Kingston University
Kingston upon Thames
The science foundation year is a joke.
tl;dr The science foundation year is a joke and doesn't differe much from secondary school at all. Doesn't feel like preparation for uni at all.
First of all to all those wondering, you dont get taught at the uni, you get taught at the college "over the road". I am a student on the foundation year and its so disorganised and such a poor course it might as well be called "A-Levels taught by lecturers who dont care about anyone and get pissy when you're two minutes late to lectures but will stop a lecture for 5 minutes at a time because someone coughed".
I dont really know where to begin with this rant but I will give it my best shot since I really want people to know what they are getting into before they decide to do this foundation degree. First of all your foundation degree is not specific to your course in any way, shape or form. If you are doing a foundation degree in Pharmacology like me because you were told you were allowed to do foundation Pharmacy with 180 UCAS points including EPQ's but they then turned around results day and said "Oh, we're sorry you'd been mis-informed even though we told you this many times" then you will be in a class with Chemistry students (who have to learn Biology), Pharmaceutical science students, Forensic science students, Biomed students and Nutritionists.
The course is comprised of 4 modules:
Some AS and A2 Biology
Some AS and A2 Chemistry
Some AS and A2 Maths
And a subject called skills which to be fair isn't too bad, props to my lab lecturer Alok for actually teaching us what being a scientist means.
To pass the course you must achieve a minimum of 40% in all of your modules which equates to about an E/D grade assuming an A* makes up the top band of mark percentage. When converted to UCAS points this means that if you pass with the bare minimum it equates to 160 UCAS points which I believe at the current moment is the minimum you need to achieve at A-Level to get onto the course in the first place. Im wondering what the logic behind that is... Surely if you can already achieve that to get onto the course and you have your UCAS points in science degrees then you're just as qualified to do your normal Uni course before you do the foundation year than after the foundation year? It would be nice if someone actually explained this.
When I started the course me and my fellow coursemates were told that this foundation year would prepare us for uni however im yet to see any true signs of this. My tutor has only arranged one meeting for me this entire year to talk about my progress and that was near christmas time. The only difference between this foundation year and secondry school is that you wear your own clothes, you get taught "lecture style" which really doesnt require a whole year to get used to and you will also get told that nobody cares about if you attend or not.
The only reason I'm doing this course is so I can actually get to do the course I kind of want to do at uni. This course is not a foundation year. It is no different to secondry school for those who have done science subjects already at A-Level.
I dont feel like I'm being prepared for university and I've tried to talk to my tutors about how I feel but I keep being told that "I need to talk to so and so" which just leads to an endless circle of emails.
Maybe some people have different opinions about this than I do and thats understandable that with some things I could have just been dealt a bad set of cards but also some of what I've written is fact. Everyone can make their own mind up about this and I dont want to sway anyone with this but I felt the need to get this out there, rant and maybe have someone from the Uni see this and get in contact with me.
I hope everyone has a good day
First of all to all those wondering, you dont get taught at the uni, you get taught at the college "over the road". I am a student on the foundation year and its so disorganised and such a poor course it might as well be called "A-Levels taught by lecturers who dont care about anyone and get pissy when you're two minutes late to lectures but will stop a lecture for 5 minutes at a time because someone coughed".
I dont really know where to begin with this rant but I will give it my best shot since I really want people to know what they are getting into before they decide to do this foundation degree. First of all your foundation degree is not specific to your course in any way, shape or form. If you are doing a foundation degree in Pharmacology like me because you were told you were allowed to do foundation Pharmacy with 180 UCAS points including EPQ's but they then turned around results day and said "Oh, we're sorry you'd been mis-informed even though we told you this many times" then you will be in a class with Chemistry students (who have to learn Biology), Pharmaceutical science students, Forensic science students, Biomed students and Nutritionists.
