BA Sociology 2nd year work load

Former Member

I would just like to compare my workload to those of similar or the same course at other institutions.

There has been a bit (well alot) of a stink kicked up by academics and students in our department about the amount of work we have been set and particularly the structure of deadlines. It is as follows;

*We take 6 modules and have 2 essays per year for each.

*The first set of deadlines requires 6 essays to be submitted for December 5th, each of 3,000 words in length (18,000 total)

*The second deadline (March 5th 2006) calls for 5 essays plus a group dissertation of 10,000 words (5 persons per group) plus a 1,000 word dissertation proposal. (18,000 total per person)

*At the end of the year there is a 3 hour examination for each module

*In addition the normal weekly workload for the courses is a minumum of around 250 pages reading, not including essay research and not including further reading.

Now i do not intend for this to turn into the Four Yorkshiremen sketch, but i wouldnt mind some feedback if possible.

Former Member

With those deadline dates? I mean with singular hand in....even our 2nd year law dont have that and we've checked. I've got second year medics over here telling me its excessive.

See it wouldnt be so bad for us if they'd stagger the essays a bit.

For comparative purposes as well; 2nd year counts for 25%, 25% 3rd year dissertation and 50% third year exams.

Former Member

During my Sociology course we had staggered hand in dates and if too many deadlines fell on the same day we, "the whole class" would get one essay date moved to give us time to do it!

Former Member

Seminars are worth 20% of our whole course so being constantly assessed by our performance in them is stressful.

I'll bet, well good luck with those.

As regards our Uni i wasnt aware that there wasnt standard assessment, maybe they arent telling us something .

I wish our second year counted as fifty per cent (well, sort of) as this seems all a little stupid for 6.25% of the overall grade :grump:.

Sociology has a heavy philosophical slant at this uni, alot of emphasis is placed on ontological and epistemological enquiry. We just arent getting the time to explore our interests and generate original data, we're just regurgetating what little we've got time to digest of the reading packs. Further reading is a joke on this course and it shouldnt be.

Former Member

i'm struggling, but the amount i have to do i'd say is realistic. i did find the transition from 1st to 2nd year a bit overwhelming but that's 'cause in comparison the 1st year is a piece of piss.

so far i've had a CV and personal statement to do, and have a 1,500 word essay due in today (argh) and then on the 13th have a 2,000 word essay in. then in january have two 2,000 essays due in and a 2 hour mock exam.

i'm in my second year of a BA (Hons) degree in Criminology and Social Policy by the way.

Former Member

I do psychology and philosophy and am in my second year. For psychology I get one essay per term, which has to be in at the end of the term. I also get one microproject to carry out and write up. For philosophy I get two essays this term, one due in week 5 and the other in week 10 of term. So overall in a whole term I get three essays and one project. Sounds like you guys have loads more :no:

Former Member

whew! got everything handed it, that was hard.

Former Member

All I can say is Ha ha! The second year of my HND (I then completed a third year Ba) was almost as piss easy as the first one, I think I worked on average about 15 hours a week, inclusive of all lectures and classes.

Good luck and all that, I'm sure your hard work will build you into a better person.

Former Member

im in my 2nd yr and its so hard, the amount of work we have to do. not only assignments and essays, but each week for most of our modules we have tutorial work to do which takes almost as long as an essay does. its so hard!!