STUDENTS GUIDE TO THE B.SC. IN PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAMME. Academic year

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1 STUDENTS GUIDE TO THE B.SC. IN PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAMME Welcome to the Bachelor of Science in Psychology programme! Now that (almost) all the paperwork is completed, you re ready for the practicalities. This guide gives concrete tips for getting off to a good start. Note, however, that the Course Catalogue is the definitive guide to the courses that are offered and the procedures that must be followed. You should read it at the earliest opportunity. Academic year The year consists of two semesters of 30 EC each, and each semester is divided into two blocks. Most courses are given in a single block, but a few span two or more blocks. Exams are held during the last two weeks of a block. Re-sits are held at the end of each semester: Semester 1 Block 1a Block 1b 7 weeks 2 weeks 7 weeks 2 weeks 3 weeks Lectures Exams Lectures Exams Re-sits Semester 2 Block 2a Block 2b 7 weeks 2 weeks 7 weeks 2 weeks 3 weeks Lectures Exams Lectures Exams Re-sits

2 Semester 1: 3 September February 2013 Block 1a: 3 September October 2012 Lectures 22 October November 2012 Exams Block 1b: 5 November December 2012 Lectures 7 January January 2013 Exams 21 January February 2013 Re-sits Semester 2: 11 February July 2013 Block 2a: 11 February March 2013 Lectures 2 April April 2013 Exams Block 2b: 15 April June 2013 Lectures 10 June June 2013 Exams 24 June July 2013 Re-sits In no lectures or examinations will be held on the following dates: 24 December January 2013 Holiday Friday 29 March Good Friday Monday 1 April Easter Monday Tues 30 April Queen s day Thursday 9 May Ascension Day Monday 20 May Whitsun Registering for Courses and Exams There are two different types of courses: lecture courses and practicals. Attendance is not required at lectures, but their content will usually be tested in the exam. Attendance at practicals is required, and all the assignments and exams of a practical must be passed in order to pass the course. One of the first things you ll need to get used to is ProgressWWW. ProgressWWW is the system by which all the students of the University register for courses and exams 2

3 In order to learn how to register for courses, please download the Information and Computer Technology (IT) reader from (Please note: current information about signing up will be given in the Introduction Lecture and on Nestor). ProgressWWW can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection ( Some courses, for example, Introduction to Psychology, comprise lectures, a practical, and an exam, so you will have to register three times. Lectures are given at fixed times and the times are generally the same for everyone. Practicals are given in small groups and you may choose your own group. Sign up early for maximum choice! Students who want to take part in an exam must be registered for the exam. Each exam and each interim exam requires prior registration. Exams taken without registration will not be graded, so you will have to sit the exam again! Registering for Courses Students can register for regular courses online, using Progress: during the course block that precedes the course until one week before the course starts. (PLEASE NOTE: for the first-block courses the registration will be longer open, at least for 2 weeks after the beginning of the courses) For practical courses, registration closes two weeks before the course starts. If a course comprises both lectures and practicals, students must register for each part separately. (PLEASE NOTE: for the first-block practicals the registration will be longer open, at least for 2 weeks after the beginning of the courses) Additional rules: 3

4 For first-year course registration, there are different rules (see also Nestor). Students can register for courses in the first course block of the second year from August 1 st. Students who do not register can be excluded from a course. Registration is only possible via Progress or the Student Service Desk. After registration, students gain access to the respective course materials on Nestor. In case of problems with the registration, students can turn to the Student Service Desk. Registering for exams and resits Each course has two exams per year. Practicals can be followed at least once a year. Date and place of exams are published online, in the courses time tables: The following rules apply: Registering for exams, including resits, is compulsory. Registration for exams takes place online (ProgressWWW), starting the third Monday of the course block during which the corresponding course is being taught, until the fourth working day before the exam. Thus, if an exam takes place on Friday, registration closes the Monday before, at 23:59. If a student was registered for an exam, but did not pass, he/she will automatically be registered for the resit in the same year. For resits in the next academic year, students need to register themselves. Students who want to take part in a resit in order to improve their (passing) grade need to register themselves. Please take into account that the LAST grade counts! Students who were registered for an exam, but did not take part, are not automatically registered for the resit. They have to re-register themselves. 4

