#cam dictionary

[askacambridgestudent]

I've noticed that some people on Linkedin state they have gotten a double first or triple first class honours from Cambridge. What does this refer to for a subject with part I, Part IIA and PartIIB? And are these official "accolades"?

So a triple first is when you get a first all three years. A double first is when you get a first in part I and part II - so for a subject with a two-year part I, that’s a first in part IB and II, and for a subject with a two-year part II, that’s a first in part I and IIB. 

They’re official accolades in the sense that if you say that you got a double/triple first, people will generally know what you mean. But it doesn’t say anywhere on your degree, transcript, or the class lists that your final result was a double/triple first - it’ll just say that you got a first.

[askacambridgestudent]

whats a class list?

Oh man, guys, we’d gotten so good at not using AACS as Google...

Okay, so a class list is a list of everyone’s name and their grade (so first, 2.i, 2.ii etc.) that goes up outside Senate House each year. It also goes online every September (today, actually), but you can only access it if you’re a member of the University with a Raven account.

[askacambridgestudent]

Do you have tutorials at Cambridge and are they different from supervisions?

I believe that Cambridge supervisions are basically Oxford tutorials, but with a different name bc we’re cool like that.

[askacambridgestudent]

What does gyp room stand for and how is it different from a kitchen?

A gyp room is defined as a basic college kitchen which students can use -- ‘gyp’ used to be a term for servants, and it used to be where they awaited a call from their student, but like, that doesn’t happen any more lol. Kitchen is traditionally used to refer to the big college kitchens that are used to make hall dinners and stuff, but we usually just call gyp rooms kitchens.

Gyp rooms differ in facilities -- in some colleges, they’re fully kitted out with an oven and hobs, while in others they might only have a microwave, kettle and toaster. 

[askacambridgestudent]

if supervisions aren't for coursework, then what are they for (as supervision essays don't count towards the degree?). are supervisions just for students to learn more about their subjects- like mini lectures?

No they’re not lectures; they’re for writing an essay and getting it torn apart by a leader in your field, for taking your thinking and expanding it, putting it through the paces, making you learn to properly defend yourself, teaching you how to look at the problem from sides you didn’t even know existed. They’re how Cam teaches you to be an academic, not just a memorizer of information. They’re massively important for developing how you write and think about problems. 

[askacambridgestudent]

What is the difference between coursework and supervision essays (HSPS in particular but I guess in general)

Supervision essays do not contribute to your grades. So you could, theoretically, get all 3rds in supervision essays and then really crank for exams and end up with a 1st. 

Coursework does form part of your marks. So usually you have coursework as part of a paper (a class). So I had one paper, Hormones and Primate Evolution, and then my coursework was to design and write up a proposal for an experiment related to that. My coursework was worth 40% of my mark for that paper, my exam results were worth 60%. 

You will write like 2 supervision essays per week, you’ll only have like, max, 3 or 4 pieces of coursework all year.

Does that make sense?

[askacambridgestudent]

is it bad to get pooled? what are the 'pool colleges'? is it bad to be in one of these colleges?

It’s related to the THE TIER SYSTEM. It’s not at all a judgement of the quality of the college or the education you get there, just a statistical truth. Pretty much everyone ends up loving their college, whether they were pooled there or not. 

[askacambridgestudent]

Hey, this may sound like a dim question - but what do you mean when you say that accommodation is 'in the staircases/in a set of staircases.' Also, all of my college accommodation is set along a corridor, does this mean accommodation isn't as nice/pretty as the mysterious 'staircase' rooms?

ahhh no, you’re probably in a staircase too :P So like you have staircases A, B, C etc, and then in each staircase there are corridors of about 6-8 people (at my college at least) so your corridor is whichever floor you’re on - if you were in L staircase and on the second floor then your corridor would be referred to as L2 for instance!