Well yea, that's basically what I did, but never got the good grade because I realised I was doing alright so thought I can 'afford' to hand it all in late and still get a 'degree'. Which was stupid, really stupid but it's what I did. But you're right, it was pretty easy really.
How many hours per week did you study at university?
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Well yea, that's basically what I did, but never got the good grade because I realised I was doing alright so thought I can 'afford' to hand it all in late and still get a 'degree'. Which was stupid, really stupid but it's what I did. But you're right, it was pretty easy really.
I want to do engineering uni. This is discouraging. I am religiously lazy. 
Although I would say I am committed. While quite a few people miss lessons at college I haven't missed one apart from when I had a funeral to attend. Is it the homework that eats up the time or the reviewing notes or the actual lectures or is there a load of coursework etc in an engineering degree? Mech Eng specifically.
Although I would say I am committed. While quite a few people miss lessons at college I haven't missed one apart from when I had a funeral to attend. Is it the homework that eats up the time or the reviewing notes or the actual lectures or is there a load of coursework etc in an engineering degree? Mech Eng specifically.
lol less work than A levels what is this I don't even...!
I imagine I averaged 25 hours a week inc. lectures but in exam mode I (genuinely) crank it up to a whopping ~130 hours. Such a study pattern is not for the feint hearted!
Everyone I know who got a first on my undergraduate course certainly didn't waltz it - big efforts all round. I struggle to believe you could get a first with the level of efforts people are implying! I didn't manage one myself.
Only one person on my masters course ever got a distinction afaik - that was simply godlike, insane!
I imagine I averaged 25 hours a week inc. lectures but in exam mode I (genuinely) crank it up to a whopping ~130 hours. Such a study pattern is not for the feint hearted!
Everyone I know who got a first on my undergraduate course certainly didn't waltz it - big efforts all round. I struggle to believe you could get a first with the level of efforts people are implying! I didn't manage one myself.
Only one person on my masters course ever got a distinction afaik - that was simply godlike, insane!
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I want to do engineering uni. This is discouraging. I am religiously lazy.
Mechanical Engineering
...that's a 'proper' degree, none of this micky mouse rubbish, god know's Britain needs more really good engineers. I would love to study mechanical engineering but my maths skills are far, far bellow where they would need to be to do that. Also being nearly 28 now I would have ti front the entire cost myself.I'm doing Computing and Information Technology, but in First Year that, Computer Science and Business and Information Technology are all basically the same (think BIT does a different module, but CIT and CS are exactly the same in First Year).
Its pretty good. Computer Architecture is pretty tricky at the minute. I enjoy Programming, but quite a lot of people struggle with it. Its one of those things that you either 'get' quite quickly, or it takes awhile to get into the swing of things. Multimedia is fairly easy, although its annoying having to use Adobe Director, rather than Flash or even doing HTML instead (which I would much prefer to do).
Computer Architecture and the Intro to Computer Science (1st Semester) modules are really the only ones that you need to do reading for. They are much more theory based than Programming or Multimedia obviously. It's a course that I wouldn't do just because you like using computers, which seems to be the mentality of some people on the course. You need to have an interest of how and why they work etc. After a few weeks the amount of people on Facebook or playing Skyrim on their laptops in lectures is ridiculous.
Mechanical Engineering
I think I'll enjoy it as it sounds to be applied maths and physics. I'm doing maths, further maths, physics and chemistry at AS level at the moment. Tempted to drop further maths next year but if I keep it I know it would help so much in mech eng. Whereas chemistry wouldn't be of much use. Still a really well thought of A level but not as relevant to me.
Soldato
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Same here. Mine was Mech Eng.
I did engineering at uni and typically had 10-15 hours a week of lectures, although they tended to be quite intense and a lot of information given out.
Lecturers said you needed to do 1-2 hours of studying for every hour in the lecture hall, but realistically not many people did this....was much more common to cram everything in to the few weeks before exams.
Looking back, the people who did consistently well (1sts) and who tended to understand everything did do a large amount of work outside of lectures. It really depends what you want out of a degree and also how quickly you pick things up.
Lecturers said you needed to do 1-2 hours of studying for every hour in the lecture hall, but realistically not many people did this....was much more common to cram everything in to the few weeks before exams
.Looking back, the people who did consistently well (1sts) and who tended to understand everything did do a large amount of work outside of lectures. It really depends what you want out of a degree and also how quickly you pick things up.
I had on average about 10 hours of classes a week. On top of this I did around 3-4 hours per week maximum up until exams/assessments were due and I crammed at the last minute.
Got an upper second but if I'd got my finger out properly I reckon I could have got a first. I'm a lazy bugger though and find it hard to motivate myself to study until I know I really have to.
Sounds similar to my experience (Electronic engineering). Shared a house with another engineer who also had to work hard, and some arts students who moaned at having the odd essay and under 20 hours of contact time a week.
As for the people who state that first year doesn't count, that is a true statement in terms of recording marks for a lot of places. What you need to be cognisant of though is the fact that you're laying the groundwork for your next 2/3 years of study - **** foundations doesn't make for good building!
