So anyone do science?

JackKelly

Well, hopefully i'll be on my way into UCD this sept to do science and i was wondering if someone who has done 1st year could tell me what sort of timetable i can be expecting? And any other general opinions on the course.

Syth

Did 1st science of so long ago. (*sniff* I feel old). The college is being restructured now, so your year will be different from previous years. IMO it's a grand old course.

rainbow kirby

1st science? Depends on what subjects you'll be doing. If you do chemistry, you'll be in at 9am 5 days a week, assuming they haven't changed the timetable from previous years. (yeah, fun.) You'll have roughly 22-28 contact hours (lectures, labs, tutorials) in total, and you'll probably have at least 1 day where you're in 9-6.
First year isn't too bad, for experimental physics you won't go a huge amount past the LC course, so if you're comfortable with that and you keep up with your labs it's not the worst subject. Maths? I did honours in 1st and (my first) second year, the difficulty doesn't really kick up until 2nd year. For algebra, you'll do a lot of matrix stuff, it's very dry but not particularly hard (the lecturer, Rod Gow = the inanimate carbon rod). Calculus doesn't go a huge amount beyond the LC, just goes a bit more theoretical with stuff you already *kinda* know. Maths physics? Again not too bad in 1st year, the mechanics half of the course is pretty handy if you've done applied maths for the LC. The differential equations part of the course you really have to work at, but if you do then it also covers a question on the maths exam and it's useful for lots of stuff after 1st year. Computer Science? I'm sure Kas and Syth would agree with me that CS is probably the easiest pass in 1st science. Just keep up with the lectures and go to your labs and you're sorted. (the Java exam is passable with very little actual programming skill...)
I didn't do chemistry, geology or biology so I don't really have an opinion on them... but I'm sure other people around here do.

RE*AC*TOR

I did 1st science in '98/'99 i think.

Good course. Obviously you'll be doing 4 subjects out of maths, biology, chemistry, physics, computers, geology(?) etc.

I did bio/chem/phys/math - in at 9 every morning, 2/3 lectures then usually labs in the afternoon (maybe 3 afternoons out of 5).

larryone

Sience in UCD is pretty good. I started 1st year in 2000, and overall my experience of UCD Science has been very positive. The options thar re*ac*tor mentioned havent changed for a long time - but things might be a little different now that they're restructuring the way the faculties and departments are organised.
What sort of science are you interested in TimAy?

tribulus

yeah your timetable could be very different due to this horizons business but this was my week roughly (have just done 1st year):

Monday: 9-5 no labs but a late tutorial(chem)
Tuesday: 9-12 my one early day, just lectures
Wednesday: 9-6 computer science practical from 4-6 but had a 3hour break before
Thursday: 9-5 biolog practical from 2-5 but in reality you're finshed by 4 most of the time.
Friday:9-5 Maths tutorial (v important if you're crap at maths like me , gets you some easy marks) also chemistry practical from 2-5. After xmas when you start organic chem you might take longer- someintes till 5 30 - 6.

I had 24 hours in total last year.My subjects were maths(compulsory) biology, chemistry and CS. Exams seem to be marked fairly easy in 1st year. If you go to your labs and tutorials you'll be fine CS labs make up 25% of your total mark, biology it's 20% and chemistry you can(in theory) get 40% from your labs/tutorials!!

overall i enjoyed 1st year. the chemistry labs are good craic, the lab demonstrators are in general pretty cool and remember they assign your practical marks so get in with them ;)all the lecturers i had were friendly and quite approachable.

hope that helps

Jonny Arson

I'm not a science boy like tribulus or anything like that but I did not come across even one person who did science and said they hated it.

but if you do go be VERY BEWARE of Science Boy! ^

beanyb

I came across a person that hated science! He transferred from it into arts with computer science.

But he was a special case, everyone else I know loved it. It seems to have a great atmosphere.

kasintahan

beanyb wrote:

I came across a person that hated science! He transferred from it into arts with computer science.

