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Need help deciding subjects
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26-08-2012 01:01PM#1I missed out on Psychology by only 10 points, so I'm doing it through Arts now(although I'll still be getting a recheck..:rolleyes:). Anyway, regarding my subjects, I need ones that are somewhat "easy". I know there are no easy subjects but something that's not really complicated and all I need is to pass it
Obviously Psychology is my main choice, so I'm going to have to devote most of my time to that. I've chosen German(advanced) and Beginners Spanish, because, well, I like languages :P For my 4th choice I just chose Economics, but I'm thinking this may not be the right choice. Is it like Business? Is there a lot of maths involved? I like business but I can't stand maths so..:rolleyes:0
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Ahoy there!
Just a wee note on studying advanced German.
The German department is great, and your standard of German will improve greatly after studying it for a year. But be warned, the work-load for advanced German can be fairly intense. You may well have 1-1.5+ hours of written assignments every night. It might be hard to keep up with the continuous assessment if you're focusing a lot of your energy on psychology.
A lot of people I know who were focusing on psychology, took up Soc&Pol as their 'easy subject'. According to friends, there aren't very many written assignments, and the exams are MCQ based.
Anyway, best of luck with your subject choice :-). I hope I haven't deterred you from taking up German, because it's great fun to study, but it can be quite intense at times!
Thanks for that, it was helpful
I like knowing what the subjects are going to be like beforehand. I'm still going to choose German though. I feel like, since I've been doing it for the past 6 years I might as well try and continue until I reach fluency that I'm comfortable with. I don't mind splitting my time half and half for Psychology and German, because I'll probably end up doing both anyway(German as a diploma if I get Psychology denom.. ) What are the written assignments like? Like proper essays on topics and stuff? I hope it's not a giant leap from Leaving Cert. standard :S
Yeah I'm actually considering Soc&Pol myself, however I really don't know what it is! Do you? :L Also are Psychology exams not MCQ?
If you have any advice on what other easy-ish subject to choose, just so I can pass, let me know 0 -
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Aye, if you enjoy it, you should definitely study it! Especially if you're interested in continuing it into second arts.
Well, the assignments are mostly grammatical exercises, much like in the German textbooks that you used for the leaving cert. Some assignments can be tricky, but some can be a breeze. In relation to the standard of 1st year German, it really isn't too bad! In semester 1, you'll revise basic Grammar, conjunctions, grammatical cases etc. In semester 2, it gets a bit harder, but it's still quite manageable! Yeah, granted, there are a lot of assignments, but if you know the material, you'll be well able for them :-)
Oh, I'm not saying that MCQ exams are easy. However, in relation to Soc&Pol, many of the questions on the exam are common knowledge :-P Aye, as far as I know, the psychology exam is MCQ---but meant to be fairly tough.
If you're looking for a very, very 'manageable' subject, I'd recommend philosophy. The workload is very light, the tutorials aren't compulsory, and you usually have a fair idea about what'll be on the exam!
Hope I've given you some useful advice :-)
Yeah I could do with a lot of grammar exercises as I didn't quite grasp most of it during the LC and I was probably lucky something easy came up in the grammar question! I definitely want German anyway, and Psychology, so that's two subjects.
Do you recommend taking on another language? I've currently chosen my other two subjects as Spanish and Economics, but will be changing them, as I don't think I'll be able to manage to workload as well as I will be with more "easy" subjects. Someone said in another forum that Italian is easy enough and the workload is manageable, but I really don't know
I love languages and it seems like a great opportunity to take up another one, and if I wasn't doing Psychology I'd probably do languages, but would it just take more time? :eek:
What is Soc and Pol though? Is it Politics? :S Because I absolutely hate Politics :rolleyes: Philosophy? Really? It seems it would be well with Psychology and all, but what's it really about? Like... what do you do exactly? Form opinions and stuff? I've read in past threads of people struggling with assignments and stuff :S Although I quite like Mythology, mainly Greek, so if that's any way relevant I might enjoy it.