It's really easy to get into an engineering course at the moment, hardly any competition for any places at all. If you get an interview you are very likely to get in bar oxbridge. I feel sorry for the medic applicants, they have bonkers amounts of work. STEM is our future economy and I think anyone would be a fool to miss out on the opportunities they have right now. My study technique is pretty much cramming for 2 months, I usually go through about 3 months of relaxed mode then go full hardcore for 2 months. I have a incredibly short term memory, so I can't really do much about it.
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I didn't get a first, didn't put much effort in though... I missed it by 1%...
To be honest I regularly got told people "hated" me because I never put any effort in and still got better grades than my friends... That all changed when I did the masters though... Massive step up... Still got a nice merit though.
I think a lot of it depends on aptitude as much as subject/university difficulty.
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Mechanical Engineering
What makes you think that (fronting the cost)? If you haven't done a degree already you will get the same as 18 year olds (student loans, tuition fees) but will probably get maximum loans and various grants as well.
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Never said it did, but they only had the "odd essay" on top of that was my point. Fully agree that some courses are more self motivated, and the top grades are there for the people who drive for them.
I'd never ever say Engineering students have it easy though. Toughest 3 years of my life without a doubt. It got me where I wanted to be in life, but I'd never go back.
I'd never ever say Engineering students have it easy though. Toughest 3 years of my life without a doubt. It got me where I wanted to be in life, but I'd never go back.
Really? I got an offer for Bath and their website says 61 places out of 600 applicants, not exactly a lack of competition. There are less applicants than last year but its not exactly easy to get a place at top universities.
I made a huge error in my law degree. I'm generally pretty competent at exams so I plumped for more of them as opposed to coursework, big mistake. I learned all of land law first and gave myself 3 days to go back over it. When the time came around I hadn't looked at it for 7 weeks and to my horror as I had been studying other material so hard I couldn't remember anything. In short, I learned all of undergraduate land law and masters level land law in three days. Never again, that was biblically oppressive and if anything remains a testament to how much a human can learn and apply with a gun against his head (potential payback of scholarship).
I used up all of my IQ in one go and now I'm an idiot. Derp derp.
I think they can only offer a few international places and these Universities probably get a lot of international applicants, especially Bath which hsa a lot of Chinese applicants. The interviews I had were very tame compared to other courses. They only have a general chat and just ask you why you want to study the subject. Did not even need an interview for Bath, hardly sounds competitive.
I didn't get a first, didn't put much effort in though... I missed it by 1%...
To be honest I regularly got told people "hated" me because I never put any effort in and still got better grades than my friends... That all changed when I did the masters though... Massive step up... Still got a nice merit though.
I think a lot of it depends on aptitude as much as subject/university difficulty.
Haha nice effort. I also hit the dreaded 69% but with a gruelling amount of effort, I somehow completely screwed up one of my finals and got 50% in one exam when 60% would have given me a first overall. It was on the subject of my dissertation and the people I was teaching to subject to the night before all got over 70. I thought I did really well in the exam, what the...!
Still mad with bitter rage to this day, that was a once in a lifetime rage face when I saw that 50% *shakes fist at the moon*
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Caporegime
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Depends on the subject entirely, I did comp science, I went to the courses so much that someone I spoke to daily who I met from the bowling club(drinking and bowling, whats not to like ) but we never really talked about courses for whatever reason, about a year later we realised we were on the same course
I passed the first year easily having never attended a single lecture, the second year I still didn't go to lectures had a slightly harder time but passed most of my modules well, though gave up uni for various other reasons.
Engineering people will tell you they study all day long every day, history guys will say they just read a few books and do smeg all else, etc, etc. Depends entirely on the subject and your recollection and how quickly an individual picks up a new idea.
This all ignores previous experience, if someone has been "into" coding since they were 10, then there is literally less for them to learn in a comp science degree, while someone who has never coded before will have more to do.
You read a book on WW2 instead of some other time when you're 15 and when you're 20 it can mean you already know a crapload about a module you do on a history course vs someone else who read all the Harry Potters instead.
How much you work ends up as a combination of, intelligence/memory/motivation/course difficulty/previous experience in the subject.
) but we never really talked about courses for whatever reason, about a year later we realised we were on the same course I passed the first year easily having never attended a single lecture, the second year I still didn't go to lectures had a slightly harder time but passed most of my modules well, though gave up uni for various other reasons.
Engineering people will tell you they study all day long every day, history guys will say they just read a few books and do smeg all else, etc, etc. Depends entirely on the subject and your recollection and how quickly an individual picks up a new idea.
This all ignores previous experience, if someone has been "into" coding since they were 10, then there is literally less for them to learn in a comp science degree, while someone who has never coded before will have more to do.
You read a book on WW2 instead of some other time when you're 15 and when you're 20 it can mean you already know a crapload about a module you do on a history course vs someone else who read all the Harry Potters instead.
How much you work ends up as a combination of, intelligence/memory/motivation/course difficulty/previous experience in the subject.
Soldato
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Yeah, what people wrote about 1st year not counting. Marks weighting for me was 0%/30%/70% for the 3 years respectively. Did B(Eng.) Electronic Engineering. Lectures were around 17 hours per week and like the op, did around 12 hours homework. Bit more for my final year dissertation.