They didn't happen to be doing science in DIT did they? 'cos that's precisely what I did. Arts rocks!

rainbow kirby

But BA CS is kind of a special case. Not quite an arts student, but not quite a science student either

JackKelly

wow, thanks for the response.V helpful.Doesnt sound as bad as i had thought. This good atmosphere thing sounds promising. I'm looking to do the more physic'sy side of things.

Might do:
Chem CS Maths Maths/Psy.

Any experience with that combination?

While i have this topic going, i'll ask the n00b post leaving cert question wise; whats 1st year college like than? I better not be going back into work mad year.

rainbow kirby

Syth did that combo in 1st year...ask him.
I did 3 of them, my opinions are in my post above here.
And if you're interested in physics... you should probably do both experimental and mathematical physics in 1st year.
Workload-wise? You *will* be busy, especially with labs and problem sheets, but it's not as bad as something like engineering. Just make sure that you do keep up with the problem sheets, the problem sheet questions tend to get recycled as exam questions.

JackKelly

oh, i didn't know you could do that combo. CS ExpPhys Maths Mathspsy it is than.

rainbow kirby

My combo :cool:
Well you don't have to decide for definite until the end of the first week of lectures what combo you're going to do, so you can go and sit in on a few different things.

JackKelly

and what sort of timetable did you have then?

rainbow kirby

Monday 10-4 ( 3 lectures in the morning, physics lab in the afternoon)
Tuesday 9-5 (a run of 3 lectures and 2 tutorials in the morning, then 1 hour physics microlab (some programming, some circuit board stuff) at 4)
Wednesday 10-1 (2 lectures and 1 tutorial, nice short day )
Thursday 9-6 (2 lectures and 1 tutorial in the morning, 2 hour lunchbreak, CS lab at 4)
Friday 10-2 (3 lectures)

larryone

aaah combination "f"

that was also my choice in first year. was great...
i did fsck all work and passed everything in the exams
first year science kicks ass.
I wish I was 17 again....

kasintahan

Arts with comp sci (just so you know what your missing *evil laugh*:))

Monday 12 - 6(! damn comp sci lab)
Tuesday 9 - 3
Wednes 11 - 3
Thursday 9 - 1
Friday 12 - 1

pFd

i'll be going to ucd in sept also to do the science course (hopefully). i think ill be doing bio/chem/maths/and geology. has any1 done this choice? i dont really want to do chem but theres not much i can do bout it. hate chemistry actually. what is the geology course like?? i havent a clue what to expect from it! im doing this couse and i dont know what i'll get out of it. it's a really hard decision to make.
what does every1 think of campus accommodation?? i just sent my application away today.
And finally is ucd a good college for 1st year students??

JackKelly

rainbow kirby wrote:

Monday 10-4 ( 3 lectures in the morning, physics lab in the afternoon)
Tuesday 9-5 (a run of 3 lectures and 2 tutorials in the morning, then 1 hour physics microlab (some programming, some circuit board stuff) at 4)
Wednesday 10-1 (2 lectures and 1 tutorial, nice short day )
Thursday 9-6 (2 lectures and 1 tutorial in the morning, 2 hour lunchbreak, CS lab at 4)
Friday 10-2 (3 lectures)

thats not too bad. I can live with that. Hopefully its the same/shorter.

larryone

pFd wrote:

what is the geology course like?? i havent a clue what to expect from it! im doing this couse and i dont know what i'll get out of it. it's a really hard decision to make.
what does every1 think of campus accommodation?? i just sent my application away today.
And finally is ucd a good college for 1st year students??

the geology department in UCD is the best geology department in western europe, and up there with the best in the world. I know a good few people who have done geology in UCD, and from what i've heard it's absolutely brilliant - but alot of hard work =0)

never lived on campus, they always turned down my application.