Also what are Arts hours like? Compared to, secondary school?Does each subject have the same amount of hours or what? Oh, and another thing, will I be given a timetable with all my subjects or will I need to have separate ones for each subject :S
Sorry for all the questions, I'm just really eager and you're quite helpful
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I don't have to decide my subjects now, do I? Well I've chosen them when I registered but I was thinking I could wait until Orientation and maybe I'll get some advise or something? I'm not too sure about a second language, I think I'll have to find someone who did two and see how they got on
I just looked at classics, and it's in the same group as German so that's a no for me
I think I'll take up Philosophy though, it sounds interesting and I can be opinionated on things like abortion, etc. :rolleyes:
Is Soc&Pol really politics based or just a bit? :rolleyes: It seems most Psychology people choose that but I don't really understand what it's about. The hours sound good though!
Maybe if I changed my language to Italian or something I could do classics :S But I want German too >.<0 -
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Sorry to butt in in the middle of all of this, but yeah..if you're really focusing on your psychology (woo ) I'd stay clear of the languages. They add soooo many more hours to your timetable. I did italian last year and there was far more work involved. A friend of mine did two languages and his timetable was literally a joke.
Soc and pol is easy and it is fairly interesting. I did geography as my fourth subject, can't say I enjoyed it but it was simple enough to pass and there's not much work assignment wise. 0 -
Sorry to butt in in the middle of all of this, but yeah..if you're really focusing on your psychology (woo ) I'd stay clear of the languages. They add soooo many more hours to your timetable. I did italian last year and there was far more work involved. A friend of mine did two languages and his timetable was literally a joke.
Soc and pol is easy and it is fairly interesting. I did geography as my fourth subject, can't say I enjoyed it but it was simple enough to pass and there's not much work assignment wise.
Ohh are you in denom. or Psych studies? Maybe you can give me tips n' shtuff
I was actually thinking of this: Psychology, Italian, Philosophy and Classics. Well? I'm still not quite sure, 'cos I kind of want german and soc&pol, I hear it's easy enough to pass. What did you think No.5? Was there a lot of politics involved?
Also I'm just looking at our timetable. The Psychology for Odd number students only have 4 hours whereas the even numbers have 7 hours? 0 -
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Ohh are you in denom. or Psych studies? Maybe you can give me tips n' shtuff
I was actually thinking of this: Psychology, Italian, Philosophy and Classics. Well? I'm still not quite sure, 'cos I kind of want german and soc&pol, I hear it's easy enough to pass. What did you think No.5? Was there a lot of politics involved?
Also I'm just looking at our timetable. The Psychology for Odd number students only have 4 hours whereas the even numbers have 7 hours?
I'm in denominated psychology, I got in through Arts last year so going into second year now
Ha ha all the tips you want
not that I'll be much help but sure
Italian I wasn't mad on it...but that was me personally. the language classes are all in the evenings and I'm such a lazy individual..still though if you like languages it's easy enough to pass. The grammar follows a similar pattern to french if you did that in school?
Do soc and pol. Like yeah it's roughly split 50/50 but the politics is in no way difficult. It really isn't, I've no interest in politics in the slightest but I ended up enjoying the politics more than the sociology. It's more facts than theories if you get me?
Hmm that's weird, rest assured both the odds and evens only have four hours :P0 -
I'm in denominated psychology, I got in through Arts last year so going into second year now
Ha ha all the tips you want not that I'll be much help but sure
Italian I wasn't mad on it...but that was me personally. the language classes are all in the evenings and I'm such a lazy individual..still though if you like languages it's easy enough to pass. The grammar follows a similar pattern to french if you did that in school?
Do soc and pol. Like yeah it's roughly split 50/50 but the politics is in no way difficult. It really isn't, I've no interest in politics in the slightest but I ended up enjoying the politics more than the sociology. It's more facts than theories if you get me?
Hmm that's weird, rest assured both the odds and evens only have four hours :P
I'll be annoying you throughout the year, don't worry :rolleyes: Being in the top 15 out of, what, 700, is quite a feat Did you find out what number you were by the way? And did you focus a lot of Psychology or just basic study?
