University of St Andrews

2014 Frequently Asked Questions (read this first)!

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ImperceptibleNinja

I definitely think so! That link is ever so informative, I've now pretty much decided what two other subjects I hope to do come September.

I'm coping alright with the website as its the one I've spent the most time on, but when I was looking at module options and details I was going straight to each individual subject (which was fine with English as it was clear on the when/why/how assessed questions, but everything else was far more vague).

University of St Andrews

Reply 41

Oxy

ImperceptibleNinja

Do you think it would help to construct something either in here or on the wiki containing links to stuff like that? Like, a mini-index of the site?

I'm pretty familiar with the St A's site now, but I do appreciate it's hard to navigate that kind of thing when you're considering 4-5 different unis.

Edit: Here are some other possibly-useful things:
Undergraduate admissions home page
Subjects available
Guide to residences (undergraduate)
residence fees
Semester dates
Map of the town, with buildings labelled
Sport-sport-sport-sport-sport
List of subjects

That would be pretty awesome, save yourself some time repeating things to people and just tell them to look at the links. :smile:

Reply 42

Steeeeevo

ImperceptibleNinja

If you want feel free to put the whole FAQ's on the wiki, I tried a few weeks ago but didnt have a clue how to do it so gave up!

Reply 43

ImperceptibleNinja

Steeeeevo

If you want feel free to put the whole FAQ's on the wiki, I tried a few weeks ago but didnt have a clue how to do it so gave up!

I'm not sure how to either. I should find out, but I'm too busy learning how to put pictures of bats in PDF documents at the moment.

[LaTeX has a package that lets you do a bat symbol. I'm meant to be writing up a project at the moment, and 'I can do bats!' is really the coolest thing I've got to say about it...]

Reply 44

mwfancy

Are students supposed to read every book from a class reading list? I've seen up to 18 books for a single class. Do professors have you choose a fraction of the books, or may it be that only chapters are selected from some of the books? Are there actually classes that require 18 books be fully read? I wait in suspense! : )

Reply 45

sophie_c

mwfancy

What subject??

Reply 46

mwfancy

philosophy on this example. wait, here's a more crazy one: http://138.251.116.3/search/r?search=PY2003

This can't possibly mean you read all of these...?

Reply 47

sophie_c

mwfancy

philosophy on this example.

ok... don't know much about Philosophy, but tbh, the 18 books or whatever you said, I doubt it'll be all of all of the 18 books, maybe only certain chapters for each one that you're expected to read (though probs best to ask someone who actually does philosophy/wait to see what they post)...

...I WOULDN'T recommend this, but I do have a friend who did one of the 1st semester 1st year modules, as her 3rd subject which she didn't enjoy very much (she's more a sciencey person), and got a very good grade without reading any of the set textbooks...just using notes from lectures etc... again, I would not do this, but tbh I doubt they expect you to read the whole of 18 textbooks...that Metaphysics one wlooked HUGE!

That's probs not much help, but hopefully someone with some knowledge of philosphy will come on soon...

:o:

Reply 48

sophie_c

mwfancy

philosophy on this example. wait, here's a more crazy one: http://138.251.116.3/search/r?search=PY2003

This can't possibly mean you read all of these...?

Noooo way...it's probs just recommended books for referring to when writing essays etc, or recommendations for reading bits of when learning about a certain topic or whatever...

Reply 49

mwfancy

thanks for that.

Does the link I gave look familiar as part of the website where all students' view their reading lists?

The other subjects I'm interested in have similarly outrageous lists linked in their descriptions. Hope these are separate from what will appear on syllabuses; that, similar to what you said, it may be something to draw from for essays or exams.

Reply 50

sophie_c

mwfancy

Umm well tbh I don't think I ever saw a reading list as such for my subjects (might have completely missed something there haha), but gt told what books we had to buy in the introductory lectures in freshers/ at the beginning of term... and other books were suggested throughout the course of the year by the individual lecturers...

But yeh, I'd thnk that those lists are perhaps ones that are suggested to be useful for the course, but not absolutely necessary! (Last semester it was suggested I bought several textbooks, of which I bought none due to costs mainly, relied on lecture notes and the original bio textbook we had to buy, the internet, and got one of the books from the library), and I got on ok I think :smile:

But yeh, I highly doubt they are going to expect you to read all those books, esp as Philosophy will probs only be one of your 3 subjects!

Reply 51

sophie_c

mwfancy

Thats a SAULCAT list yeh? So maybe it's books that are "suggested" and that are available in the library for that course?

Reply 52

mwfancy

yeah SAULCAT. the link from the philosophy page said "short loan list". does that answer part of my question?

I hope "suggested" is the case.

Reply 53

sophie_c

mwfancy

yeah SAULCAT. the link from the philosophy page said "short loan list". does that answer part of my question?

I hope "suggested" is the case.

Aah right ok, yes short loan is only allowed to be taken out for 4 hours maximum I think, as it is a book that is highly suggested you look at in parts for a certain essay or something I think...and hence being on shortloan as so many people will be needing it at the same time, so you can therefore only have a few hours to look at it and get what you need. Therefore, nope you won't be needed to read all of all those books, don't worry!

:smile:

Reply 54

Bella_trixxx

mwfancy

English?

Reply 55

mwfancy

Nah different subject. I'm aware English literature means reading all on the list.

Reply 56

la_banane_verte

Every year people always ask various questions about the internet in halls, so maybe I should try and write a little bit about that.

Every room in halls has an ethernet port which connects you to ResNet(the residence network) and thus to the university network and thus the internet. You do not need to pay anything to use this network (it is included in your accommodation fees). You will need an RJ45 ethernet cable to connect (available from many places in town, including BESS, the students union shop). There is currently no wireless provision in hall rooms, although it is available in a few places in residences such as the DRA bar and the New Hall coffee shop.

You may register one computer at a time on the network, and may not use routers or switches of any kind. IT Services say that if they detect the use of such items, your access to ResNet may be suspended.

The download speed when using the internet is incredibly fast. I don't have any exact figures right now, but I could download a file of ~350MB in 2 minutes (obviously this depends on where you're downloading from :-)). Basically, I think you will always get (close to) the highest download speed possible.
edit Luser gave speedtest figures of 90Mb/s download, 0.35Mb/s upload on one occasion. Obviously speeds will vary :biggrin:

Torrents will not work on ResNet. There are, as always, rumours of ways of getting around this, but for the average user torrenting is not possible. Any other types of P2P sharing are also forbidden. MMORPGs are also not allowed, but there are definitely ways of playing them (I've witnessed a few people doing it. IT Services state that VoIP and video conference software will not work, but I personally have been able to use Skype for voice calls (never tried the video facility) and webcam over MSN.

Reply 57

common_person

Just like to say I'm dead grateful to all those of you who've taken the time to answer questions (especially the annoying and repetitive ones) and contribute to this thread/forum/wiki. Absolutely brilliant resource, the uni should employ you to re-do the website. Informative and reassuring and well-presented. Really fantastically useful, thank you guys :h:

Reply 58

Alexandra1234567

common_person

This

You guys are fantastic :smile:

Reply 59

Oxy

la_banane_verte

Amagad 90Mb/s I get 0.1Mb/s at my house xD Surely the Comp Sci students have ways to get around the blockages? Do people use Proxy servers? (eventhough they aren't that safe)

Alexandra1234567

This