Failed 2 First year exams

1997

Hi sisters just found out her son has just failed Maths and Programming on his 1st year in Software Development. In fairness I wouldnt have said he put loads into them this year but he was finding them difficult. Her problem is she can pay for repeats in August which he swears he will work for,hes learned his lesson! Her worries are if he fails again what will happen,does he need to repeat 1st year or can he go forward and resit exams next year?? Also is there other course he can change to im College having been in Software Dev? She's just worried she will be spending good money after bad with college fees if he's just not able for the course? He does seem pretty committed in fairness just young.. Any advice or help welcomed,thanks ☺

entropi

I'm not sure about what other streams are available to software dev students, or how tough the 1st year students might find those two modules that were failed. However, there will be an option available to repeat those two in August and pay a small fee. If he happens to fail those two (or one) again, most likely there will be an option available to repeat failed modules next year as a part time 1st year student if the lecturer/s and possibly department head also agree to it. If that is indeed the case, then just paying for those modules and not the full cost of the year is what should be paid.

The main thing now, is for the lad to put the head down and focus his efforts on option a (repeating in August, passing and going on to 2nd year), or for him to maybe evaluate if software dev is really the course for him, and to consider if maybe another option would be a better choice. I wish him the best of luck in August.

yergrand

i'm heading into third year of that course myself

maths and programming are two rough ones to be struggling in, quite a good chunk of what we did in first year maths came up throughout the year in second and the programming stuff built steadily on too. It wasn't prohibitively difficult or anything but if he genuinely is having issues with those two topics, the head really needs to go down over the summer as entropi said, they won't get any easier next year and there's a lot of fun stuff ahead in the other subjects too.

the course shares a common first year with one (maybe two now) other courses
if he passes the repeats he will be able to either continue on into the programming stream or the networking/systems stream. few of the lads in my first year switched over to systems after finding they just weren't as interested in programming as they thought they were going to be and that the networking/administration side was more their thing. They did make this decision late in first year but i would imagine if there are spaces available students could still switch over early into second year.

1997

Thats great,thanks bothe for the reply. He's actually looking on youtube past week or so with programming tutorials but maths is the main problem,if he passed the programming and failed the maths in the resit any idea if he could still continue into 2nd year but take the maths part time with 1st years?? He has contacted the college but alot of lecturers are on holidays atm,thanks

yergrand

i couldn't answer that one way or the other except to say I'd be fairly surprised at someone being allowed to do that with maths in particular since so much of it comes up in one way or another in a few second year subjects.

that said, I'm a student not a lecturer so I am just talking out my ass.

if he's having particular issues with some of the maths topics, he can fire a few questions over to you and you can pm them to me. I don't remember much of the first year stuff but I'm a gentleman of leisure for the summer so I can have a look at least and see if there anything I can easily explain.


for the programming http://codingbat.com/java covers a good chunk of what I remember from first year, and it does it well. They're not actual tutorials they're more of a learn by doing sort of thing but this is how I got up to speed again at the start of second year after being a lazy bastard after first year and doing nothing for 4 months. everything there except ap-1,recursion,maps1-2 and functional 1-2 will be good practice

some might be a little advanced for first year, it all kinds blends together for me at this stage but he'll definitely get benefit from it

1997

That's great,thanks for the help,I'll get on to him tmro and ask what in particular is his issues and will send them on! He's adamant he wants to stick with the course so I don't know whether its an issue of 1st year lazyness or what,I do know he did have other issues going on at the time to that wouldn'y have helped.. In your opinion does the 2nd year get alot harder though or just builds on previous knowledge? Thanks

yergrand

little bit of both, it builds on previous knowledge in a big way but the difficulty and complexity also ramps up. y2 programming starts off with a bit of recap to ease the students back into the flow of things but it's not long starting into the new stuff and there's a good bit of theory to go along with the practical application as well. then he'll start into the graphical programming in the second part of the year which will use these new concepts (and first year stuff) from the first half and compared to what he will have done so far .. there's 3-4 times (at least) as much code for just a simple program. He'll really want to stay on top of it or it will seem insurmountable.

the maths stuff kind of bubbles throughout the whole course in small ways. I can't remember any specifics but I was convinced during first year they were just padding the course out with a load of stuff to keep us busy and then when we got into second year we ended up having to remember and use just about everything we'd covered. and from what I've been told the same is true again for third year. the maths is there to get your familiar with some core concepts of computer science and you just kinda have to be comfortable with it, at least as a student.

does he have the notes and stuff he needs? I dont have any of my maths notes but I do have all the lecture notes and lab sheets for programming on a usb stick somewhere if he needs them. It'll be the same stuff he got (unless the lecturer changed them) during the year so if he already has them there's no benefit.

1997

I'm presuming he has all he needs,I'll get on to him tmro and find out exactly what hes struggling with and if he has all his notes and stuff. Will message you tmro then if thats ok and take you up on the offer,really appreciate it by the way,thanks so much for taking the time ☺

yergrand

no worries, im spending the summer studying myself in preparation for third year so it might be a nice break

1997

Well he'll be well happy with the help,if your in Carlow Im sure he'll shout ye for a drink to say thanks! Will message ye tmro so,thks again ☺

1997

PM'd you there yergrand,hope ye can shed some light,much appreciated!