College vs Leaving cert...

football girl

Hey! I've just finished my leaving cert and am going to tcd in a few weeks.I was just wondering, how does college differ from secondary school, in both academic and social aspects? I think I expected it to be a bit easier than school,but after reading other threads I think I'm probably totally wrong! Thanks in advance for any advice!

godtabh

You wont be babyed like the leaving cert. You do the work or you dont do the work. The lecturers wont car less. All the responsibility of you doing well is down to you

Sprog 4

It's a big step up to be honest. There is a lot of material to cover and as godtabh said, its all on you to get it done (although some lecturers will care if you are trying but struggling as opposed to just not trying) which is not the easiest considering all the social distractions knocking around. First year will seem great for a few months but then when you realise how much work is involved you may panic a bit. My advice would be to knuckle down in second year and try to keep on top of things. College is all about managing your time properly and not leaving yourself up $hits creek at the end of any given year. Best of luck with the course.

Siobhan6

Thing is with college that it can be potentially 100 times better than school, but you have so much independence that making it that way is entirely up to you. Nobody is going to force you to join a society or make a commitment or go out and make friends, you have to have the balls to go do it yourself, but when you do, you'll find it's way better than being at school. As regards to work, don't let it daunt you, you might have a few stumbling blocks in the first semester but lecturers and tutors are there to help if you want it and can give you advice on where you are going wrong. So by the end of your first year you should be flying! Like i said though, it's all up to you to put in the effort and make it how you want it to be!

languagenerd

One other tip: they mark your assignments and exams very differently to school. Even if you've always got 90%+ in everything in school, you'll probably never get higher than 75% in college (especially if you're doing an Arts/Humanities course). They're essentially marking out of 70 though, so don't be disappointed with marks in the sixties.

bscm

languagenerd wrote: »

One other tip: they mark your assignments and exams very differently to school. Even if you've always got 90%+ in everything in school, you'll probably never get higher than 75% in college (especially if you're doing an Arts/Humanities course). They're essentially marking out of 70 though, so don't be disappointed with marks in the sixties.

This.

Although if you're doing anything in the Hamilton end of college (especially Maths related), the chances of getting over 70% increase as the "right" answer is only one answer.

Also, establish a library routine early on in the year. As exams approach, getting hold of important text books or even a seat in any of the libraries becomes increasingly difficult (and is not something you want to worry about on top of exam stress).

stealinhorses

It is easier than school, in the sense that you're not worrying about doing your German homework AND your English homework on top of a maths test and metalwork project. Everything you're doing will be in the same area of interest at least, so you won't find yourself stretched out trying to put everything together.

football girl

Thanks. I'm going into dentistry so I'll be cautiously optimistic. Are doing the exams in college as stressfull as doing the leaving cert?

languagenerd

football girl wrote: »

Thanks. I'm going into dentistry so I'll be cautiously optimistic. Are doing the exams in college as stressfull as doing the leaving cert?

Not sure I explained that very well, but it's just an entirely different scale.

> 70 - first class honours (A)
60 -70 - upper second class (B)
50 - 60 - lower second class (C)
40 - 50 - third class (D)
< 40 - fail

So it's not that nobody gets high marks, just that "high" doesn't mean 90+ anymore. Can be a bit of shock though, if you've always got high marks in school and then your first assignments come back in the low 60s... but it's essential the same thing on a new scale. (With the obvious exceptions of maths tests as bscm pointed out, and grammar tests down my end of campus).

NSNO

football girl wrote: »

Thanks. I'm going into dentistry so I'll be cautiously optimistic. Are doing the exams in college as stressfull as doing the leaving cert?

It depends on how view exams and much pressure/stress you apply to yourself.

A positive difference is the culture surrounding them - you won't have anywhere near the same level of external pressures. You're not going to turn on the radio and hear about your exams every day for 5 months like the Leaving Cert. You're not even going to think about them until term finishes. You're not competing with anyone else for points/a college place, and there's no awful problem of doing really well and missing out on your course by 5 points or some crap like that.

Exams will be in modules that are all to do with the subject you chose as your degree, so hopefully they'll all be related and useful to you. There's much less subject-hopping when compared with the Leaving Cert.

Exams themselves are less 'difficult' in the sense that in the vast majority of cases you won't be fighting the actual exam paper, you'll just be trying to provide the most correct and highest quality answer you can. Marking schemes are way more malleable (not that you'll ever get more than passing specifics on them from your lecturers) and there's a lot more freedom to be rewarded for doing well. Certain exams (Did I hear of one in Maths/TP?) have been known to be "Answer as many or as few questions as you like".

As with any formal education though, attend your classes, do your assignments well, do your reading and your extra reading and all will be completely fine.

This is more a general college overview though, I'm sure someone can give you much more directed specifics wrt. dentistry.

EuropeanSon

NSNO wrote: »

It depends on how view exams and much pressure/stress you apply to yourself.

A positive difference is the culture surrounding them - you won't have anywhere near the same level of external pressures. You're not going to turn on the radio and hear about your exams every day for 5 months like the Leaving Cert. You're not even going to think about them until term finishes. You're not competing with anyone else for points/a college place, and there's no awful problem of doing really well and missing out on your course by 5 points or some crap like that.

Exams will be in modules that are all to do with the subject you chose as your degree, so hopefully they'll all be related and useful to you. There's much less subject-hopping when compared with the Leaving Cert.

Exams themselves are less 'difficult' in the sense that in the vast majority of cases you won't be fighting the actual exam paper, you'll just be trying to provide the most correct and highest quality answer you can. Marking schemes are way more malleable (not that you'll ever get more than passing specifics on them from your lecturers) and there's a lot more freedom to be rewarded for doing well. Certain exams (Did I hear of one in Maths/TP?) have been known to be "Answer as many or as few questions as you like".

As with any formal education though, attend your classes, do your assignments well, do your reading and your extra reading and all will be completely fine.

This is more a general college overview though, I'm sure someone can give you much more directed specifics wrt. dentistry.

It was "answer as many as you can". To get full marks you needed to do all of them, but you could pass with 1.5/5 done.

EuropeanSon

As for workload, based on the dentistry guys I know, it's a lot more work than the LC was. At least you've chosen to do it, though.

football girl

As for workload, based on the dentistry guys I know, it's a lot more work than the LC was. At least you've chosen to do it, though.

Oh no! I thought the worst was over. Oh well. Thanks