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whats better, more coursework or more exams? existing uni students

Hi, i'm going to university next year and will most likely attend Essex/Nottingham trent. ive got an uncon from trent if i make it my firm and waiting for my Essex offer.

Essex has a 50/50 exam to coursework balance and trents more coursework so im wondering which is the better balance?

Reply 1

Snufkin

Universities Forum Helper

Personally I prefer coursework because I don't perform well in timed exams, but lots of people need that pressure to work effectively. Surely you have done coursework at school, do you prefer it to exams?

Reply 2

Mistletoe

Coursework is much better imo because it feels like real work.

Reply 3

UWS

It's all subjective really, it depends on how you prefer to organise yourself. I personally prefer an equal balance of both. Too much coursework is draining and I hate revising for too many exams.

Reply 4

loooopppyyy

I feel coursework is a better measurement of ability than exams for comp sci, in the real world you're not going to be given a time limit and told you cant use the internet (or a scientific calculator!) for your project. :smile:

Reply 5

Kazza101

Original post by loooopppyyy

ahh i see, are you currently studying comp sci? how do you find the coursework and exams?

Reply 6

Kazza101

Original post by Snufkin

personally coursework stresses me out a lot but i end up getting high marks because of that and i usually preform fairly well in most exams which is why im not sure about finding the best balance

Reply 7

elekro

I think it depends on the course, if it was a course that you NEED to know things by hard for your work (aka medicine) exams are good, as you memorise stuff. But with courses that you won't need to know anything by hard, especially theoretical courses, I find exams pointless and they don't show ability in the subject, but ability to memorise. For example, I'm doing criminology. I have an exam where I have to write two long essays on two different topics and we don't know the questions nor which topics they will be for sure. I think that's stupid as we have to memorise so much stuff that under any other circumstance we could simply open a book and find what we need to find. So, in my course, I'm pro coursework.
In school though, I was pro exams, because it was less stressful. Or at least you went in, did what you could then came out. Simple. No stress.