University of Bath
Bath
Just finished First Year in Uni of Bath - ask me anything and I'll try to help out!
Title says all really. I just finished my first year in Uni of Bath 3 weeks ago and feel like I could help people out! So ask me anything, I'll try to answer.
A bit of background I suppose: I'm doing Mechanical and Automotive Engineering with a placement year, lived on campus in the glorious Quads Acer, but I've seen pretty much all of the accommodations. Am also an international student, but I've done GCSEs and A-levels in the UK.
Fire away!
A bit of background I suppose: I'm doing Mechanical and Automotive Engineering with a placement year, lived on campus in the glorious Quads Acer, but I've seen pretty much all of the accommodations. Am also an international student, but I've done GCSEs and A-levels in the UK.
Fire away!
(edited 6 years ago)
Scroll to see replies
Why did you choose such a pointless degree #rekt
(dont feel the need to answer that, im being sarcastic)
(dont feel the need to answer that, im being sarcastic)
University of Bath
Bath
Original post by QuentinM
Why did you choose such a pointless degree #rekt
(dont feel the need to answer that, im being sarcastic)
(dont feel the need to answer that, im being sarcastic)
that hurt my nervous system
Original post by Anton MechEng
that hurt my nervous system
Sorry im joking....on a serious note (with a not so serious question)....how did you find your first year? Highlights? Low points? etc etc
And what advice would you give to the incoming batch of fresh this September?
Original post by metrize
Can you use your own calculator in exams? Which one are allowed?
Hi,
No, you cannot use your own calculator. Bath supply official university calculators in the desks in the examination hall if needed: http://www.bath.ac.uk/student-records/examinations/examinations-information.htm#univcalcs
I can't remember the exact model number but basically they're standard, modern Casio scientific calculators which work in precisely the way you expect.
Original post by QuentinM
Sorry im joking....on a serious note (with a not so serious question)....how did you find your first year? Highlights? Low points? etc etc
And what advice would you give to the incoming batch of fresh this September?
And what advice would you give to the incoming batch of fresh this September?
First year was amazing. I made a lot of great friends and had many unforgettable experiences. I loved the environment you are put in, next to thousands of teenagers who all just want to have fun and are proper away from home, you choose to do whatever you want, whenever you want, you start being very independent and mature. You also get to meet people from literally any kind of background and it's amazing! All of which you are doing while studying your (hopefully) favourite subjects.
Some of the highlights would include the castle, Bath takes Bristol, Christmas dinner with the flat, the barbeques at the lake in the centre of uni, holidays with friends and generally all the randomness I had with friends, like when we were revising in the library and decided to go down to town at 2 am to get a burger from the van during exams week because 'we felt like it'.
Lows? The first thing that comes to mind is this massive coursework that I left for the last 3 days and I went to the library to work at 3 pm and left 12 am the next day, working for 21 hours straight. My training and diet suffered immensely. My flat mate Emily was an absolute star and brought me peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast. Also I was very skint a couple of times and I had to survive on low amounts of money haha.
About the advice, I think lots of freshers have heard lots of different advice, all of which is applicable and useful. However I want to emphasize on:
1. Not being afraid to try something new, go and do something like, idk jujutsu or ultimate frisbee, go for the football trials, be active!
2. Don't be afraid to do something stupid or make a fool of yourself, just remember to acknowledge it later because you'll look like a dbag.
3. Don't be afraid to express yourself and be who you actually are, even something small as if you don't drink alcohol just say so and have water instead! Nobody will mind that and they will respect your views and decisions.
Something more practical I suppose:
1. If you miss a lecture, it's not the end of the world. Just make sure to catch up before your next lecture via your friends notes, the slides on or the video recording of the lecture.
2. Eating out of the saucepan is more than acceptable.
3. Make sure to make friends with your flat early on. By this I mean I know lots of people who had friends in the same year and ran off to chill with them and their friends during fresher's week, which is good and all, but you will be living with your flat for a whole year, so yah.