The course is comprised of 4 modules:
Some AS and A2 Biology
Some AS and A2 Chemistry
Some AS and A2 Maths
And a subject called skills which to be fair isn't too bad, props to my lab lecturer Alok for actually teaching us what being a scientist means.
To pass the course you must achieve a minimum of 40% in all of your modules which equates to about an E/D grade assuming an A* makes up the top band of mark percentage. When converted to UCAS points this means that if you pass with the bare minimum it equates to 160 UCAS points which I believe at the current moment is the minimum you need to achieve at A-Level to get onto the course in the first place. Im wondering what the logic behind that is... Surely if you can already achieve that to get onto the course and you have your UCAS points in science degrees then you're just as qualified to do your normal Uni course before you do the foundation year than after the foundation year? It would be nice if someone actually explained this.
When I started the course me and my fellow coursemates were told that this foundation year would prepare us for uni however im yet to see any true signs of this. My tutor has only arranged one meeting for me this entire year to talk about my progress and that was near christmas time. The only difference between this foundation year and secondry school is that you wear your own clothes, you get taught "lecture style" which really doesnt require a whole year to get used to and you will also get told that nobody cares about if you attend or not.
The only reason I'm doing this course is so I can actually get to do the course I kind of want to do at uni. This course is not a foundation year. It is no different to secondry school for those who have done science subjects already at A-Level.
I dont feel like I'm being prepared for university and I've tried to talk to my tutors about how I feel but I keep being told that "I need to talk to so and so" which just leads to an endless circle of emails.
Maybe some people have different opinions about this than I do and thats understandable that with some things I could have just been dealt a bad set of cards but also some of what I've written is fact. Everyone can make their own mind up about this and I dont want to sway anyone with this but I felt the need to get this out there, rant and maybe have someone from the Uni see this and get in contact with me.
I hope everyone has a good day
This is the same reason why I avoided a foundation year and looked in Clearing for whatever I could find.
I don't see the point in doing a foundation year when you could just spend that year retaking your A Levels for a fraction of the price of a foundation year.
I'm sorry that you weren't well informed but it's good that you're making other people aware of what a foundation course entails. Most of them do take place in a nearby college rather than the actual university campus, and that's why I think it makes more sense to just retake your A Levels.
There's other routes into courses like Pharmacy. For example, in Clearing if you can just find a place on a course like Biochemistry or Biomedical Sciences, you can spend a year studying at university level, and then with those grades you can apply for Year 1 of Pharmacy at unis like Kingston or Hertfordshire. That's what I had planned to do but I decided to stay on my course in the end.
The only foundation programmes I would recommend are the likes of the SEFP at QMUL, where there's students who do have high A Level grades, but are there because they don't have the right subjects for a science degree.
I don't see the point in doing a foundation year when you could just spend that year retaking your A Levels for a fraction of the price of a foundation year.
I'm sorry that you weren't well informed but it's good that you're making other people aware of what a foundation course entails. Most of them do take place in a nearby college rather than the actual university campus, and that's why I think it makes more sense to just retake your A Levels.
There's other routes into courses like Pharmacy. For example, in Clearing if you can just find a place on a course like Biochemistry or Biomedical Sciences, you can spend a year studying at university level, and then with those grades you can apply for Year 1 of Pharmacy at unis like Kingston or Hertfordshire. That's what I had planned to do but I decided to stay on my course in the end.
The only foundation programmes I would recommend are the likes of the SEFP at QMUL, where there's students who do have high A Level grades, but are there because they don't have the right subjects for a science degree.
Kingston University
Kingston upon Thames
Original post by Petulia
This is the same reason why I avoided a foundation year and looked in Clearing for whatever I could find.
I don't see the point in doing a foundation year when you could just spend that year retaking your A Levels for a fraction of the price of a foundation year.
I'm sorry that you weren't well informed but it's good that you're making other people aware of what a foundation course entails. Most of them do take place in a nearby college rather than the actual university campus, and that's why I think it makes more sense to just retake your A Levels.