UCD is a good college for first years, but you have to be careful about the bullsh1t that goes around the place.

kasintahan

Geology is lots of chemisty and geography and some physics. I used to be into it years ago when I was intelligent

tribulus

i'd get used to chemistry. even if you plan on doing your degree in geology/zoology that sort of thing you'll still have plenty of chemistry to deal with. don't worry about it 1st year chem is fairly easy even for people who didn't do it for the lc.

Just go to the tutorials and ask questions non-stop - make the demonstrators wish they didn't take the job //laughs maniacally

blondie83

rainbow kirby wrote:

. Maths? I did honours in 1st and (my first) second year, the difficulty doesn't really kick up until 2nd year. For algebra, you'll do a lot of matrix stuff, it's very dry but not particularly hard (the lecturer, Rod Gow = the inanimate carbon rod). .

Rod Gow's really sound, altohugh yeah the word inanimate does spring to mind! We had him for one of our maths courses in 1st year, and he was selling bound books which had the answers to all the previous exam questions for pretty cheap. Anyway I missed the lecture he gave them out at, so I popped along to his office to get one. He'd sold out completly on them, and had only one copy left which he used himself, but he took it and went off and photocopied every page in it, then came back and gave the photocopies to me free of charge Never once even mentioned me missing the lecture either which was nice of him!

sephirosis

hey TimAy i hope to go into ucd science this sept too....how did your exams go?
anyway im hoiping to do maths/expPhys/mathPhys and either CS or chem, if anyone would care to pimp either option and give some advantages etc id be grateful
does anyone reckon the points will rocket up too much, it seems to be pretty popular this year?
anyway good luck everyone who's applying (unless your pushing me out of a place in the course in which case i wish you all the worst luck in the world )

rainbow kirby

Science won't be more than 350. And if it is I'll be very much surprised. It's been low for years now.
2002 - 325
2003 - 280
2004 - 325

(erm, so no matter what we say, it's harder to get into arts...lol)

And for subject pimpage... CS is waay less work than chemistry. Plus it doesn't mean being in at 9am every day. Plus the exams are pretty handy in 1st year. Also, if you're interested in carrying on physics, you do have to program later on (2nd maths physics you'll have to write MATLAB code for a project, and also while you're in 1st year for the physics microlabs) so having done the basics of programming helps. But if you're interested in chemistry... go for that.

Syth

I did chemistry in 1st year, it wasn't too different from leaving cert chemistry. The labs are really annoying, they take a long time. CS is great (but I'm biased anyway).

pFd

Agh!! im really confused. i really dont like chemistry but i dont think i have a choice..i just have to do it. ****! maybe its just because i had the worst teacher EVER for chemistry for lc. i think he is the main reason i turned of it. i just really dont like it. i decided to do ordinary chem the week before my lc exam and it was simple. (i liked it then!!) but no such luck in university, is there? i think i would find it really hard. i thought college was going to be deadly. i really didnt think i would have a 9-6 day most days. BRUTAL!!
i'm counting on gettin in to ucd accommodation, i need to.

does any1 else do chemistry who dont like it. i just find it boring. i wouldnt mind a bit of chemistry but i think i would find a pure chemistry cousre hard to deal with especially along with 3 others courses.
1 other question....... do you get a lot of homework/assignments with this course??

I'll also be doing Science in September. I'll probably end up doing Maths/Mathematical Physics/Exp Physics/CS.

Feedback is looking good.

EI-A320

CS is without a doubt the easiest general science subject. like someone said - you can get 25% from your lab/practicals and 15% from your xmas exams, so you can pretty much pass witout doin much work for the summer exam. you get to do intro to I.T as part of that course and that is pretty much basic computer knowledge that the majority of people would find very straightforward.

sephirosis

CS it is methinks..
frankly CS/chem would almost certainly be the first subject i drop, its much of a muchness really, so the lesser workload will be great. id also have a little more interest in CS than chem anyway, so it sounds good. thanks guys

Syth

Well when we say 9-6, usually that means that you have a lecture that starts at 9am (either chemistry or maths), and your last tutorial/lab finished at 6pm. You would normally have a few hours off inbetween all that, so you would not be actually in for 9 hours straight. And in 1st year it's only labs which go on in the afternoon/evenings. Most lectures are over by about 1 or 2. And you will only have at most 3 labs in 1st year (you have to do maths).

