The Student Room Group

Cardiff University - Geology - 2014 start anyone?

Hi guys.

I was just wondering if there is anyone on here who is starting BSc Geology (F600) in September this year? I'd like to get to know as many people prior to moving if possible.

I'd also love to hear off current students about the course and life in Cardiff. Any info would be greatly appreciated, such as difficulty, enjoyability, advice, where to go in the City, any general worth-knowing tips etc etc.

Hope to hear off you soon!

Dayle
Reply 1
Hopefully. If i get the grades :/
Reply 2
Hey! I just graduated from Cardiff with Earth Science (although I basically followed the Geology route) :smile:

Congrats on getting onto the course, you'll love it!! There's so much I could say about the course and Cardiff life in general, I could honestly ramble for days, so if you've got any specific questions please just shoot 'em my way :tongue:

Difficulty: the more interested you are in the modules, the less difficult they seem! I wouldn't say anything was that much of a struggle - obviously the work is challenging and requires you to develop your own understanding on top of the lecture material through independent reading, but you will get better and better at this. This is important: don't worry if your first assignment marks are lower than you hoped to start with! Adjusting to uni-level expectations is a learning curve but you get there, and Cardiff lecturers give really good feedback to help you improve. I remember getting a 56 on my first assignment, which was a shock at the time!! But those first marks aren't representative of what you'll get in the end when you've got used to what they're looking for and improved your skills (I ended up with first-class honours) :smile:

Enjoyability: 10/10 would do again. Seriously!! The satisfaction score for this year in the Student Survey was either 100% or very very close. There's such a good variety of interesting modules that give you a great appreciation of the world around you. It's such a sociable course, people on other courses get jealous of how close-knit the earth science students are both with each other and the teaching staff! Contact hours are up to about 20-25 a week so you spend a lot of time with coursemates, as well as going on plenty of fieldtrips. The fieldtrips were the absolute shining highlight for me - you get to know everyone so well, get drunk with the lecturers (Geology is after all 50% colouring and 50% beer :wink:) and generally just have a great experience learning new things in the field! Plus you'll have all your lectures in the main building, which everyone else is super jealous of.

Advice: There's so much I could give!! A few pointers would be to make sure you go to any course socials in Freshers, and definitely join a society or two. There are loads of geologists in the Mountaineering Society (which I was in), and they're such a fun friendly bunch! They go to the climbing centre twice a week (you can tag along any time) and also climb outdoors some weekends along the Gower. Also, especially during Fresher's be sure to spend most of the time out of your room! Some people I knew let their homesickness/shyness get the best of them so stayed in their rooms a lot just messaging/calling people from home, and they found it hard to settle in because of that. Throw yourself into it!
Also, boring point but keep an eye on your money. Getting the huge loan through each time feels awesome, but so many people end up skint after a month from just blowing it all! Work out a rough budget for yourself, figure out how much you can spend on various things each week, and try to stick to it. I like to take out my weekly budget in cash at the start of each week and leave my card at home to avoid overspending!

Where to go in the city: The entire city has so much on offer!! At the end of my 4 years it was crazy realising all the stuff I still hadn't yet done, places I hadn't yet been on nights out, places I hadn't eaten. Propaganda in Glam on Thursday nights was a solid favourite throughout my whole 4 years (awesome music, old-school and new rock), as was Live Lounge!! Live Lounge is the kind of place you go to after you've already been to a first club or bar. 'Lloyd's then Live Lounge' was a staple routine on spontaneous nights out. Predrink in someone's flat/house, go to Lloyd's (the Wetherspoons) at about 11, go to Live Lounge while it's still free entry (before 2am) and sing along to classic rock tunes all night before unsticking yourself from the floor at 4am, grabbing a McDonald's (the one across from Live Lounge on the high street stays open til half 4) and staggering home.
There are some great parks to chill out in when the weather's nice (Bute up by Talybont, Roath, Cardiff Castle), and some amazing restaurants: if you like Italian I personally love this tiny little family-run place called Café Citta, which I think is rated #1 in the city on TripAdvisor.
The Student's Union has SO much inside: it's just been refurbished with new huge lounge area, cafés, snack bars, pub (the Taf), club (Solus), gig hall, WHSmith, computer repair, Jobshop, printing services, etc. etc. It was always customary to pop to the Taf for cheesy chips in the lunch break if we had a long day of lectures!