There's other routes into courses like Pharmacy. For example, in Clearing if you can just find a place on a course like Biochemistry or Biomedical Sciences, you can spend a year studying at university level, and then with those grades you can apply for Year 1 of Pharmacy at unis like Kingston or Hertfordshire. That's what I had planned to do but I decided to stay on my course in the end.
The only foundation programmes I would recommend are the likes of the SEFP at QMUL, where there's students who do have high A Level grades, but are there because they don't have the right subjects for a science degree.
I don't see the point in doing a foundation year when you could just spend that year retaking your A Levels for a fraction of the price of a foundation year.
I'm sorry that you weren't well informed but it's good that you're making other people aware of what a foundation course entails. Most of them do take place in a nearby college rather than the actual university campus, and that's why I think it makes more sense to just retake your A Levels.
There's other routes into courses like Pharmacy. For example, in Clearing if you can just find a place on a course like Biochemistry or Biomedical Sciences, you can spend a year studying at university level, and then with those grades you can apply for Year 1 of Pharmacy at unis like Kingston or Hertfordshire. That's what I had planned to do but I decided to stay on my course in the end.
The only foundation programmes I would recommend are the likes of the SEFP at QMUL, where there's students who do have high A Level grades, but are there because they don't have the right subjects for a science degree.
I retook my A-Levels because I was ill and due to my situation (which i dont want to go into detail with) it didnt really allow me to do well a second time round. I thought this would be my best option because of my situation but I really do wonder if re-taking for a third time around would have been better. Honestly I love my skills lab lecturer as he doesnt bash people for making mistakes and he takes time to teach people and explain why things are done a certain way but the course itself tries to fit a wide range of people into one boat and it fails miserably. My Bio lecturer always insists he is correct and has an excuse for everything. I am a course rep and we get to write down as class some criticism we have and he never bigs up and accepts it. He always has to have an excuse of some sort. It's pretty difficult to study and want to work with all of this stuff on my chest.
Just wanted to add more stuff to this thread to help back up my claims. I was reading the Exam FAQ and the first 3 points are understandable. However its stuff like question 4 which bothers me as they could easily just write where the sports hall is but they decided to have this "we dont care" attitude to everything.
Original post by Juggerz
tl;dr The science foundation year is a joke and doesn't differe much from secondary school at all. Doesn't feel like preparation for uni at all.
First of all to all those wondering, you dont get taught at the uni, you get taught at the college "over the road". I am a student on the foundation year and its so disorganised and such a poor course it might as well be called "A-Levels taught by lecturers who dont care about anyone and get pissy when you're two minutes late to lectures but will stop a lecture for 5 minutes at a time because someone coughed".
I dont really know where to begin with this rant but I will give it my best shot since I really want people to know what they are getting into before they decide to do this foundation degree. First of all your foundation degree is not specific to your course in any way, shape or form. If you are doing a foundation degree in Pharmacology like me because you were told you were allowed to do foundation Pharmacy with 180 UCAS points including EPQ's but they then turned around results day and said "Oh, we're sorry you'd been mis-informed even though we told you this many times" then you will be in a class with Chemistry students (who have to learn Biology), Pharmaceutical science students, Forensic science students, Biomed students and Nutritionists.
The course is comprised of 4 modules:
Some AS and A2 Biology
Some AS and A2 Chemistry
Some AS and A2 Maths
And a subject called skills which to be fair isn't too bad, props to my lab lecturer Alok for actually teaching us what being a scientist means.
To pass the course you must achieve a minimum of 40% in all of your modules which equates to about an E/D grade assuming an A* makes up the top band of mark percentage. When converted to UCAS points this means that if you pass with the bare minimum it equates to 160 UCAS points which I believe at the current moment is the minimum you need to achieve at A-Level to get onto the course in the first place. Im wondering what the logic behind that is... Surely if you can already achieve that to get onto the course and you have your UCAS points in science degrees then you're just as qualified to do your normal Uni course before you do the foundation year than after the foundation year? It would be nice if someone actually explained this.
