University pondering

[taimatsu]

Apologies to those who have seen this already in Another Place.
Assistance needed from people who have studied a modular degree course!

I'm starting university in just over a fortnight, doing English at Reading. I've been to university before, but that was an ill-fated attempt at doing theology at Oxford, and it didn't work out. Oxford does not have a modular system - you do the subject you signed up for, in essence, and that's about it. There was no real option to do papers in other areas.

At Reading, of course, things are very different. I have to do 120 credits in my first year. 60 of those come from three compulsory English modules, and then I've got to choose papers in other things to make up the numbers. There's a huge list of stuff I could do, and I don't know how to start choosing.

I have made a list of the areas which interest me. Some of those areas I have studied before - French, for example, which I have at A-level, or Japanese, or a metaphysics/philosophy module. But there are areas I've never studied, or not since GCSE, which I am interested in - sociology, history, typography...

What's worrying me is how I'm supposed to construct this. I mean, I could do a unit of Japanese, one of Philosophy and one of Sociology, and choose papers which complement my English studies, and I'd enjoy that. But I *could* choose to study all the compulsory modules for another subject (Typography, say) and have the chance to transfer to a joint degree in year 2.

Are you supposed to make sure your subsidiary modules 'add up' to something? Or is it all right to just study things you're interested in? I have done a lot of evening classes over the last five years, and I am worried I am treating this like those, not seriously enough. This is part of my degree, not some optional thing I can abandon if it doesn't work out. The only other subject I have ever seriously considered studying at degree level is theology, which is not offered at Reading, never mind that I didn't manage it so well last time I tried! It feels very strange to be selecting modules in subjects I have not seriously studied in years and did not apply for.

(The whole situation is made more complicated by the fact that I may be able to get credit for passing my first-year exams at Oxford, and also credit for doing two English modules through Reading's Continuing Education programme last year; I haven't decided whether I'm going to use this credit, and will wait to talk to a member of staff before I finalise it.)

How did you plan your studies? What modules did you take in your first year? How did they support your later studies? Any other tips or ideas? Thank you!

Comments

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest having a look at what's availableto 2nd/3rd year students, and see whether any of the ones you might be interested in studying at a later point have 1st year pre-requisites/related topics which they'd benefit from.

Think about what you'd like to end up with in total from your degree, then work backwards.

[colours.livejournal.com]

I second all the above.

My degree was entirely modular (no compulsory modules), and in the first year I went rather wild with so much choice and chose the most random subjects available. I enjoyed this an awful lot, and came away with some very good marks.

By the second year, however, I was feeling a bit lost by how much reading I was having to do compared to people doing "straight" degrees - to get the background on my courses, which other people were getting just by doing related courses.

Having completed my degree, I've found it was good to have done courses that have used different skills, particularly if they're examined in different ways e.g. oral presentations, written exams. You may get that from your compulsory English courses anyway, but it's good to check.

To be honest though, the biggest thing that seems to count from your degree is what classification you get at the end, and you're MUCH more likely to do well on a course that you enjoy!

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

Either just do what looks most interesting, or go for maths and/or modern languages because they are what employers are looking for.

[kmazzy.livejournal.com]

hey LucyLooLaa!

in my second year we had the option of choosing some random modular things (the other years were also modular but the only choices were biology ones) and i slackly chose to do a psychology module just because i knew it would be easy.

but definitely check out any 2nd/3rd year modules that need prerequisites and otherwise go for something you enjoy/find interesting as basically it doesn't have much relevance other than to contribute to your final degree mark.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Make sure that you have a clear path through to your chosen result. I know Brookes has a lot of courses that you have to take prerequisites for, and it can hold things up considerably if you don't take the necessary foundation modules first - I wound up having to take a 1st year module in my last two terms to qualify, having changed subjects in my 2nd year! Get those and any mandatory courses on the schedule first and trace through to desired final year subjects. Then identify some extras that you like the look of (French, Japanese, whatever). See if they might be useful for later modules too (e.g. might you study any modern French authors? Would you like to do some cross-subject work?). Then look at slots - it's really annoying to have a schedule that requires you to be there on Monday morning 9am and then not again until Thursday pm; quite satisfying to have all your modules scheduled for the same day each week (my first-year required me to attend on Tuesdays only! It was a long-ish day but I had a full week to do all my reading and writing, and could hold down a part-time office job too). That might make the difference between two choices of equal non-relevance.