Nah I did German But still, I like languages and I'd be happy to do it, or German, whichever. I'm thinking I should choose now Psychology, German, Philosophy and Soc&Pol. Sound good? I'll miss Classics... even though I haven't even looked into it
Ah there's probably something wrong with the timetable. Some of the subjects seem to clash anyway 0 -
I'll be annoying you throughout the year, don't worry :rolleyes: Being in the top 15 out of, what, 700, is quite a feat Did you find out what number you were by the way? And did you focus a lot of Psychology or just basic study?
Nah I did German But still, I like languages and I'd be happy to do it, or German, whichever. I'm thinking I should choose now Psychology, German, Philosophy and Soc&Pol. Sound good? I'll miss Classics... even though I haven't even looked into it
Ah there's probably something wrong with the timetable. Some of the subjects seem to clash anyway
Ha ha annoy away, i'm a first year mentor this year so I'm sure there'll be plenty of that :P Not to be a creep but I see from the accommodation thread you're staying in Gort, so am I haha :P
Ha ha oh stop, thanks a million, i was chuffed to get a letter. Mainly psychology tbh, I didn't have much interest in my other subjects but I did study them coming up the exams.
Yeah it'll be that bit tougher if you did German, but it's not a bad subject. The small class size is nice for making friends, because it's near impossible in the large arts lectures.
Yeah that sounds good I've no clue about philosophy but attend some of the introductory lectures next week and you'll see. 0 -
Ha ha annoy away, i'm a first year mentor this year so I'm sure there'll be plenty of that :P Not to be a creep but I see from the accommodation thread you're staying in Gort, so am I haha :P
Ha ha oh stop, thanks a million, i was chuffed to get a letter. Mainly psychology tbh, I didn't have much interest in my other subjects but I did study them coming up the exams.
Yeah it'll be that bit tougher if you did German, but it's not a bad subject. The small class size is nice for making friends, because it's near impossible in the large arts lectures.
Yeah that sounds good I've no clue about philosophy but attend some of the introductory lectures next week and you'll see.
Awh cool, are we each assigned a mentor or how does that work? Eh.... stalker :rolleyes: Oh that's cool, I have a Psychology mentor now
I'm wondering if you'd be able to answer this Q though: I'm only 10 points off the actual Psychology course, and I'm getting a recheck so I might get the 10 points. Now say I get it, will I then be offered one of the 15 places and go straight to denom. psych in second year(with the 525 group), or will I be offered one of the 15 places in the arts course to go into denom psych? I was thinking, they couldn't really offer it to me for the following september, because why would I do first year again? If you don't know it's grand, I'll ask next week
What no. in Gort btw?0 -
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Awh cool, are we each assigned a mentor or how does that work? Eh.... stalker :rolleyes: Oh that's cool, I have a Psychology mentor now
I'm wondering if you'd be able to answer this Q though: I'm only 10 points off the actual Psychology course, and I'm getting a recheck so I might get the 10 points. Now say I get it, will I then be offered one of the 15 places and go straight to denom. psych in second year(with the 525 group), or will I be offered one of the 15 places in the arts course to go into denom psych? I was thinking, they couldn't really offer it to me for the following september, because why would I do first year again? If you don't know it's grand, I'll ask next week
What no. in Gort btw?
It's fairly random how it's done, depends on where you sit in the bailey allen hall for your introductory talk :P But it's done by faculty, so you'll have a mentor who does arts if you do arts.
Ha ha you do surely! I know..total creep..but I get notifications from that thread too because I commented there aaaggges ago 
Hmmm good question that..I really don't know the answer. It won't make a difference which one you're offered really though because even the people doing denominated psychology have to do three other arts subjects in first year. They are just guaranteed entry to pure psychology in second year.
I'll mail it. 0 -
It's fairly random how it's done, depends on where you sit in the bailey allen hall for your introductory talk :P But it's done by faculty, so you'll have a mentor who does arts if you do arts.