When I started the course me and my fellow coursemates were told that this foundation year would prepare us for uni however im yet to see any true signs of this. My tutor has only arranged one meeting for me this entire year to talk about my progress and that was near christmas time. The only difference between this foundation year and secondry school is that you wear your own clothes, you get taught "lecture style" which really doesnt require a whole year to get used to and you will also get told that nobody cares about if you attend or not.
The only reason I'm doing this course is so I can actually get to do the course I kind of want to do at uni. This course is not a foundation year. It is no different to secondry school for those who have done science subjects already at A-Level.
I dont feel like I'm being prepared for university and I've tried to talk to my tutors about how I feel but I keep being told that "I need to talk to so and so" which just leads to an endless circle of emails.
Maybe some people have different opinions about this than I do and thats understandable that with some things I could have just been dealt a bad set of cards but also some of what I've written is fact. Everyone can make their own mind up about this and I dont want to sway anyone with this but I felt the need to get this out there, rant and maybe have someone from the Uni see this and get in contact with me.
I hope everyone has a good day
First of all to all those wondering, you dont get taught at the uni, you get taught at the college "over the road". I am a student on the foundation year and its so disorganised and such a poor course it might as well be called "A-Levels taught by lecturers who dont care about anyone and get pissy when you're two minutes late to lectures but will stop a lecture for 5 minutes at a time because someone coughed".
I dont really know where to begin with this rant but I will give it my best shot since I really want people to know what they are getting into before they decide to do this foundation degree. First of all your foundation degree is not specific to your course in any way, shape or form. If you are doing a foundation degree in Pharmacology like me because you were told you were allowed to do foundation Pharmacy with 180 UCAS points including EPQ's but they then turned around results day and said "Oh, we're sorry you'd been mis-informed even though we told you this many times" then you will be in a class with Chemistry students (who have to learn Biology), Pharmaceutical science students, Forensic science students, Biomed students and Nutritionists.
The course is comprised of 4 modules:
Some AS and A2 Biology
Some AS and A2 Chemistry
Some AS and A2 Maths
And a subject called skills which to be fair isn't too bad, props to my lab lecturer Alok for actually teaching us what being a scientist means.
To pass the course you must achieve a minimum of 40% in all of your modules which equates to about an E/D grade assuming an A* makes up the top band of mark percentage. When converted to UCAS points this means that if you pass with the bare minimum it equates to 160 UCAS points which I believe at the current moment is the minimum you need to achieve at A-Level to get onto the course in the first place. Im wondering what the logic behind that is... Surely if you can already achieve that to get onto the course and you have your UCAS points in science degrees then you're just as qualified to do your normal Uni course before you do the foundation year than after the foundation year? It would be nice if someone actually explained this.
When I started the course me and my fellow coursemates were told that this foundation year would prepare us for uni however im yet to see any true signs of this. My tutor has only arranged one meeting for me this entire year to talk about my progress and that was near christmas time. The only difference between this foundation year and secondry school is that you wear your own clothes, you get taught "lecture style" which really doesnt require a whole year to get used to and you will also get told that nobody cares about if you attend or not.
The only reason I'm doing this course is so I can actually get to do the course I kind of want to do at uni. This course is not a foundation year. It is no different to secondry school for those who have done science subjects already at A-Level.
I dont feel like I'm being prepared for university and I've tried to talk to my tutors about how I feel but I keep being told that "I need to talk to so and so" which just leads to an endless circle of emails.
Maybe some people have different opinions about this than I do and thats understandable that with some things I could have just been dealt a bad set of cards but also some of what I've written is fact. Everyone can make their own mind up about this and I dont want to sway anyone with this but I felt the need to get this out there, rant and maybe have someone from the Uni see this and get in contact with me.
