[SCOT[X]LAND]

Okay so the time has come for me to start thinking about my second year modules. I'm pursuing an honours in Psychology/Philosophy so as such need to take 40 Philosophy credits this coming year. Having looked at the past papers for Ancient Philosophy PY2003 I'm a little concerned that there doesn't appear to be any sort of predictable pattern in the questions that come up.
I know it sounds like a bit of a cop-out but given the vast range of reading materials for this module I'm worried that it won't be possible to tactically study for the exam. Could anyone who has taken this module in the past few years give any feedback on the difficulty of PY2003 in relation to other modules at this level?

[chester.]

I understand your thinking about trying to be tactical when it comes to exams- I was the same. Your concerns are probably warranted though, this was a difficult module to predict the exam for. When I took this module it was taught by Sarah Broadie and Jens Timmerman. They are both absolutely fantastic and Broadie is a leader in this area. As such, the lectures were rarely anything more than simply listening to them talking and discussing the philosophers and ideas that they loved. It was great to sit there for two hours listening to such amazing philosophers discussing fascinating things. However, when it came to revision time, I don't think I was alone in having a serious lack of structured notes or any set idea of what they might examine us on. In fairness, we did have an outline of which topics would be covered- Aristotle, Epicurus, Stoics etc. and they did cover the topics, but trying to predict an essay question was close to impossible and you had to rely on the hope that you paid attention to the past 11 weeks of lectures.
If you're looking for a really interesting module with great teaching, then this is a perfect choice. If you're just looking for a simple way to get high grades, then I'd steer clear of this. I'm not saying that it's difficult to do well, it's just that there are many other modules out there where you'd be more certain of your success.
Hope that helps.

[SCOT[X]LAND]

Thanks for the reply. That's a bit disappointing. :/ Having said that, I've spent the last week or so reading some Ancient Philosophy and it is really interesting, looks like I'll have to give it some thought. Any chance you ever did the 'Formal and Philosophical Logic' or the 'Metaphysics and Science' 10 credit modules? Would you recommend either of them?

[chester.]

I did both of those modules and really enjoyed them. I'm not sure who teaches them now, but I had Stephen Read and Colin Caret for Logic and they were both fairly good. I had David Walker for Metaphysics and Science and he was fantastic (although I think he may be gone now...) I would highly recommend the Metaphysics module as it is absolutely fascinating and isn't too difficult. The Logic module just builds upon the first year Reasoning and Knowledge module, but it can be very tricky at times. It can get a bit overwhelming and when I did it, it should definitely have been worth more than 10 credits. I had much more assessed work and about the same amount of class time for Logic than I did for Ancient! As long as you don't allow yourself to get left behind in the Logic, then you should be okay, but it definitely needs your full attention if you hope to do well.