in them) they will give help with anything you find difficult. I did discuss assignments with friends but usually I don't think people write them together as everyone will be afraid of plagiarism, but that's just my experience. I was always willing to help anyone who asked and I'm sure anybody else you meet will be too.
You just get used to the large lectures as the theatres are so big and the classroom attitude is gone, lecturers don't usually take questions during the lecture preferring to leave them untill the end.
Don't worry about asking questions if I had someone to tell me all this last year I would have actually known what to expect over the two semesters!

musical.x

ah thats fairly handy so. i suppose its better that they dont take questions until the end. the online notes are great too.
the cao is closed tomorrow so i'll put this down and see how things go
you never know i might be flooding questions your way in september haha thanks!

musical.x:D

Mr_Emmet

NP, feel free to message me if/when you get the course!:cool:

IainML

Just general comment on the remark about hours (you mention 30 in school), I suppose it should be pointed out that Irish universities use something called ECTS (European Credit Transfer Scheme) and you'll maybe notice numbers of ECTS on various documents. What they are meant to be is an indicator of the total student effort.

So for example, if you do a full-time undergraduate course you'll be doing modules worth 60 ECTS in a year. These are calculated as 20-25 hours total effort (that means lectures, labs, tutorials, exams and reading/self-study/thinking time!) per 1 ECTS. So that means full-time students are supposed to devote on average 40 hours per week to their courses and private study. Not just counting up the scheduled class hours (which are only a fraction of the time).

I know in practice that varies, but just thought worth knowing that's how its estimated officially and that's the official amount of effort you are supposed to put aside in order to fulfill the course requirements.

Just FYI

musical.x

IainML wrote: »

Just general comment on the remark about hours (you mention 30 in school), I suppose it should be pointed out that Irish universities use something called ECTS (European Credit Transfer Scheme) and you'll maybe notice numbers of ECTS on various documents. What they are meant to be is an indicator of the total student effort.

So for example, if you do a full-time undergraduate course you'll be doing modules worth 60 ECTS in a year. These are calculated as 20-25 hours total effort (that means lectures, labs, tutorials, exams and reading/self-study/thinking time!) per 1 ECTS. So that means full-time students are supposed to devote on average 40 hours per week to their courses and private study. Not just counting up the scheduled class hours (which are only a fraction of the time).

I know in practice that varies, but just thought worth knowing that's how its estimated officially and that's the official amount of effort you are supposed to put aside in order to fulfill the course requirements.

Just FYI

wow thats fairly hefty stuff. i thought all the long hours were gone after the L.C i suppose ita good in the long run and it'll help come exam time...still its alot of time devoted to it. thanks for letting me know! quite an eye opener. fingers crossed i like my course and i wont mind spending so much time on it

thanks,
musical.x

IainML

don't worry about it. That's the standard for all university courses in Europe according to the definitions.

Of course you have the freedom to choose how many hours you spend in private study (that's the biggest part of the time) and not many would do the full whack in practice. Also effort might vary throughout the semester, some courses will seem easier to you than others, etc, but its just worth bearing in mind that this is technically what full-time courses are meant to be in any university or college. It's not really long if you think about it, I mean its just like 9-5 each working day if you want to look at it that way....so plenty of other time for clubs, societies and chillin'

the main thing is to enjoy what you are doing, and try to get the most out of it - honestly, the years will shoot past so just dive into the whole experience of learning something new.:)