I hope everyone has a good day
Hi,
I have a few questions:
1. Firstly, how is the general daily routine for the Foundation Year? How long are the lectures everyday?
2. Are the notes from the lecturers exactly what you need for the exam? As you said they are similar to A-Levels, does this mean that the textbooks will be the same? Or, will they tell you which textbooks to order?
3. How are the lecturers like? I am hoping to apply for Pharmacy afterwards, but I read that 70% is required not 40% to transfer onto Year 1 of the chosen degree? Is this true?
4. How many students are in each lecture?
5. How long are the exams?
6. What were your previous qualifications before applying? (GCSE/A-Level)
7. How is the 'skills' lecture by Alok like?
8. How similar is the course to A-Levels? Does the material taught consist of information from all exam boards?
Many thanks
Original post by LionKing101
Hi,
I have a few questions:
1. Firstly, how is the general daily routine for the Foundation Year? How long are the lectures everyday?
2. Are the notes from the lecturers exactly what you need for the exam? As you said they are similar to A-Levels, does this mean that the textbooks will be the same? Or, will they tell you which textbooks to order?
3. How are the lecturers like? I am hoping to apply for Pharmacy afterwards, but I read that 70% is required not 40% to transfer onto Year 1 of the chosen degree? Is this true?
4. How many students are in each lecture?
5. How long are the exams?
6. What were your previous qualifications before applying? (GCSE/A-Level)
7. How is the 'skills' lecture by Alok like?
8. How similar is the course to A-Levels? Does the material taught consist of information from all exam boards?
Many thanks
I have a few questions:
1. Firstly, how is the general daily routine for the Foundation Year? How long are the lectures everyday?
2. Are the notes from the lecturers exactly what you need for the exam? As you said they are similar to A-Levels, does this mean that the textbooks will be the same? Or, will they tell you which textbooks to order?
3. How are the lecturers like? I am hoping to apply for Pharmacy afterwards, but I read that 70% is required not 40% to transfer onto Year 1 of the chosen degree? Is this true?
4. How many students are in each lecture?
5. How long are the exams?
6. What were your previous qualifications before applying? (GCSE/A-Level)
7. How is the 'skills' lecture by Alok like?
8. How similar is the course to A-Levels? Does the material taught consist of information from all exam boards?
Many thanks
1) Lectures are usually an hour and a half long, the day can vary from being 9-5 with about an hour to two hours in between to maybe having one or no lectures on another day. My first 3 days of the week are pretty packed but Thursdays and Fridays I start at around 2PM and friday 2:45
2)What you're taught in the lectures is what you'll be expected to know for the exams. They tell you what books to buy but it is quite a waste. I only bought the chemistry one as I already had the one the asked for bio with me but even then I've only ever opened the Bio one once. You're probably best off finding it at the library or if you really want I can give you the books at a heavly discounted price.
3)Lectures are pretty dull, especially Phil Whitings lectures, however you can be the judge of that. For me and other people I know on the foundation course since our degree pathways dont directly go onto Pharmacy we have to achieve 70% in all modules if we wish to be accpeted for it. However since our official degree pathways are Foundation degree in pharmacology, pharmaceutical science etc we have to get a minimum of 40% to actually get onto our desired degree pathway. However if your degree pathway is Pharmacy I think its different however im not fully sure if this is true, best to ask the uni about that.
4)It varies a lot, in the first somester you may find that the lecture room is almost completely full. However this tends to drop in the second somester a lot.
5)Exams go on for a week and each exam is 2 hours long unless otherwise stated.
6)I only had 2 A-Levels under my belt, Chemistry and Physics. However I did an EPQ in a biology related subject. If you want to know more about my EPQ then im more than happy to tell you
7)They're set up pretty well and skills is pretty much physics but I like it because he actually teaches and explains why he does things a certain way and teaches us that even with bd results that science is science. If you have him he may seem strict at first but he's really nice and tends to crack random jokes.