Wow, long message :tongue: There's just so much to praise about doing Geology at Cardiff, and being a student there in general!! There are so many helpful services in and around the Uni, the city's so friendly and vibrant, and the Geology lecturers are great. I already miss it so much!
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 3
Wow, I only half expected a reply at all, let alone that! You didn't have to, but that's genuinely helped out so much! Also with the classic rock etc, you somehow know exactly what I'm looking for without me even asking, thankyou so much! :smile:

And Nath, did you get in after?
I've got on to do geology as well, you're not alone! :biggrin: Where are you staying?
Reply 5
Yeah I got in :smile: talybont south house 12!!
I'll be in Talybont Court, not too far then.
Reply 7
Original post by Dayle234
Wow, I only half expected a reply at all, let alone that! You didn't have to, but that's genuinely helped out so much! Also with the classic rock etc, you somehow know exactly what I'm looking for without me even asking, thankyou so much! :smile:


Haha no problem at all! I was a Student Mentor for Geology first-years so thought of all the things they asked me about when they started. Glad it helped! :smile:
Just been back to Cardiff for the weekend (can't stay away even now I've graduated ha) and had an awesome night in Live Lounge, I can confirm it's still the best :tongue:
Reply 8
I'm going to be starting the F600 course in September, too! :smile:
Reply 9
Original post by Kezzi
Haha no problem at all! I was a Student Mentor for Geology first-years so thought of all the things they asked me about when they started. Glad it helped! :smile:
Just been back to Cardiff for the weekend (can't stay away even now I've graduated ha) and had an awesome night in Live Lounge, I can confirm it's still the best :tongue:


I still haven't been there yet, but loads of people I know love the place so I think I'll be spending a lot of time there if it's really that good haha! Also, for someone who likes to go out probably a bit too much for his own good, is the loan enough or do you think I'll need to get a job? I was thinking about looking for work only if my loan starts to run low but not sure if that's the best idea?

And the rest of you guys, it's nice to have finally found some. I was starting to think I'd be the only one in the class! Any of you on the FB groups? I'm staying in Taly South, house 17, floor 3, flat 2.
Reply 10
Original post by Dayle234
I still haven't been there yet, but loads of people I know love the place so I think I'll be spending a lot of time there if it's really that good haha! Also, for someone who likes to go out probably a bit too much for his own good, is the loan enough or do you think I'll need to get a job? I was thinking about looking for work only if my loan starts to run low but not sure if that's the best idea?


Haha I imagine you definitely will! :tongue:
To be honest the loan's never enough (even budgeting £35/week I used it all, although I did pay for Download Festival haha) - just have an overdraft on your student account. It's interest-free and remains so until a year after you graduate, so there's plenty of time to pay it off! I wouldn't recommend trying to juggle a part-time job with your full-time studies, but if you're desperate jobs in the Union (bar/kitchen work, shop staff, etc.) have very flexible hours if they have any vacancies. Personally though I recommend just making the most of your free time in first year! You could sign up with Jobshop (bottom floor of the Union), who send you temp-work opportunities (barwork at the stadium on match nights, photocopying, etc.) that you can go for if your loan/overdraft's running low :smile:
Reply 11
Got another one here! :smile: talybont north I take it the "talybont's" are close together?!
Original post by Jackb680
Got another one here! :smile: talybont north I take it the "talybont's" are close together?! ������


Yeah I'm pretty sure they are.

Quick Reply

Latest