Ha ha you do surely! I know..total creep..but I get notifications from that thread too because I commented there aaaggges ago
Hmmm good question that..I really don't know the answer. It won't make a difference which one you're offered really though because even the people doing denominated psychology have to do three other arts subjects in first year. They are just guaranteed entry to pure psychology in second year.
I'll mail it.
Oh right, I just got to find one who seems to be intelligent :rolleyes:
Yes I'm aware of that, but it might make a difference if I get it, because then I might be given one of those places and I'll have my place on the denominated Pysch without having to worry, won't I? I remember emailing them ages ago and they said something like they sometimes save places if people go up in rechecks. Also if I get the points, they have to give me a place one way or another, because the points didn't have a * beside it which means everyone must have gotten it :S
Do you have any idea who I can ask this question to next week?0 -
Oh right, I just got to find one who seems to be intelligent :rolleyes:
Yes I'm aware of that, but it might make a difference if I get it, because then I might be given one of those places and I'll have my place on the denominated Pysch without having to worry, won't I? I remember emailing them ages ago and they said something like they sometimes save places if people go up in rechecks. Also if I get the points, they have to give me a place one way or another, because the points didn't have a * beside it which means everyone must have gotten it :S
Do you have any idea who I can ask this question to next week?
ha ha,, it's a university TECHNICALLY we're supposed to be intelligent :P
yup you won't have to worry one little bit you're guaranteed it!
yes they'll have to give you the place if there was no star
not too sure, here i'm literally just about to go out, i'll let you know tomorrow who the co-ordinator is. or take a look on the website and email them 0 -
ha ha,, it's a university TECHNICALLY we're supposed to be intelligent :P
yup you won't have to worry one little bit you're guaranteed it!
yes they'll have to give you the place if there was no star
not too sure, here i'm literally just about to go out, i'll let you know tomorrow who the co-ordinator is. or take a look on the website and email them
Ah cool, thanks 0 -
Hello there,
Thought I'd contribute to this thread seeing as I took two languages in my first year of Arts. My two were French and Spanish (advanced).
As far as the workload was concerned, French for me was the most difficult. Because there wasn't an option for complete beginners to study the subject, the level we were expected to reach was fairly high.
Spanish, however, was much easier. While they wanted you to progress, they seemed to have it in the back of their heads that you couldn't progress too much so that the beginners' class could be combined with the advanced classes come second year. I have heard that beginner Spanish is relatively easy to do well in provided you do put the work in and go to all your classes (or at the very least the grammar/spoken ones). I also think because you already have studied one language that Spanish will be a little easier for you over someone who has never studied any language before. Word of warning: the Spanish department would not be the most organised department in the world, and it can be difficult to get a straight answer from them if you have any queries about the subject.
As for the timetable, when I was in first year I think I had between 20 - 23 hours of lectures a week, tutorials and language labs included. My subjects were Spanish, French, English and Creative Writing. It was more than some of my friends who avoided taking languages, but I had a lot more continuous assessment assignments than they had, so it evened out come exam time!
Btw, if you are looking for an 'easy' subject, I would really recommend looking into English. As far as I know they've done away with exams for first years, so your assignments would all by essay based. In theory the courseload is heavy, but in reality you just need to read one or two texts that will answer the essay question and understand essay formatting (go to a couple of tutorials for that) in order to get a good grade.
Sorry this is so long, hope you find some help in my waffle. 0 -
petite_puce wrote: »Hello there,
Thought I'd contribute to this thread seeing as I took two languages in my first year of Arts. My two were French and Spanish (advanced).
As far as the workload was concerned, French for me was the most difficult. Because there wasn't an option for complete beginners to study the subject, the level we were expected to reach was fairly high.
Spanish, however, was much easier. While they wanted you to progress, they seemed to have it in the back of their heads that you couldn't progress too much so that the beginners' class could be combined with the advanced classes come second year. I have heard that beginner Spanish is relatively easy to do well in provided you do put the work in and go to all your classes (or at the very least the grammar/spoken ones). I also think because you already have studied one language that Spanish will be a little easier for you over someone who has never studied any language before. Word of warning: the Spanish department would not be the most organised department in the world, and it can be difficult to get a straight answer from them if you have any queries about the subject.