8)Almost exactly similair. It is AS and A2 crammed into 1 year with the exception of quite a few topics. I would write it all on this thread but it would get really long. I can tell you more about it but usually most modules are broken down 60% coursework and 40% exams or the other way around, I cant quite remember. This is excluding skills which is a 50/50 split I think. I can double check this for you but its roughly how its split.
I hope this gave you all the info you needed, im more than happy to answer any questions you have
Original post by Juggerz
Wonder if the uni will ever reply to me on this thread
Yeah it's because the Uni is ****. I am gonna do foundaiton year next year uni of birmingham, which want like AAB for enginnering/comp sci.
They don't accept people who just got **** and wanted an easy way into uni. It's mainly for people who didn't do maths or physics at A-level. Kingston and many other foundations years are just for people who pretty much failed A2. Hell, I bet even their full degree isn't going to be that hard.
My friend is doing his foundation year at bham and says it's tough and he has really learnt a lot. Me and him both didn't do maths at a level but did chem/bio etc, and hes gonna do mech enginnering after.
All in all, it's based on the unis. A strong russel group, bham, Nottingham, Southampton, Sheffield and so on will be good but they want BBB or higher for their programs whereas the bad foundation years literally will be much easier than A-level lol with little learning.
Only reason I am doing this instead of just taking a year out for maths a level is because I am already a year behind and I don't want to risk having to spend a whole year where I will need to get an A for a-level maths where I could already be at a top 10 uni for comp science.
Original post by Lawbringer
Yeah it's because the Uni is ****. I am gonna do foundaiton year next year uni of birmingham, which want like AAB for enginnering/comp sci.
They don't accept people who just got **** and wanted an easy way into uni. It's mainly for people who didn't do maths or physics at A-level. Kingston and many other foundations years are just for people who pretty much failed A2. Hell, I bet even their full degree isn't going to be that hard.
My friend is doing his foundation year at bham and says it's tough and he has really learnt a lot. Me and him both didn't do maths at a level but did chem/bio etc, and hes gonna do mech enginnering after.
All in all, it's based on the unis. A strong russel group, bham, Nottingham, Southampton, Sheffield and so on will be good but they want BBB or higher for their programs whereas the bad foundation years literally will be much easier than A-level lol with little learning.
Only reason I am doing this instead of just taking a year out for maths a level is because I am already a year behind and I don't want to risk having to spend a whole year where I will need to get an A for a-level maths where I could already be at a top 10 uni for comp science.
They don't accept people who just got **** and wanted an easy way into uni. It's mainly for people who didn't do maths or physics at A-level. Kingston and many other foundations years are just for people who pretty much failed A2. Hell, I bet even their full degree isn't going to be that hard.
My friend is doing his foundation year at bham and says it's tough and he has really learnt a lot. Me and him both didn't do maths at a level but did chem/bio etc, and hes gonna do mech enginnering after.
All in all, it's based on the unis. A strong russel group, bham, Nottingham, Southampton, Sheffield and so on will be good but they want BBB or higher for their programs whereas the bad foundation years literally will be much easier than A-level lol with little learning.
Only reason I am doing this instead of just taking a year out for maths a level is because I am already a year behind and I don't want to risk having to spend a whole year where I will need to get an A for a-level maths where I could already be at a top 10 uni for comp science.
Yeah, I did pretty bad at A2, im not stupid but I guess things didnt go how I expected them too. If you read my thread which Im sure you have, I do have a science background which again maybe isnt the strongest based on test results. I guess I expected the degree to be more tailored to specific courses. I do understand that foundation degrees are meant for those who want to convert courses but I find that Kingston have just crammed a load of people into one boat which doesn't really work to well.
More than anything I want to talk to someone about it, if im wrong with what im saying then I want the uni to explain to me why im wrong and have explanations for things.
I know quite a lot of people on the course who are far from stupid, have a science background but just didnt do too well on exams for whatever reason (sometimes it can be personal).
