Missing lectures/seminars?

If you were to take a holiday in term time, is it allowed, or are there consquences?

Reply 3

Shmerm

I've missed a couple of Seminars/Classes in Engineering and they haven't said a thing. I think if you just miss the occassional one they probably accept it but if you miss them every week then they'll get on your back.

Reply 4

Sebby

Depends on the department, different depts have different parts of the course that are compulsory and monitor it in different ways.

Reply 5

*JJ*

As the others have said, it depends on the dept. But most seem to not take a register to lectures. Seminars are taken more seriously and most are registered. They run it very much like a business for the first year (As results are not published afaik) You have already paid £3000 to be there and if you don't want to turn up, its you choice. However, If you are doing an arts subject it works out at about £1 per minute tho, its an expensive hangover :smile:

JJ - 2nd year Comp Sci

Reply 6

abacab

I get registered at every single register and practical. Grrr.

Reply 7

Never attempt to imitate goldenbarnes, he has some sort of magical genius system set up to enable him to pass whilst only playing PES.
It depends on the department, you can generally miss lectures no trouble at all, but missing tutorials and seminars is A Bad Idea.

Reply 8

arkbar

Never attempt to imitate goldenbarnes, he has some sort of magical genius system set up to enable him to pass whilst only playing PES.
It depends on the department, you can generally miss lectures no trouble at all, but missing tutorials and seminars is A Bad Idea.

How hard is it to pass a year though?

What's a seminar?

sarbruis

What's a seminar?

A small group lecture in which you can ask questions and questions will be asked of you.

Reply 11

How hard is it to pass a year though?

First year? Not horribly, as long as you do some of the work, you should scrape a pass, but that really isn't a situation you want to find yourself in as it hardly sets you up well for other years.

Reply 12

arkbar

First year? Not horribly, as long as you do some of the work, you should scrape a pass, but that really isn't a situation you want to find yourself in as it hardly sets you up well for other years.

If you are good at cramming could you mess around for most of the year then get the grades at the end. Difficultywise, how does a degree relate to A-levels?

Reply 13

Hard to say, goldenbarnes is probably the expert* :p:

you could theoretically do it, although it would be harder or easier depending on the subject. I would imagine that once you missed a few science lectures,then the cumulative knowledge would hit you pretty hard,since you'd be left totally stumped in something like maths.

Difficulty-wise, I can only speak for geography and say that it's a completely different league. A-levels are essentially just about parroting back some learned information and exploiting the examiner, a degree is much more about independent knowledge, learning and reasoning.

*I missed varying amounts, probably around 50% of lectures for one module, practically none for 2 others.

Reply 14

arkbar

Hard to say, goldenbarnes is probably the expert :p:

you could theoretically do it, although it would be harder or easier depending on the subject. I would imagine that once you missed a few science lectures,then the cumulative knowledge would hit you pretty hard,since you'd be left totally stumped in something like maths.

Difficulty-wise, I can only speak for geography and say that it's a completely different league. A-levels are essentially just about parroting back some learned information and exploiting the examiner, a degree is much more about independent knowledge, learning and reasoning.

I am sort of screwed then, i am going to be doing Natural Sciences (havent chosen my subjects yet). I was hoping I could be a bum for the next 3-4 years, like at a-level. Oh well... *sighs*

Reply 15

A bum at Nat Sci? Are you mental? What subjects were you going to choose? If it's anything hard-sciencey then it will probably be quite a lot of hours (and work).

Reply 16

arkbar

A bum at Nat Sci? Are you mental? What subjects were you going to choose? If it's anything hard-sciencey then it will probably be quite a lot of hours (and work).

I cant actually decide, but i will take some maths modules. I am looking at taking physics and computer science as well, along with taking something outside of nat sci. And I want to keep a 4th year open, so i am still deciding what exactly I am going to take.

Reply 17

pikaboo

13

Some departments must be way more tolerant about you missing seminars than Anthropology is - in my first year I got confused with dates and missed 2, and got two very stern "Keeping of Term" letters signed by the Vice Chancellor or something :s-smilie:

To the person who was asking, a seminar is a small group of students who meet with a lecturer/tutor to discuss a pre-assigned topic. It's expected that you've done some reading, questions or research beforehand so you can have a bit of a debate. If someone hasn't done the work, then an embarrassing silence ensues. They're a bit rubbish in my opinion - but this could vary between departments.

Reply 18

jasperstory

9

I didn't barely go to any seminars.

I'm not being arrogant, most of them aren't very useful: first year work is fairly easy; loudest students not always the brightest; PhD students (etc.) are rarely good teachers.

I thought you were cool Arkbar...

I've got two friends, both spent the *whole* first year literally going out *every* night... one went out the night before her exam! Anyway, neither did much work at all throughout the year.

One got a high 2:1/First in History and Politics.
The other failed 3 modules in Maths and had to take out a month over summer to learn/re-sit them all.

Moral of the story is, it depends. If you want to do really well at University, you need to be intelligent, interested in your subject, and attend most of the lectures and seminars. You can, however, be pretty successful from just 2 of these 3.

Reply 19