Question about Biotechnology? Help would be appreciated!

HelpNeeded!

I was just wondering is it going to be extremely tough doing Biotech if I did pass German? Do they start right at the beginning? Thanks

ciano1

Here's a link to this summers exam paper. See how hard you think it is!
https://www.mis.nuigalway.ie/papers_public/2011_2012/GR/2011_2012_GR252_1_1_2.PDF

HelpNeeded!

ciano1 wrote: »

Here's a link to this summers exam paper. See how hard you think it is!
https://www.mis.nuigalway.ie/papers_public/2011_2012/GR/2011_2012_GR252_1_1_2.PDF

Thank you

HelpNeeded!

ciano1 wrote: »

Here's a link to this summers exam paper. See how hard you think it is!
https://www.mis.nuigalway.ie/papers_public/2011_2012/GR/2011_2012_GR252_1_1_2.PDF

Are the rest of the Biotech first year papers anywhere? Particularly Chemistry as I didn't do that for the Leaving Cert

ciano1

Go here and at the dropdown menu that says 'All course instances' look for 1BY1 - Biotechnology and search.. All the papers should come up

https://www.mis.nuigalway.ie/regexam/paper_index_search_main_menu.asp

HelpNeeded!

ciano1 wrote: »

Go here and at the dropdown menu that says 'All course instances' look for 1BY1 - Biotechnology and search.. All the papers should come up

https://www.mis.nuigalway.ie/regexam/paper_index_search_main_menu.asp

Thank you

Squeeonline

As a graduate of biotech, here are a couple of things.

The German lecturer (Christa) is lovely! She'll help you with it. It is hard to get used to at first since you will be dealing with real German and she'll only speak German to you during class time. If you've had an Irish teacher in school, her Austrian accent can take a couple weeks to get used to but don't be afraid to ask her to repeat anything or speak slower. It's her native tongue so it

Do the ordinary level maths option. I was the only one in my year that did the honours level and it wasn't worth the hassle (though I love learning maths, I hate being tested in it)

You do get a lot of "homework" in German, but it's all very do-able and stays at the same level of difficulty for the 3 years, so about half way through 2nd year (or earlier) you'll find it dead simple and fly through work that used to take you ages.

You will have 3 German classes in a week. One grammar, one oral, one translation. For the translation you'll take a science article from a newspaper (think Irish Times for quality, and some times easier language than that) and work through some paragraphs. She'll give you a block of text from that to translate. It's easier to translate the first section of any article as if you have to do the later ones, you'll have to read through the earlier ones to get context.

I recommend reading the whole article when you get it so you know it roughly when you finish it off in the next class.

A large amount of marks are for continuous assessment, so don't let the homework build up. Get it done the same day it's given and hand it up when it's done.

You'll probably be in a class of less than 5. Some times they throw together marine biology students with the biotech to make the classes a bit larger.

The homework from the oral sections can be a bit of a pain. You'll talk in class about yourself (at the beginning) or labs that you have done then you'll be expected to write a page or two (a4 typed) and submit that by email. It'll be marked and sent back to you for corrections. Do it right the first time and it'll save you a lot of hassle.

Squeeonline

HelpNeeded! wrote: »

Are the rest of the Biotech first year papers anywhere? Particularly Chemistry as I didn't do that for the Leaving Cert

1st year chemistry is essentially honours leaving cert. It's not hard by any stretch but it has the reputation for being difficult.

Something like half of my biotech year failed chemistry the first time around, and half of those failed the repeats and had to repeat the whole year. They were the ones who thought it was hard and didn't go to the lectures.

Because the failure rate is so high, they pretty much tell you what's coming up in the exam IF you go to the lectures.

I had a lecturer who has since left, but her notes were photocopied from the book (Brown Lamay and Burst IIRC). If you didn't do chemistry, pick up this book or any other general chemistry book and catch up.

Learning the basics of chemistry will seriously help you understand things in other modules throughout the degree and is worth the investment of time. Take this from someone who has done biotech.

HelpNeeded!

Thank you for the advice, I will take it all in, hopefully I will be ok with the German, I know two guys also doing it.

HelpNeeded!

Squeeonline wrote: »

1st year chemistry is essentially honours leaving cert. It's not hard by any stretch but it has the reputation for being difficult.

Something like half of my biotech year failed chemistry the first time around, and half of those failed the repeats and had to repeat the whole year. They were the ones who thought it was hard and didn't go to the lectures.

Because the failure rate is so high, they pretty much tell you what's coming up in the exam IF you go to the lectures.

I had a lecturer who has since left, but her notes were photocopied from the book (Brown Lamay and Burst IIRC). If you didn't do chemistry, pick up this book or any other general chemistry book and catch up.