To be fair all I want is someone at the uni to talk to me about it. Sending emails gets you nowhere at this uni because a lecturer will say "Im responsible for xyz" and then you will email them about xyz and they will say "Uhmmmm... actually talk to so and so about xyz" and it just goes around in circles.
I hope you end up doing well in your foundation year and learn some new things!
At the end of the day all we want to do is learn
Original post by Juggerz
tl;dr The science foundation year is a joke and doesn't differe much from secondary school at all. Doesn't feel like preparation for uni at all.
First of all to all those wondering, you dont get taught at the uni, you get taught at the college "over the road". I am a student on the foundation year and its so disorganised and such a poor course it might as well be called "A-Levels taught by lecturers who dont care about anyone and get pissy when you're two minutes late to lectures but will stop a lecture for 5 minutes at a time because someone coughed".
I dont really know where to begin with this rant but I will give it my best shot since I really want people to know what they are getting into before they decide to do this foundation degree. First of all your foundation degree is not specific to your course in any way, shape or form. If you are doing a foundation degree in Pharmacology like me because you were told you were allowed to do foundation Pharmacy with 180 UCAS points including EPQ's but they then turned around results day and said "Oh, we're sorry you'd been mis-informed even though we told you this many times" then you will be in a class with Chemistry students (who have to learn Biology), Pharmaceutical science students, Forensic science students, Biomed students and Nutritionists.
The course is comprised of 4 modules:
Some AS and A2 Biology
Some AS and A2 Chemistry
Some AS and A2 Maths
And a subject called skills which to be fair isn't too bad, props to my lab lecturer Alok for actually teaching us what being a scientist means.
To pass the course you must achieve a minimum of 40% in all of your modules which equates to about an E/D grade assuming an A* makes up the top band of mark percentage. When converted to UCAS points this means that if you pass with the bare minimum it equates to 160 UCAS points which I believe at the current moment is the minimum you need to achieve at A-Level to get onto the course in the first place. Im wondering what the logic behind that is... Surely if you can already achieve that to get onto the course and you have your UCAS points in science degrees then you're just as qualified to do your normal Uni course before you do the foundation year than after the foundation year? It would be nice if someone actually explained this.
When I started the course me and my fellow coursemates were told that this foundation year would prepare us for uni however im yet to see any true signs of this. My tutor has only arranged one meeting for me this entire year to talk about my progress and that was near christmas time. The only difference between this foundation year and secondry school is that you wear your own clothes, you get taught "lecture style" which really doesnt require a whole year to get used to and you will also get told that nobody cares about if you attend or not.
The only reason I'm doing this course is so I can actually get to do the course I kind of want to do at uni. This course is not a foundation year. It is no different to secondry school for those who have done science subjects already at A-Level.
I dont feel like I'm being prepared for university and I've tried to talk to my tutors about how I feel but I keep being told that "I need to talk to so and so" which just leads to an endless circle of emails.
Maybe some people have different opinions about this than I do and thats understandable that with some things I could have just been dealt a bad set of cards but also some of what I've written is fact. Everyone can make their own mind up about this and I dont want to sway anyone with this but I felt the need to get this out there, rant and maybe have someone from the Uni see this and get in contact with me.
I hope everyone has a good day
First of all to all those wondering, you dont get taught at the uni, you get taught at the college "over the road". I am a student on the foundation year and its so disorganised and such a poor course it might as well be called "A-Levels taught by lecturers who dont care about anyone and get pissy when you're two minutes late to lectures but will stop a lecture for 5 minutes at a time because someone coughed".
I dont really know where to begin with this rant but I will give it my best shot since I really want people to know what they are getting into before they decide to do this foundation degree. First of all your foundation degree is not specific to your course in any way, shape or form. If you are doing a foundation degree in Pharmacology like me because you were told you were allowed to do foundation Pharmacy with 180 UCAS points including EPQ's but they then turned around results day and said "Oh, we're sorry you'd been mis-informed even though we told you this many times" then you will be in a class with Chemistry students (who have to learn Biology), Pharmaceutical science students, Forensic science students, Biomed students and Nutritionists.
