TimeLine

This timeline shows how the various parts of the academic year fit together ... approximately. To see precise dates have a look at the Academic Calendar.

Week	1	3	5		7	9		11	13	15	17	19		21	23	25	27		29	31		33	35		37	39		41	43		45	47		49
Week
Month	Oct			Nov			Dec			Jan		Feb			Mar			Apr			May			Jun			Jul			Aug			Sep
	Semester 1												Semester 2										Summer Holidays
	Lectures												Lectures										Summer Holidays

Colour Code
Lectures	Holidays	Exam Study Period	Exams

You can see

50 weeks of the year,
there's no room for the last two weeks.
The two semesters, shown in yellow
The summer holidays
The months are approximate; they are a whole number of weeks.

Each semester consists of lectures, an exam study period and some exams. The first semester has Christmas between the lectures and the study period.

Note that the summer holidays go on for four months. In fact four months and a week. You could, for example, go to France, work on the vineyards, find romance, wine, song ... then spend a few weeks on a Greek island: sun, sand, sambuca and pleasant evenings in a taverna by the beach.

or ...

You could fail the exams and have to study for the repeat exams. You could be studying in the summer when all your friends are off on holidays.

Which would you rather do?

If you would like to fail the summer exams here are the sure-fire techniques used by students every year

How to fail

Any of the following will ensure you fail the exams:

	Get a part-time Job: You won't have enough time to study and will fail.
	Don't ask questions when you are stuck. You will get stuck. You will fail.
	Get all macho and boast about how little work you are doing. Say that assignments are for sissies. Miss all the lectures; workshops; labs; Boast about how you'll do a little work at the end and pass. You won't. You can't learn to program by doing a little work at the end. You will fail.
	Blame the Lecturer/College/Tutors because you haven't learnt to program. Let's be clear on this one. At DCU, the staff work hard to provide all the facilities you need to learn to program. But if you don't make the effort, you won't learn to program and you will fail.

But ...

I need money to go to college; I need a part-time job. Try asking the bank for a loan, or spend less money, or borrow money and pay it back in the summer.
I'm too shy to ask questions. Then try using email to ask the question, or ask a friend to ask the question, or pretend you're asking the question on behalf of a friend who is too shy.
I have to be macho; I'm an 18 year-old male pumped up with testosterone. Maybe you should take a year off. Come back next year.

How to pass

Decide at the outset that you are going to learn to program. Don't let anything get in your way. If you don't understand something, then work at it until you do understand it. Ask questions. Think about the subject. Do the exercises. Read the book. Read these web pages.

Above all, when you get stuck on a programming problem, go somewhere quiet with a pencil and paper and think about it. Think about it until you have solved it.