Learning the basics of chemistry will seriously help you understand things in other modules throughout the degree and is worth the investment of time. Take this from someone who has done biotech.

Ok thank you I will look into doing this

1ZRed

Don't mean to go hijacking this thread, but can anyone give me a link to the biotech timetable and a run down of the subjects I'll be doing?

I did Biology, French and engineering at school but never chemistry or anything else that might be present in the course, so I kind of want to fully see what I'm getting my ass into! :pac:

HelpNeeded!

1ZRed wrote: »

Don't mean to go hijacking this thread, but can anyone give me a link to the biotech timetable and a run down of the subjects I'll be doing?

I did Biology, French and engineering at school but never chemistry or anything else that might be present in the course, so I kind of want to fully see what I'm getting my ass into! :pac:

I need the timetable aswell
Did you do honours French and Maths? I didn't do chemistry either.

1ZRed

HelpNeeded! wrote: »

I need the timetable aswell
Did you do honours French and Maths? I didn't do chemistry either.

No I didn't do honours Maths or French, but I did keep the Maths up until the mocks. I did pass in French but I did biology in those classes because my teacher was non existent, so without any study I still winged a B2. I know the difference between pass and honours is a big one but I was good at it, so I'm not afraid of taking it on at college level.

I'm not worried about chemistry or anything else, with a bit of work, it won't be too difficult.

whatev.

1ZRed wrote: »

Don't mean to go hijacking this thread, but can anyone give me a link to the biotech timetable and a run down of the subjects I'll be doing?

I did Biology, French and engineering at school but never chemistry or anything else that might be present in the course, so I kind of want to fully see what I'm getting my ass into! :pac:

I don't know about the timetable, but this link shows the subjects for every year of every science course. That's for this year, so this year's fourth year won't necessarily be the same as when you're in fourth year, but it will be very similar if not the same.
http://www.nuigalway.ie/science/1st_year_science.html
Just click the syllabus next to your course.

HelpNeeded!

1ZRed wrote: »

No I didn't do honours Maths or French, but I did keep the Maths up until the mocks. I did pass in French but I did biology in those classes because my teacher was non existent, so without any study I still winged a B2. I know the difference between pass and honours is a big one but I was good at it, so I'm not afraid of taking it on at college level.

I'm not worried about chemistry or anything else, with a bit of work, it won't be too difficult.

I did pass maths but I don't think maths will be my problem, I got a b1 in Pass German but i'm worried about it from lookiing at the past german papers in the course

What did you get in biology?

I didn't do chemistry so hopefully it will be ok

1ZRed

HelpNeeded! wrote: »

I did pass maths but I don't think maths will be my problem, I got a b1 in Pass German but i'm worried about it from lookiing at the past german papers in the course

What did you get in biology?

I didn't do chemistry so hopefully it will be ok

You'll be fine, you have the basics. My problem is that I was well able for honours French but I was just too lazy and had to learn biology and engineering on my own because of projects and a useless teacher. I wouldn't worry about the language because I think it could have been too much for you to start a new one like French.

I got a B2 in honours for biology.
Well I don't think it'll do you much good to be hyping up chemistry for nothing just by looking at the papers, it'll seem worse that way. Just take it handy, you're going to be taken through the basics at a rapid pace anyway so you should be fine as long as you keep up with your work I imagine.

HelpNeeded!

1ZRed wrote: »

You'll be fine, you have the basics. My problem is that I was well able for honours French but I was just too lazy and had to learn biology and engineering on my own because of projects and a useless teacher. I wouldn't worry about the language because I think it could have been too much for you to start a new one like French.

I got a B2 in honours for biology.
Well I don't think it'll do you much good to be hyping up chemistry for nothing just by looking at the papers, it'll seem worse that way. Just take it handy, you're going to be taken through the basics at a rapid pace anyway so you should be fine as long as you keep up with your work I imagine.

I would have been able for honours German but was too lazy, but i'm worried about maths and german.
Yeah looking at the past papers didn't help

1ZRed

HelpNeeded! wrote: »

I would have been able for honours German but was too lazy, but i'm worried about maths and german.
Yeah looking at the past papers didn't help

You'll be fine. If there wasn't an honours Maths requirement and you did well in pass, I'm sure you have nothing to be worried about. I'd stop worrying until you start your course. Sure anything looks difficult if you've never done it before, Especially Maths!

HelpNeeded!

1ZRed wrote: »

You'll be fine. If there wasn't an honours Maths requirement and you did well in pass, I'm sure you have nothing to be worried about. I'd stop worrying until you start your course. Sure anything looks difficult if you've never done it before, Especially Maths!

Yeah I suppose, thanks for the advice