The course is comprised of 4 modules:
Some AS and A2 Biology
Some AS and A2 Chemistry
Some AS and A2 Maths
And a subject called skills which to be fair isn't too bad, props to my lab lecturer Alok for actually teaching us what being a scientist means.
To pass the course you must achieve a minimum of 40% in all of your modules which equates to about an E/D grade assuming an A* makes up the top band of mark percentage. When converted to UCAS points this means that if you pass with the bare minimum it equates to 160 UCAS points which I believe at the current moment is the minimum you need to achieve at A-Level to get onto the course in the first place. Im wondering what the logic behind that is... Surely if you can already achieve that to get onto the course and you have your UCAS points in science degrees then you're just as qualified to do your normal Uni course before you do the foundation year than after the foundation year? It would be nice if someone actually explained this.
When I started the course me and my fellow coursemates were told that this foundation year would prepare us for uni however im yet to see any true signs of this. My tutor has only arranged one meeting for me this entire year to talk about my progress and that was near christmas time. The only difference between this foundation year and secondry school is that you wear your own clothes, you get taught "lecture style" which really doesnt require a whole year to get used to and you will also get told that nobody cares about if you attend or not.
The only reason I'm doing this course is so I can actually get to do the course I kind of want to do at uni. This course is not a foundation year. It is no different to secondry school for those who have done science subjects already at A-Level.
I dont feel like I'm being prepared for university and I've tried to talk to my tutors about how I feel but I keep being told that "I need to talk to so and so" which just leads to an endless circle of emails.
Maybe some people have different opinions about this than I do and thats understandable that with some things I could have just been dealt a bad set of cards but also some of what I've written is fact. Everyone can make their own mind up about this and I dont want to sway anyone with this but I felt the need to get this out there, rant and maybe have someone from the Uni see this and get in contact with me.
I hope everyone has a good day
Hi
Thank you for your feedback – we’d really like to look into this matter for you. Could you please email [email protected] with your details so we can investigate?Students can also provide feedback on their course via MyKingston. There’s more information here: https://mykingston.kingston.ac.uk/myuni/studentvoice/you_said_we_did/Pages/Providing-feedback.aspx
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Chloe
Student Ambassador
Edit:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4195347&p=66214507#post66214507
Read my post over there for a detailed Q & A for what I think.
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4195347&p=66214507#post66214507
Read my post over there for a detailed Q & A for what I think.
(edited 7 years ago)
Hey. Does anyone have the bio foundation 2015/2016 paper?
Original post by SallySaturn007
Hey. Does anyone have the bio foundation 2015/2016 paper?
Hi @SallySaturn007
As one of our foundation year students, I'm not sure if you have access to My Kingston. If in fact you do, sign in and check out the Past papers section under the 'University' tab. All you need to access the papers would be the course code for the module. Past papers go as far as 2015/16 so hopefully its there.
Hope your revision is going well.
- KU rep and 2nd year Law Student
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by Kingston University
Hi @SallySaturn007
As one of our foundation year students, I'm not sure if you have access to My Kingston. If in fact you do, sign in and check out the Past papers section under the 'University' tab. All you need to access the papers would be the course code for the module. Past papers go as far as 2015/16 so hopefully its there.
Hope your revision is going well.
- KU rep and 2nd year Law Student
As one of our foundation year students, I'm not sure if you have access to My Kingston. If in fact you do, sign in and check out the Past papers section under the 'University' tab. All you need to access the papers would be the course code for the module. Past papers go as far as 2015/16 so hopefully its there.
Hope your revision is going well.
- KU rep and 2nd year Law Student
Thankyou so much.
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