What is TSM English really like?

felixfelicis

Hey.

So I'll be doing TSM English next year - I'm 100% certain, and it's a deferred offer, so there's no doubt about it - but despite that, I was just wondering if anyone could tell me about the course, about what it's really like. Just for curiosity's sake, I suppose.

I've searched through this forum, read all I can on the website itself, but I just feel like the information I want isn't really out there. The kind of things I want to know are how many lectures there are each week, what they're like/what they're usually about, and how do the tutorials work? Is it just to build on lecture material, and to discuss it as a smaller group? What are the professors like? And more importantly, what are the "kind of students" that do English like? What kind of assignments do you get, what kind of books do you read, what are the exams like?

Basically, any information that you think you might have found any way interesting/helpful/encouraging - or even discouraging - about the course, I'd be happy to hear it.

Thank you in advance!

snicket

Hey!

I've just finished second year TSM English. Hopefully I can answer some of your questions.

1. In first and second year you have 3 hour-long lectures per week, each on a different module. Each module also has tutorials, which run from the third week of term to the second last week (due to budget cuts and also to give you time to start your reading and write essays).

2. The first year modules are all compulsory. The ones our year took in the first term were: Theories of Literature (really difficult and dense, but it's good to get it out of the way), The Enlightenment (Voltaire, Daniel Defoe, Kant, etc) , and American Genres (Poe, Hawthorne, Henry James...). In the second term it was Medieval and Renaissance Romance (lots of Chaucer), Irish Writing (Joyce, Kavanagh, O'Casey, etc), and Romanticism (Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth). Second year you have 2 compulsory and one optional module each term. I enjoyed these ones a lot more - Post-colonial Literature, Modernism, Shakespeare, and Victorianism (Best module ever. Every lecture was about various deviant sex things the Victorians were into). Third and fourth year you get a lot more choice, there's about 50 modules to pick from.

And I just realised a lot of this was on the department website: http://www.tcd.ie/English/undergraduate/freshman/

3. Each lecture is usually on a different text/set of short stories/essay/poet, depending on the course. Some modules will be taught entirely by the same lecturer, while in others there will be a few lecturers depending on their own interests. They usually try to make them pretty interesting. A lot of the time they are more general introductions to the author or concept, but sometimes they can get into a close reading and various interpretations of the text.

4. Tutorials are small groups of maybe 7-10 people. They vary a lot based on who your TA is. Some are pretty laid back group discussions, while other TAs make you give presentations or answer questions. They are on the same texts covered in the lectures. Usually you look more specifically at the text itself rather than the context or author.

5. The professors are nearly all super nice. A lot of them are pretty "colourful" to say the least, but they really know their stuff. Would never be intimidated about asking them questions. Some of them turn up at the annual English Ball and get ridiculously drunk with the students. :P

6. Um, as for the "kind of students", that's pretty hard to answer. I think there's a pretty good mixture of people. Our class has a pretty nice atmosphere even though there's about 120 of us. All I can really say is that most people are really interested in the course, which is cool.

7. Assignments/exams. Half of the modules are assessed by exam and the other half are essay-only. This is good because you only have 3 exams at the end of the year. First year essays are 1500-2000 words, and that increases every year. The questions are usually handy enough, although they do throw in a few tricky ones as a challenge. You get loads of choice in exams and essays anyway.

8. Books is such a massive topic and I really need to go study but basically it's a really good mixture, I think they're careful to include both well-known and more obscure authors on every module. Oh, and in the first term you're going to be driven mad trying to read everything. Everyone gives up on that very quickly!

Ok that turned out much longer than it should have. Basically it's a really good course, nice mix of being fun but also challenging. Would definitely recommend!

felixfelicis

Wow, thank you!

"Insider" info like that is simply invaluable