'Good attempt' at exams?

X.Libertines.x

Ah, this may be a little premature, but I know to be eligible to sit supplementals you have to have made a 'good attempt' at the summer paper. What, roughly, would that be, above 30% or something? I'm in JF Science, there's one exam in particular I'm not even sure I could make a 'good attempt' at. Any help would be appreciated.

Scortho

X.Libertines.x wrote: »

Ah, this may be a little premature, but I know to be eligible to sit supplementals you have to have made a 'good attempt' at the summer paper. What, roughly, would that be, above 30% or something? I'm in JF Science, there's one exam in particular I'm not even sure I could make a 'good attempt' at. Any help would be appreciated.

In pharmacy it's turn up and write something.
People have got supplementals on our course with grades sub 10%.
I think you'll be fine.

bscm

Good attempt is just to turn up to most/all and make some sort of effort (as in try some questions, and not just stick your number down and leave).

They don't allow people to sit supplementals if they missed most exams without a valid reason. Also try your best in the actual exam, even getting 41% in the exam is more than you'll get from the supplemental.

BeanbagBallbag

bscm wrote: »

Good attempt is just to turn up to most/all and make some sort of effort (as in try some questions, and not just stick your number down and leave).

They don't allow people to sit supplementals if they missed most exams without a valid reason. Also try your best in the actual exam, even getting 41% in the exam is more than you'll get from the supplemental.

What do you mean?

Lawliet

X.Libertines.x wrote: »

Ah, this may be a little premature, but I know to be eligible to sit supplementals you have to have made a 'good attempt' at the summer paper. What, roughly, would that be, above 30% or something? I'm in JF Science, there's one exam in particular I'm not even sure I could make a 'good attempt' at. Any help would be appreciated.

Like others have said a good attempt really just means trying. A lot of people just go 'Ah I'm going to fail that anyway, no point in going'

The thing you have to remember is that (most) examiners aren't evil, if it looks like you put effort in they will try to reward you. Dredge your memory and answer all the required questions. There are some marks you can get for 'showing knowledge but misinterpreting the question' not many mind you but every little helps. Just try your best and you might get enough to compensate. The worst thing you can do is write nothing.

BeanbagBallbag wrote: »

What do you mean?

Supplemental are capped in science. You could get a first in the repeat but it wouldn't count towards your overall average.

raxor

BeanbagBallbag wrote: »

What do you mean?

I presume he means that if ya have supps and then pass, then you just get a P grade, rather than a 2.1 or 2.2 or whatever.

Either way, I'm in a similar enough course, and on a number of occasions, even in the most cntish exams, I've studied one or two questions the night before and scraped a pass. Seriously, even if your exam is at 9.30 tomorrow morning and ya haven't even started, go through the last 3 or 4 years' exam papers, whittle down a couple of questions that ya think might come up and spend the rest of this evening learning them, or even the easy bits of them. I can promise ya that no matter how hopeless ya feel (and by jaysus i know that feelin all too well) literally every second ya spend tryin to get somethin done is a tiny bit of the way towards a pass, rather than supps consuming half your summer!

PS...ive just seen youre in JF...consider the above a hard won lesson from someone who's been in TCD a few years now. Honestly, the mountain of work that ya think ya need to put in to a subject can be reduced massively, and the above is one way to do it when you're short on time, which i presume ya are. It's not as hard to pass some of these exams as ya think!

Larianne

Trinity give you ample amount of chances to pass exams. Don't sweat it!

bscm

BeanbagBallbag wrote: »

What do you mean?

Even if you get 100% in your supplemental exam, they'll only count your grade as a minimum pass (around 40% depending on the course). So no matter how well you do in the supplemental, your grade for that exam will only be 40%, unless you fail.

I think they just want to make sure you're not taking the mick. So if you knew you'd fail the exam, and were relying on supplementals to get you through, it doesn't mean you could just not show up, or write an essay on why you like Mars bars or draw tiny pornographic sketches throughout the answer booklet because you think you've nothing to lose.

Don't worry, first year is a lot more forgiving than you'd think, and if you're planning on being at supplementals anyway, you should relax and just try your best, that's all they really want. If you can't answer any of the questions, just pick the one you understand best and define a few terms, explain some basic reasoning behind the question, and just try to work your way around it as best you can with whatever relevant material you know.

Would you mind saying which exam it is? There's lots of science students around that might be able to give you a few tips.

X.Libertines.x

Thanks, that's actually calmed me a lot!

Would you mind saying which exam it is? There's lots of science students around that might be able to give you a few tips.

It's biology, BY1101 - stupid, I know, it's hardly rocket science but been focusing on chemistry and haven't actually really covered anything except a bit of micro. Plus I'm crap at scientific essays. I'll just keep my fingers crossed there's a fair bit of easy micro!

Maxthedm

Well the thoughts are that quantitative genetics and retroviruses are coming up on the essays (based on the pattern of previous years) so I would suggest looking over those parts for starters.