Which brings me to the last thing I wanted to mention - everyone is absolutely terrified the first week. You get tossed in with so many different people and so many different things to do and so many opportunities and so many responsibilites all at once and what the **** is going on. Therefore - talking to anyone is so incredibly easy, because all of them want to be approached but can't find the guts to do it, which you fortunately do!
Original post by Mech17k
What was the workload like? How much time did you spend studying independently, going to lectures, doing labs, etc.?
What was the difficulty like compared to A-level?
What was the difficulty like compared to A-level?
Workload was a fair amount. I found it alright, like as I expected. My day looked like this:
Lectures everyday from 9am to 1-2ish pm, and an 8 am on Thursdays, which I went to once. On Fridays I had this random schedule where I had a 9 am and then a 3pm and that's it. Every lecturer will give you problem sets once a week, comprising of 10-15 questions that you can do in the tutorial sessions or in your own time. The tutorial sessions are useful as you have lecturers and/or postgrads walking around the tables helping with anything you don't understand. Every problem set, after you finish procrastinating, will take like 1-2 hours to do.
Tuesdays and Thursdays I had 2 hours of labs each, which were not on always, maybe like every 1-2 weeks you would have one of those 2 days off, depending on the lab group you are put in and therefore your specific timetable. Once you finish the lab, you have a lab report to do, which is about a 2000 word mix of gibberish which has to explain the experiment and the results. This can take a minimum of 8 maybe 10 hours to do, especially when you have to write the script in MatLab to make the graphs for the resutls. Pro Tip: Don't leave it for the last day, you probably won't get a 1st from that (I somehow managed to once), start it in the beginning of 2nd week and you're sound.
Usually, after my lectures, work I need to do outside them, house keeping stuff and food, sport and socialising it would be like 11pm, maybe midnight. So pretty packed days!
When compared to A-level: I think A-level is more about memorising stuff and not so much understanding it, where as university is both. You need to understand the theory, which is often the hard bit, and other things which you literally just need to remember. An advice here is that you shouldn't look at it as something 'difficult' to do or grasp, it's just something that needs to get done so just get on with it, and you'll forget about how hard it is.
Hope that helps x
Original post by metrize
Can you use your own calculator in exams? Which one are allowed?
The uni provides you with a calculator, which is the fx-83GT Plus usually. I had to use an old one once for some reason, it looked like one from the 90s, still figured out how to use it, no big deal.
I think the uni does this so you can't memorise numbers in your calculators, or write something on them, just so that everyone has the same calculator and it's fair for everyone.
Original post by Anton MechEng
The uni provides you with a calculator, which is the fx-83GT Plus usually. I had to use an old one once for some reason, it looked like one from the 90s, still figured out how to use it, no big deal.
I think the uni does this so you can't memorise numbers in your calculators, or write something on them, just so that everyone has the same calculator and it's fair for everyone.
I think the uni does this so you can't memorise numbers in your calculators, or write something on them, just so that everyone has the same calculator and it's fair for everyone.
aw you cant even do integration or stuff in it to check answers
Original post by Mech17k
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, Anton. I'm going to be studying MechEng at bath from this Autumn so this information is very useful!
Great to hear you're joining us! You've made the right choice
And no worries! That's why I'm here for, so knowing I've helped someone is great! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask, even when you are at Bath. Being able to ask a second year student questions has been useful for me throughout my first year as well.
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by metrize
Did you do further maths? I've heard first year is basically a lot of catching up for normal maths people? I did further maths so I'm not sure how many weeks I can coast through
Does first year count also? Is there a criteria for placements?
Does first year count also? Is there a criteria for placements?
I'm a current maths student at Bath and did Further Maths at A-Level so can answer your questions..
You will not be able to coast first year even with a Further Maths A-Level. To start with, IIRC about 95% of Bath students have Further Maths A-Level or an equivalent qualification so they assume you have Further Maths and expect you to catch up on your own if you haven't (pretty much).
Second, the overlap in course content between Further Maths and University Maths is extremely minimal: the two are very different.
Further Maths will give you a book leg-up in applied maths subjects such as Physics or Engineering, not (pure) mathematics.
You should find you know most of the course material from the first semester of Methods and Applications by doing Further Maths, but that's only of your five units (two semesters per year).