As for the timetable, when I was in first year I think I had between 20 - 23 hours of lectures a week, tutorials and language labs included. My subjects were Spanish, French, English and Creative Writing. It was more than some of my friends who avoided taking languages, but I had a lot more continuous assessment assignments than they had, so it evened out come exam time!
Btw, if you are looking for an 'easy' subject, I would really recommend looking into English. As far as I know they've done away with exams for first years, so your assignments would all by essay based. In theory the courseload is heavy, but in reality you just need to read one or two texts that will answer the essay question and understand essay formatting (go to a couple of tutorials for that) in order to get a good grade.
Sorry this is so long, hope you find some help in my waffle.
How would the english in arts differ compared to english for leaving cert? What kind of essays and work will we be doing? I'm unsure to take english or economics.0 -
petite_puce wrote: »Hello there,
Thought I'd contribute to this thread seeing as I took two languages in my first year of Arts. My two were French and Spanish (advanced).
As far as the workload was concerned, French for me was the most difficult. Because there wasn't an option for complete beginners to study the subject, the level we were expected to reach was fairly high.
Spanish, however, was much easier. While they wanted you to progress, they seemed to have it in the back of their heads that you couldn't progress too much so that the beginners' class could be combined with the advanced classes come second year. I have heard that beginner Spanish is relatively easy to do well in provided you do put the work in and go to all your classes (or at the very least the grammar/spoken ones). I also think because you already have studied one language that Spanish will be a little easier for you over someone who has never studied any language before. Word of warning: the Spanish department would not be the most organised department in the world, and it can be difficult to get a straight answer from them if you have any queries about the subject.
As for the timetable, when I was in first year I think I had between 20 - 23 hours of lectures a week, tutorials and language labs included. My subjects were Spanish, French, English and Creative Writing. It was more than some of my friends who avoided taking languages, but I had a lot more continuous assessment assignments than they had, so it evened out come exam time!
Btw, if you are looking for an 'easy' subject, I would really recommend looking into English. As far as I know they've done away with exams for first years, so your assignments would all by essay based. In theory the courseload is heavy, but in reality you just need to read one or two texts that will answer the essay question and understand essay formatting (go to a couple of tutorials for that) in order to get a good grade.
Sorry this is so long, hope you find some help in my waffle.
Thanks for this I think I've crossed Spanish out of my mind anyway, because I either want to do German or Italian, and I'll probably have a load of questions anyway so if they're not the most helpful... :rolleyes: 0 -
How would the english in arts differ compared to english for leaving cert? What kind of essays and work will we be doing? I'm unsure to take english or economics.
I don't know how true this is now because I took it two years ago and the course has changed somewhat, but the main difference is that instead of learning a play, some poetry and a novel all at the same time, the modules in English concentrate on one thing at a time. Depending on your last name, you either studied poetry or drama first in the first semester. English is also a lot more independent at university (same could be said for all subjects, really). You have a set list of texts but you only really need to know a small percentage of them really well, and have a general idea of the others. The format for essays can be quite different too depending on how you were taught to write in school. It is a lot more academic and personal opinion is not counted for as much. It took me one essay to get the hang of the proper format, but after that it was grand.
Generally, the essay questions involve comparing or contrasting texts, or using texts to prove a general statement. For example, two essays I remember doing were 'Compare and contrast the theme of religion in Play A and Play B' and 'Author X's work has been described as painting a realistic but disturbing portrait of childhood. Discuss with reference to at least two of the texts you have studied.' So, pretty much the same type question as the LC, just the format for answering is a little different.Thanks for this I think I've crossed Spanish out of my mind anyway, because I either want to do German or Italian, and I'll probably have a load of questions anyway so if they're not the most helpful... :rolleyes:
Well, to be fair to them, as I am a BA Connect student I caused a lot of problems that hadn't been on their radar before. It can still be frustrating when you're waiting for answers though. Good luck with German and/or Italian. 0
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