5 Special rules for practicals: Students who have registered for a practical, but fail the practical because of a lack of attendance, can only re-do the practical at a later point in time if there is a sufficient number of places left. For mandatory courses, the programme plans a sufficient number of places (yet, you will be admitted last). For Minor or specialisation courses, however, it is possible that the course is full, meaning that you cannot follow the course a second time. Partial exams A number of courses offer partial exams. That is, the first exam takes place after several weeks of the course, and the second exam takes place during the subsequent exam period. The following rules apply: Students must register at least four working days before the first partial exam. Students must check Progress regularly in order to track registration deadlines. In all cases, students are responsible for registration themselves. Important: As of the year , the option of late registration at the student service desk has been abolished. If you did not register for an exam, you cannot take part. Even if you take part erroneously, you will not receive an official grade and/or course credits for the exam. Course Literature The required literature for each course is listed in the Course Catalogue ( In general, it is not a good idea to order the books from your local bookstore because delivery times may be quite long. Books are available from the student organization, VIP, at a 5

6 member s discount or from bookstores in Groningen. If you buy your books second hand, be sure that you have the correct edition. Nestor Nestor is the University of Groningen s name for the electronic learning environment Blackboard, which can be found at The bachelor programme and each of the courses have their own Nestor site, and registering for a course gives you access to its site. The Nestor sites are used to disperse course-related information and to encourage communication among students and instructors. They should be checked regularly for information and announcements. Often, instructors post their Powerpoint presentations on Nestor a day or more before the lecture. Many students find it helpful to print them to help structure their note taking. Large parts of the bachelor community site and some Nestor course sites are accessible to students who are not yet enrolled. You can use the user name gast and the password gast. Click on courses in the menu bar. Then use course search or browse course catalogue to find the course you are interested in. To find your bachelor community, first click on organizations and then choose Bachelor Psychology (EN) from the list. Note that some parts of the site may not be open to guests. The Bachelor s community site provides information of interest to all students, including information about the Honours Programme and graduation dates. Communication At the beginning of the academic year you will receive a letter with your personal code for Progress and the University computer network. Progress already contains your personal information, such as name, student number, programme, address, and telephone number. This is information supplied by the Central Student Administration. You can change the information as appropriate. Remember to keep your information (including telephone number) up to date. Please note that we cannot be held responsible for failing 6

7 to inform you about programme changes, etc., if you did not keep your information up to date. You will also receive an account from the university. You have two e- mail addresses: and The two addresses refer to the same account. This account has limited space, so you should clean it out occasionally. Please keep in mind that all important s from the university about programme changes, announcements, etc. will take place via this account. It is your responsibility to keep sufficient space on your account and to check your on a regular basis. In addition to, or instead of, contacting individual students, the programme may communicate important information to students via the University newspaper (the UK), via the web site or via the Nestor community. The Library The library is more than a collection of books, and much of its collection is available only on-line. There are a variety of resources to help search for relevant literature, and we have arranged a training session to help you learn to use these resources. The training session is mandatory, and counts as part of the practicum The Presentation of Psychology. The library training (a single two-hour session) will be given during the first three weeks of classes. The Subject Pool and SONA * As a first-year psychology student you will gain first-hand experience about experimental research by participating in the subject pool. One portion of the course Scientific Thinking consists of a practicum in which you gain experience as a human subject by participating in various psychological studies of the Heymans Institute for approximately 30 hours (35 SONA Credits). These subject studies are conducted by Psychology staff members, PhD-students, and bachelor- and master thesis students. The practicum runs the entire first year. 7