A friend of imc's studied Typography at Reading a while back, if an insider's view of those courses might be useful.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

One tip that isn't very rock & roll but might help a lot: pick a couple of easy things. You'll get more out of your most important/interesting courses if you're not stretched to breaking point by an excess of work.

Similarly, some modules have natural overlap so are worth doing for the "Oh yeah, knew that already" effect.

[lovingboth]

I did Typography at Reading as an option for my Cybernetics degree - well worth a look. Art seemed to be the main background for the students then.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

When I was at uni in Canada it was a modular system. We didn't have to take third-and-fourth-year level subjects in our non-major classes, but we did have to make sure we had at least some sciences and some humanities and so on. I think this is a good idea.

If we wanted to do a 'minor' in another subject, we would have to keep taking that subect for the four years, and make some advancement. For example, had I wanted to, I could have done a major in music with a minor in, say, logic. But we didn't have to do it that way.

The nice thing about the modular program was that if you messed up you could take another year or semester or wahtever to fix it with the right courses, if it was caught soon enough; sometimes things like this could even get fixed over a summer term if the right summer courses were offered.

[barakta]

I went to sheffield university which allows first years 60 free credits on most degree programs.

I initially started out as a chemistry M/Chem student, and took compulsory (waste of my time) maths classes, material science and a random sociology module in my first year. I passed all the 'non chemistry' courses with 2:1 marks which convinced me that I wasn't thick, but that my maths and chemistry left a lot to be desired.

I changed degree courses into first year information management (they'd have let me into 2nd year, but I decided against that) and studied German (in modern foreign languages dept) and philosophy courses as well as some 'not technically compulsory but we will pretend they are' management courses. For me the German was a nightmare because I'm deaf and the tutor was only 'nice' about it until I required extra support with exams. I hated philosophy and barely scraped passes in the courses. I also nearly failed management courses as I hated them.

In my last two years where I had 'free' modules I took courses within my own department which was a lot easier from the point of view that it kept me within one department's ethos and not trying to work in three different departments at once.

I'd recommend you choose subjects which can be related to your main degree, with definite consideration for prerequisites of second and third year courses. I regretted not taking first year computer science courses as some of the second and third year courses looked very interesting and I couldn't take them. The option to ransfer into another degree course is something which has definite merit - in hindsight I should have transferred from chemistry to material science, not done information management.

Do consider how many different departments you will have to deal with in a given semester. I found as a non-local student to some departments I missed out on useful and sometimes vital information. I missed a material science assessed lab because my name got missed off a mailing list somewhere despite me asking to have it added on three separate occasions. When I had health problems and needed to defer a set of exams I spent a whole day traipsing around between three different faculties/departments to arrange that. Each dept had different rules, regulations and ways of dealing with 'non standard' situations...

If you do do a course in a non-local department, do make sure you talk to someone who is doing the course as part of their main degree. Ask them to let you know if there are course events which you may get missed out from. They will become a useful resource in the event of departmental process confusion.

I learned a lot from my outside modules. I will be trying to transfer some of my original first year credits in Material Science into Open University credits sometime soon. I now know I shouldn't touch philosophy, software engineering or management courses of any kind with a barge pole - my brain will not learn them to understanding levels and no matter how hard I try to parrot them it will not work.

I'm doing some Open University courses in the sciences/engineering which I have always enjoyed.

[spaglet.livejournal.com]

My degree experience doesn't bear thinking about, but from recent (http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/03/math-for-programmers.html)  experience (http://spaglet.livejournal.com/53395.html) do not go without the maths, even if it's only as a fragment with English and typography, and I would strongly recommend continuing either or both the foreign languages. Linguistics (as opposed to language) might also be useful, and perhaps combine well. Suzette Elgin (http://ozarque.livejournal.com)'s LJ is worth looking through, I think. It does depend if you want a joint honours. Bear in mind that the indirection (http://imomus.livejournal.com/215127.html) inherent in English as a field of study isn't necessarily helpful. It does depend what you're doing the degree for, which also answers whether you're supposed to make your outside credits add up.