A quick question about education

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Woods
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A quick question about education

Postby Woods » 2016-06-17, 22:32

A quick question, and an unusual one, I guess – maybe one of you will know, or will be able to check:

In Finnish universities, is it possible to get two academic years at once, if you are let’s say super ambitious, use all the time during the year to study without working etc.? Is it allowed, or can it be arranged? For example, take the first and the second year of the same bachelor degree at once, skip some of the lectures but catch up by one’s own means, and then go to all the exams for both years in one session?

Varislintu
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Re: A quick question about education

Postby Varislintu » 2016-06-28, 6:47

Woods wrote:A quick question, and an unusual one, I guess – maybe one of you will know, or will be able to check:

In Finnish universities, is it possible to get two academic years at once, if you are let’s say super ambitious, use all the time during the year to study without working etc.? Is it allowed, or can it be arranged? For example, take the first and the second year of the same bachelor degree at once, skip some of the lectures but catch up by one’s own means, and then go to all the exams for both years in one session?


Yes, I think in the majority of cases this is perfectly possible. In my experience (which is beginning to be a bit outdated probably with all the changes to the graduation system lately), the Finnish system does not define "academic years" in the way you seem to have in mind. Our degrees consist of courses that must be taken, and if you can cram many courses into a year, then you're free to do so (the government would even want you to, and somewhat forces you to, using student benefit as a leverage). Only rarely is there a strict requirement to finish one specific course before starting a specific other one. And even then that can sometimes be negotiated, especially if your reason is to graduate early. Maybe something like medical science or engineering might be stricter, since they don't want to waste their time teaching things in the wrong order (and failing).

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Woods
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Re: A quick question about education

Postby Woods » 2016-06-29, 10:21

Varislintu wrote:the Finnish system does not define "academic years" in the way you seem to have in mind.


Can you give some more details please?

I know the Finnish education system is supposed to be great, but yet don’t know anything about it.

Thanks a lot.

Varislintu
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Re: A quick question about education

Postby Varislintu » 2016-06-29, 19:30

Woods wrote:
Varislintu wrote:the Finnish system does not define "academic years" in the way you seem to have in mind.


Can you give some more details please?

I know the Finnish education system is supposed to be great, but yet don’t know anything about it.

Thanks a lot.


Well, when I was in the uni system, there simply was no such concept as years with a certain set of courses. I mean sure, degrees are made up of a study credit amount that needs to be accomplished, and this lump is dividied into courses by each department/subject as they see best. But I was in social sciences, so the exact order of the courses was never a very important issue. Sure, we got a "suggested guideline" for how to divide the subject specific obligatory courses onto our semesters so that we could graduate in the standard time (say, 3 years). But if you felt up for a challenge, you could take on as many courses simultaneously as you liked. In my Master's degree program, I for example did courses from all three advancement levels in the first year because I was trying to graduate at a certain deadline. If I had been able to keep it up, I really would have graduated in 2 years instead of 3-4, but I couldn't in the end.

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Re: A quick question about education

Postby Woods » 2016-06-29, 23:08

That sounds really amazing! :)

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Re: A quick question about education

Postby Naava » 2016-07-01, 21:05

I agree with Varislintu that it's possible, but I have to add that it depends a lot on what and where you study. My experience has been quite different from hers. For example, most of my courses have required us to study the course 1 before 2, 2 before 3, 3 before 4, and so on.

But if you're luckier than me and study something where there's more freedom and less theory that you must learn in order, and maybe if there's lots of courses that you can pass by reading a book or two (or dozen) and then going to the exam without any lectures - in that case, I think you're able to study more than the 60 credits students are "supposed" to get within one year.* (Most courses are 2-5 credits, but again, it depends.) I'm still doubtful whether you can really get 120 credits in a year. I've never heard anyone getting more than 80-90, but I wish you luck and suggest you go to see the curriculums of the subject(s) you'd like to study. There should be a description of each course and what you are supposed to do in order to pass, so you could maybe estimate how much time you'll need for them. :)

*if you want to get BA in 3 or MA in 2 years, BA being 180 and MA 120 credits. I don't remember what was the mininum of credits you must get in a year, if there even was any.


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