As for homework, in chemistry you have 1 homework per week and you have a week to do it. From what I can remember it's not very difficult. It can be very tempting to just skip it and not do it, but I strongly recommend doing them regularly. It will contribute towards you final grade and it does help you learn as the end of year exam is usually not that far from the problem sheets.

sephirosis

heh yeah i figured tbh that it wouldnt be 9-6 straight, i cant see anyone trying to put students through that. chem homework doesnt sound that bad alright, but i still think im going to go CS
for anyone who is hoping to start science this september, what are ye going to choose as part of horizons? id like to do something on maybe psych or philosophy and maybe history/art history, though im not too sure what requirements for each module will be like

tribulus

pFd wrote:

does any1 else do chemistry who dont like it. i just find it boring. i wouldnt mind a bit of chemistry but i think i would find a pure chemistry cousre hard to deal with especially along with 3 others courses.
1 other question....... do you get a lot of homework/assignments with this course??

everyone has a bad chemistry teacher - it's not easy to teach unless you're quite interested in it (like me )1st year chem is like this (roughly):

8 lectures on introductory chemistry - very simple 5th year chem stuff, what are atoms, sub atomic particles, the hardest thing you'll do is the s, p, d configuration :eek:

10-12 lectures on inorganic chem - you go through the periodic table, atomic radii, electronegativity values etc. again all lc stuff. redox reactions, half reactions easy aswell.

10-12 lecs on physical chem - harder than the other two but still not that bad, enthalpy, entropy, what cause molecules to change state etc.

then you're at xmas already, after xmas it's organic chem - it mainly just builds rom the basic lc stuff like knowing the functional groups, types of reactions etc.

seriously it's not that bad, plenty of people i know who didn't do chem for the lc picked it for second year and if you're thinking of doing geology then it would be quite relevant and could give you an advantage come 2nd/3rd year etc over those who didn't choose it.

and remember you get 40% of your overall mark from labs/tutorials so you don't even have to be good at it to easily pass!!!

Kevin_rc_ie

larryone wrote:

the geology department in UCD is the best geology department in western europe, and up there with the best in the world. I know a good few people who have done geology in UCD, and from what i've heard it's absolutely brilliant - but alot of hard work =0)

never lived on campus, they always turned down my application.

UCD is a good college for first years, but you have to be careful about the bullsh1t that goes around the place.

really i didn't know anything in ucd was best in europe.

Mr.Nice Guy

larryone wrote:

the geology department in UCD is the best geology department in western europe, and up there with the best in the world. I know a good few people who have done geology in UCD, and from what i've heard it's absolutely brilliant - but alot of hard work =0)

Yeah I've heard it rocks.

(sorry)

beanyb

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

Yeah I've heard it rocks.

(sorry)

Cringe....

It had to be said though, I suppose.

larryone

that joke keeps geting funnier everytime i hear it...

Jonny Arson

You've gotta love MNG's originality :rolleyes:

Mr.Nice Guy

Zane from MTV2 wrote:

You've gotta love MNG's originality :rolleyes:

I don't know why Zane's so grumpy. He's probably stoned or something.

(sorry again)

Jonny Arson

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

I don't know why Zane's so grumpy. He's probably stoned or something.

(sorry again)

*cough*............................... *cough*

That poor follow up deserves a 2 week ban alone.

Leave the cheesy gags to the experts like Lovejoy, Bowen, Forsythe etc. in future will ya

Mr.Nice Guy

Zane from MTV2 wrote:

*cough*............................... *cough*

That poor follow up deserves a 2 week ban alone.

Leave the cheesy gags to the experts like Lovejoy, Bowen, Forsythe etc. in future will ya

Sticks and stones, Zane.

Jonny Arson

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

Sticks and stones, Zane.

Ok I have to give you kudos for that one.

Good comeback.