In other words about 90% of the course content will be completely unfamiliar and new, even in first year. You won't be able to coast.
Second, no, first year doesn't count although if you do drop the ball in first year you tend to pay a heavy price in second year (which does count) whilst trying to catch up.
Third, I'm not aware of any criteria for placements. I got a really high first in my first two years though so didn't pay all that much attention when it came to applying for my placement year, but I don't recall there being a cut-off.
Original post by President Snow
I'm a current maths student at Bath and did Further Maths at A-Level so can answer your questions..
You will not be able to coast first year even with a Further Maths A-Level. To start with, IIRC about 95% of Bath students have Further Maths A-Level or an equivalent qualification so they assume you have Further Maths and expect you to catch up on your own if you haven't (pretty much).
Second, the overlap in course content between Further Maths and University Maths is extremely minimal: the two are very different.
Further Maths will give you a book leg-up in applied maths subjects such as Physics or Engineering, not (pure) mathematics.
You should find you know most of the course material from the first semester of Methods and Applications by doing Further Maths, but that's only of your five units (two semesters per year).
In other words about 90% of the course content will be completely unfamiliar and new, even in first year. You won't be able to coast.
Second, no, first year doesn't count although if you do drop the ball in first year you tend to pay a heavy price in second year (which does count) whilst trying to catch up.
Third, I'm not aware of any criteria for placements. I got a really high first in my first two years though so didn't pay all that much attention when it came to applying for my placement year, but I don't recall there being a cut-off.
You will not be able to coast first year even with a Further Maths A-Level. To start with, IIRC about 95% of Bath students have Further Maths A-Level or an equivalent qualification so they assume you have Further Maths and expect you to catch up on your own if you haven't (pretty much).
Second, the overlap in course content between Further Maths and University Maths is extremely minimal: the two are very different.
Further Maths will give you a book leg-up in applied maths subjects such as Physics or Engineering, not (pure) mathematics.
You should find you know most of the course material from the first semester of Methods and Applications by doing Further Maths, but that's only of your five units (two semesters per year).
In other words about 90% of the course content will be completely unfamiliar and new, even in first year. You won't be able to coast.
Second, no, first year doesn't count although if you do drop the ball in first year you tend to pay a heavy price in second year (which does count) whilst trying to catch up.
Third, I'm not aware of any criteria for placements. I got a really high first in my first two years though so didn't pay all that much attention when it came to applying for my placement year, but I don't recall there being a cut-off.
thanks, I'm going to be doing mech eng, results permitting. thanks again
Original post by metrize
Did you do further maths? I've heard first year is basically a lot of catching up for normal maths people? I did further maths so I'm not sure how many weeks I can coast through
Does first year count also? Is there a criteria for placements?
Does first year count also? Is there a criteria for placements?
Yup, I did do Further Maths, err some topics like ODEs, Fourier series, vectors are on the maths cyllabus for MechEng, so those you should be familiar with. You may find that you'll understand new topics a bit quicker, but you'll still have to put in effort. I think it's advantageous because Further Maths is a decent step up from single maths, so you're kind of more used to working on more complicated stuff.
At this point I thought that this link might be of more use than the garbage I post:
http://www.bath.ac.uk/catalogues/2017-2018/me/me-proglist-ug.html
This basically is a catalogue with all the MechEng courses you can study, with the modules you study in each one and the topics, for the year 2017-18. You can have a look through and see the topics you will be studying!
Bottom line is though - if you've done Further Maths and you don't slack, you'll be just fine, no worries xx
First year does not count nope, which has been a very strong argument in convincing me to go on a night out on many occasions by my flat mate haha. However, there's a catch: when you are applying for a placement in your second year (something which I have yet to do obviously) the employer needs to know you are a decent candidate. Therefore, they will ask for your grades from your first year, so it's useful to have good first year grades if you are going for a placement. As for requirements, I would imagine the bigger the company - the higher the grades they will be expecting. A friend of mine asked what grades Mercedes-Benz expect and they answered 2-1s, so do with that information whatever you want.
Hope that helped!
Original post by Anton MechEng
Title says all really. I just finished my first year in Uni of Bath 3 weeks ago and feel like I could help people out! So ask me anything, I'll try to answer.
