I wish somebody would have told me what I am telling you know.
Grading, or marking as the Brits and Irish say, is a bit different from what we know in Germany. You pass with only 40% and get an excellent with 80%. Lecturers in general grade quite generous, provided you put a bit effort in it. Usually, Erasmus students's grades are above average from what I have learned. The Irish start their assignments last minute. If you prefer having done your assignments before within the final 12 hours, get yourself a group with non-Irish people. Achieving 90% is just as achieving 100% in Germany. I have heard that you cannot achieve 100% really. You may achieve total score in MCQ (multiple-choice questionnaires), but as for assignments, it appears to be impossible.
As for the exams. They are on a whole different level and if you do not listen carefully to the teachers or have Irish mates/ friends/ whatsoever, you will not know this: you will asked to write 3 essays in 2hrs' time. At home, we roughly have 2 minutes for 1 point if you really break it down, in Ireland you have -what- a bit more than a minute for one point or one percentage (the basis is always 100 points= 100 %).
You know the topics in advance and have to prepare yourself. What makes it so annoying: you gotta quote. There is no need for a reference list. If you quote directly (which you really should avoid as you will see when reading on), you need to add the page ([name], [year], [page]). Quote indirectly instead and you only have to mention name and year of the publication. The thing is, no one will tell you.
You will be asked to do research yourself; research will be awarded et cetera, but really, you do not have any choice. Taken the teachers' slides, there are no references at all so you of course have to find out yourself.
Which takes me to another aspect completely: the slides do give you orientation as in what you need to learn. Using them as a prep for assignments or exams? No way. You cannot quote the teacher and, moreover, they will not give you further info. The slides are packed. One bullet point is a whole paragraph. That is, if you have to hold presentations, how most lecturers want it to look like. I have one teacher who wanted us to do a group work, report-stlyed; and on Powerpoint. The slides were full of sentences and way to overloaded. You could have easily written a report and it would have worked better.
Anyway, there is not a single module that only consists of exams. The very least is 40% CA which stands for continuous assignment. So if you have a bad day, you will still pass if you have put some effort in the module during the semester.
By the time you come back from Ireland, you shall be well prepared when it comes to writing seminar papers, as writing assignments is really all you're during!
This is neither a complaint nor an annoyed post, I just wish somebody would have told me in advance. In fact, you are getting very little information. This is not due to a lack of laziness and obliviousness, as I attended all the information events and did some research before. It is just a complex description to help you know what you are expected of. Let me know if you have any comments or questions!
