This discussion is now closed.

Check out other Related discussions

geography statistics

I heard that the 2nd year of Geography is mostly statistics.

If so, is the mathematical side of things hard?

Could anyone give me an examplar Q or something?

Thanks!!!

Reply 1

arkbar

1. That's all crap.
2. Exemplar 2nd year Q from Durham: "Critically assess N. SMITH’s (1996) argument that “the revanchist city has overtaken gentrification as a script for the urban future”."

Reply 2

Fossi2

The fact that no geography degree i know of requires maths beyond GCSE should give some indication of the level of difficulty. Unless you choose to do outside modules.

Reply 3

Crisps

I'd say more A level than GCSE, as a lot of the stats I did I had never done before, but it's mainly things like the t-test. Second year geography is when you start to look at things in more detail rather than just having a whole module on geomorphology [well I did in my first year]. The only reason why you get a little stats thrown in is to give you experience for your dissertation, but it isn't that hard.

Reply 4

hanns.g

thanks!

Career wise, between BA and BSc, which one provides more options when it comes to employment?

Reply 5

loser88

I'm at King's doing a Geog. BSc. and one of our modules in the first year was purely maths and the people that did A level maths found it hard. I hate my degree, has complely ruined Geography for me, and King's is sh*ite...

Reply 6

hanns.g

Originally posted by loser88.
I hate my degree, has complely ruined Geography for me, and King's is sh*ite...

Why is that? :s-smilie:

Reply 7

loser88

hanns.g

Why is that? :s-smilie:

Because no one gives a damn for what the student needs/wants/thinks (also at UCL said my friend) if you need help then tough you won't get it. Course rubbish, lecturers appalling and often don't bother to turn up and won't let you know so you travel in for nothing, only 7 lectures a week for the first year costing £3000- b*ll*cks...too much coursework with too little teaching. It sucks! Geography boring now and resent it due to these things, if you don't understand something, you're screwed.....

E.g. Emailed and told exam results out on the 4th, they didn't come, rang and got arsey response, came out a week later after another email saying maybe by middle of August- it's ****e, really, really, ****e.

Reply 8

hanns.g

Originally posted by loser88.
Because no one gives a damn for what the student needs/wants/thinks (also at UCL said my friend) if you need help then tough you won't get it. Course rubbish, lecturers appalling and often don't bother to turn up and won't let you know so you travel in for nothing, only 7 lectures a week for the first year costing £3000- b*ll*cks...too much coursework with too little teaching. It sucks! Geography boring now and resent it due to these things, if you don't understand something, you're screwed.....

E.g. Emailed and told exam results out on the 4th, they didn't come, rang and got arsey response, came out a week later after another email saying maybe by middle of August- it's ****e, really, really, ****e.

Woaw. Using the word crap would be an understatement.
Thanks for the heads up!

Reply 9

Fossi2

Aside from the KCL rant I'd say that the Bsc would definately be the better option as generally it shows you have mathematical skills.

Reply 10

ali567149

all geog degrees have must cover stats to be an acredited course however i think most places chose to do it in the first year and get it out the way. It is not all that difficult just to pass which is all you need in year one any how, and it will turn out to be of some use in the third year as i found when doing the dissertation

Reply 11

Fields

I'm going into the third year of a geography degree and I know nothing about statistics, but I seem to be doing just fine :smile:

Reply 12

arkbar

To be fair, Durham is an insanely cultural geog department (in the human side) so stats really isn't needed.

Reply 13

laurajt1988

i agree, just finished my first year geography at Durham and the statistics wasn't hard. They tried to keep mentioning it in IT lectures but most u wud no from gcse maths and a level geog, in the first yr u dnt really hav to put it into practice much...

Reply 14

dd1989

Crisps

I'd say more A level than GCSE, as a lot of the stats I did I had never done before, but it's mainly things like the t-test.

You'd never don t-testing before uni? Hmm, I don't do maths but in A-Level geo we did t-testing, chi squared, mann whitney u test etc etc.

Reply 15

crafty bison

You may well need a bit of stats, but it's hardly difficult. If you did A-Level maths, take the easiest bits of S1 and S2 and it's that. If you didn't, you'll learn in two hours.

It also depends HUGELY between universities as to what the course consists of so avoid such generalisations as those in the original post.

Reply 16

kimble

loser88

My tutor is great and always replies promptly to me emails and if I have a dilemma he will meet me in his office to go over it. All my lectures have turned up to our lectures, it's normally other students turning up late. The course isn't meant to be set out with 20 hours a week as its mainly reading of journals and books, History only have 4 hours a week! And if you don't like coursework why didn't you choose a uni that had a course that was more exam based?

Reply 17

Sneakydave

Fossi2

The fact that no geography degree i know of requires maths beyond GCSE should give some indication of the level of difficulty. Unless you choose to do outside modules.

Over at bristol its stats I was doing in S1 in the first year and partial differential equations in the second, something that was vaguely touched on right at the end of C4. Im not looking forward to calculus again - especially not after i've had a year to forget everything I knew about it.