A bit of background I suppose: I'm doing Mechanical and Automotive Engineering with a placement year, lived on campus in the glorious Quads Acer, but I've seen pretty much all of the accommodations. Am also an international student, but I've done HCSEs and A-levels in the UK.
Fire away!
A bit of background I suppose: I'm doing Mechanical and Automotive Engineering with a placement year, lived on campus in the glorious Quads Acer, but I've seen pretty much all of the accommodations. Am also an international student, but I've done HCSEs and A-levels in the UK.
Fire away!
Shall i redo c1&2 maths while doing A2 maths (c3,4,m1)??? Is it rly worth it for a few more marks to bump me up to the next grade? How easy is it in comparison?!
Original post by Anton MechEng
Title says all really. I just finished my first year in Uni of Bath 3 weeks ago and feel like I could help people out! So ask me anything, I'll try to answer.
A bit of background I suppose: I'm doing Mechanical and Automotive Engineering with a placement year, lived on campus in the glorious Quads Acer, but I've seen pretty much all of the accommodations. Am also an international student, but I've done HCSEs and A-levels in the UK.
Fire away!
A bit of background I suppose: I'm doing Mechanical and Automotive Engineering with a placement year, lived on campus in the glorious Quads Acer, but I've seen pretty much all of the accommodations. Am also an international student, but I've done HCSEs and A-levels in the UK.
Fire away!
Hello Anton
Can you tell me how the Quads flat/room numbers work?
If you are in QA 5.11 is that Quads Acer Flat 5 room 11 or Flat 11 room 5?
Thanks!
Quick Reply
Related discussions
- uh oh year 13 : |
- Official Uni of Bath Applicants 2024 Entry Thread
- My journey to A-Levels
- Pharmacy Bath 2023
- University average day
- Official University of Bath Offer Holders Thread for 2024 entry
- Changing courses and unis in third year
- Biomedical science work experience
- bath vs exeter for psychology
- What do i do about missing out on first year uni life?
- Graduating from MSC Computer Science online University of York
- Is it unfair if a uni doesn't give you an offer after a remark
- 2024 Pharmacy applicants mega-thread
- I’m Y1 Bath Architecture, Ask me anything
- GYG Journal: Pass YR13 With Me!
- info about studying engineering in university of bath/living in bath?
- Uni of Bath Accommodation - post all questions here
- Biomedical Science: 2023 Applicants Thread
- Architecture Applicants 2024
- Official Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering Applicants Thread 2021
Latest
Posted 1 minute ago
Does anyone have summarized notes of UK politics, US politics and Political ideas?Last reply 1 minute ago
Official UCL Offer Holders Thread for 2024 entryLast reply 2 minutes ago
November 2023 Illegal Migration Intake Unit - Intake Response Team - Immigration OffiLast reply 2 minutes ago
Official LSE Offer Holders Thread for 2024 entryLast reply 3 minutes ago
Official University of St Andrews Applicant Thread for 2024Last reply 3 minutes ago
emmanuella's study discussions #2: taking breaksLast reply 4 minutes ago
BAE systems degree apprenticeships September 2024Last reply 4 minutes ago
Official London School of Economics and Political Science 2024 Applicant ThreadLast reply 6 minutes ago
Official: University of Cardiff A100 2024 Entry ApplicantsLast reply 7 minutes ago
Economics and Economic History 2024 ThreadLast reply 8 minutes ago
Accenture Degree Apprenticeship 2024Last reply 9 minutes ago
Official University of Edinburgh Applicant Thread for 2024Last reply 12 minutes ago
Official Dental Hygiene and Therapy (Oral Health Science) 2024 Entry ThreadDentistry
2864
Last reply 12 minutes ago
Am I allowed a Calculator for university Computer Science exams?Posted 14 minutes ago
CURRENT STUDENTS which residency halls are the best @ uni of southamptonTrending
Last reply 2 hours ago
Official University of Bath Offer Holders Thread for 2024 entryTrending
Last reply 2 hours ago
Official University of Bath Offer Holders Thread for 2024 entry
