University of Glasgow blether thread

The courses (in general) are year long courses. So 4 courses a year.

Does anyone know how honours courses are decided? Does everyone get what they want and they just accommodate everyone who wants to do a certain course?

There are two courses I'm desperate to do next year which are the most popular and I will be absolutely gutted if I am somehow pushed out of one or both of them

Can be done through GPA in related subjects.

Hmmm English Lit seems to have some courses available across both semesters/a year, while others only run for one semester

...

Could you explain, please? (I'm still a Glasgow Uni n00b)

Okay, your GPA is worked out as the average of the points gained from each course.

So for example a B3 would give you a 15, and a C1 14. The average of all the numbers together gives you your overall GPA for the year (taking into account the credits each subject was worth, so a ten credit B1 has a lot less weight than a 20 credit B3)

For entrance into a competitive course the GPA could be used in 2 ways

(1) If closely related courses have been taken before then the GPA achieved in those courses can be used; so in law the grades achieved in Sources and Institutions of Scots Law and Law and Government govern entry into Constitutional Law in 4th year

(2) The overall GPA someone gained from all courses; obviously more likely to be used to govern entry into competitive courses where no related courses are available in earlier years.

In either situation the top 20 (or however many people the class can take) will get onto the course. If you don't get in then there's a sort of 'clearing' through courses with spaces later in the Summer. The Law school at least provided information on the average GPA needed to get into courses in previous years.

No idea if this is the situation for your subject but that's how law works, and I imagine it probably holds true across the Uni.

OK. Thanks. What does this mean, then?

"at least 26 grade points in English Literature 2A and 2B"

Possibly possibly the points from both added together? So a C2 being 13 points, two C2's adding up to 26?

First come first served bbz.

Not for law, in case you thought that. Law subjects are allocated either on the basis of GPA or the Grade in a related subject.

GPA seems very American

Globalisation comes to Glasgow. First GPA, then Colleges. What next?!


First person to say 'Campus massacres' wins a troll award

I was gonna say "jocky faggots" but we already have them in abundance.

RANT ALERT

GPA seems very American

RANT ALERT: The library is no longer a good place to study, it's full of people who are there because their conscience tells them they should be, but don't really have any intention of using the resources for more than about five minutes every hour. I reckon the average productivity of people in the library is about 20%. Went to pick up a book, literally the majority of people on level eight at a PC were on Facebook, iPlayer, Amazon or generally not typing an essay/taking notes/reading a pdf. Maybe I just caught them all on a hard-earned 11.42am break or just happened across the one row of PCs where the lazy people were sitting*.

In other news, the place also needs a bloody good clean. If I see anyone sticking ****ing anarchist stickers up in the lift they can lick the thing off. I wish I was as cool as they were to fight the power with vandalism.


*actual reasoning I got from a PG who was arguing for more desktops. Apparently, most people are too poor to own a laptop, they might not physically be able to carry it up to level ten, it WILL get stolen if they take it out the house, and what if they want to go to a club and people are sick on it? I'm sure there are disabled and impoverished students, but there aren't 1,000 of them on campus right now, that's for sure. And yup, that's why I leave my valuable phone at home too. There's always a risk of anything I take out the house being stolen. Infact, there's a risk it'll be stolen in the house too. Better stay here and guard it. Or go tell the police to watch after me. But then I have to cross the road. And there's a risk that I could get hit by a bus. Oh noes.

I won't even dignify the 'I want you to give me more desktops so I don't have to make the decision between work and drinking till I spew' argument with a response.

If even some people started being a little bit more responsible with the university's shared resources, I don't think the place would be half as busy, and those that genuinely did need to use something might be able to. Putting a café and more computers in turned it from a work space to a social space, and I think everyone's probably losing out as a result.

In other other news, coming back to Scottish weather after the best spring in decades in New England is having some effect on my general cheery disposition.

Social media should be banned from library computers unless you get permission from your department which confirms that you are studying social media - but anybody studying social media wouldn't be in the library anyway, they'd be in bed, in the pub, or dead in a ditch somewhere.

So, there we go.

RANT ALERT

Yeah, my mum didn't understand when I told her the library was "too noisy" for studying

Go to the Mitchell. The computers suck but it's so quiet and you're guaranteed a seat with so much ROOM.

At the risk of making you all insanely jealous, I don't really have to worry too much about the library (although for everyone else's sake I'd still like to do what I can to make the place a good place to work in again) as I have my own office on campus. New i5 computers, 19" display, printer, scanner and a few shelves, filing cabinets. The view from my window is the QM fire escape though, so I'm sure I'm still deserving of some sympathy...

...about as much sympathy as I give to the second years' essays I most recently marked. Seriously, if you're the kind of person that thinks citing infoplease.com at the end of second year is a good idea, you really should have anticapted the E that came your way.