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