8 * There will be an orientation to this practicum during one of your mentor group meetings during block 1a. * You will use the online software program SONA to register your participation in human subject research. Between mid and late September you will receive an on your university address (Sxxxxxx@student.rug.nl <mailto:sxxxxxx@student.rug.nl>) containing information about your SONA account and password. This is a different password than the password for your university account, Progress, Nestor, and the use of computers. If you still have not received your SONA account information at the end of September, you may contact Mrs. G. Limbeek. * Before you can participate in subject studies, you must complete a Prescreen test in SONA. This is an online questionnaire in which some biographical information is requested. After you have filled out the Prescreen test, you will have access to the list of available subject studies, from which you yourself can choose in which studies you would like to participate. The range of human subject studies goes on the entire academic year, despite what the schedule in the Course Catalogue suggests. * Through your SONA account, you can register online in SONA for participating as a human subject in a survey (of your own choice) at a specific location. The researcher then will be waiting for you at the appointed time and location, to take the survey. Do not make the researcher wait for you! In case you unexpectedly cannot be there, cancel the appointment in time via SONA or by telephone. When you do not cancel in time, you will receive a penalty and will have to participate in additional research. In addition to the tests by appointment at a specific location, you can participate behind your computer (for example at home) in online questionnaire studies. You may spend a maximum of 8 hours (10 SONA Credits) on these online studies. Once you have reached that limit, you cannot sign up for online studies anymore. 8

9 * All human subject studies have first been approved by the Ethical Committee Psychology (ECP). At any time you can refuse to continue with the research you are participating in. In that case, you will not receive any SONA Credits for it. * If you have objections to participate in human subject research, there is a possibility of completing an alternative assignment. This assignment involves approximately 50 hours of literature study of scientific articles, and will be tested with a multiple-choice exam (in semester 2). You can find more information about this in your syllabus for the mentor group courses. Grading A course is considered to be passed if a grade of at least 5.6 is achieved. All passing grades are rounded to at least 6. Except for the Bachelor s thesis, grades are in whole numbers. Thus, a 7.4 becomes a 7 and a 7.7 becomes an 8. Multiple-choice exams are corrected for guessing. For a 60-item, 3-alternative exam, 56% knowledge will result in 33.6 items being correctly answered on the basis of that knowledge, and (on average) one-third of the remaining 26.4 items (i.e., 8.8 items) will be correctly guessed. Thus, a passing grade requires that 42.4 of the questions be answered correctly. Because it is not possible to get three-tenths of a question right, the minimum number of correct answers to pass a 60-item, 3-alternative exam is 43. All of the questions on each exam are evaluated both before (by an instructor other than the maker of the exam) and after the exam is given. After the exam, questions are evaluated to determine whether those who did well on the exam overall also tended to do well on each of the questions. Any questions poorly answered by students who otherwise did well may be eliminated. Elimination of questions will, of course, change the number of correct responses needed to pass the exam. This means that it may be impossible to predict whether you will pass a course based on just your answers and the 9

10 answer key. To know for sure you must wait until grades have been posted in Progress. Academic advice (BSA) Your courses occur in a carefully-planned sequence, with some courses giving you basic information that you must master before proceeding to more advanced courses. Beginning in , new rules are in place for advancing through your studies at the RUG. It is important that you arrive in Groningen on time and ready to begin, because you must earn 45 ECs (out of the 60 ECs offered in the first year curriculum) to advance to the second year of study. If you do not earn at least 45 ECs, you cannot continue your studies at the RUG for two years. Faculty and staff will be available to help you meet (and hopefully, exceed) this goal, but please give yourself the best chance possible by approaching your work with rigor and enthusiasm from the very beginning of the fall semester. Plagiarism and Fraud Fraud, including plagiarism, is a very serious offence and can result in exclusion from exams for up to one year. Some courses use the plagiarism detection programme Ephorus. The programme detects whether student assignments contain similar passages or whether they contain passages similar to texts that are available on the internet. Plagiarism is defined, in brief, as the use of someone else s work with the intention of presenting it as one s own. Failure to cite sources, cheating on exams, and other forms of fraud will not be tolerated. The Examinations Committee All students will sooner or later come into contact with the Examinations Committee. For most students, this will occur only when either the Propaedeuse or Bachelor s diploma is requested, or when a proposal is made 10

11 for the minor. However, when you cannot resolve with your instructor complaints about how an exam was given or how exam-related course information was communicated, you may address the Examinations Committee. You should also contact the Examinations Committee if you will be unable to take an exam because of illness or another extenuating circumstance. Please, before contacting the Examinations Committee read carefully the instructions written in the Course Catalogue or on Nestor. The examinations committee does not always grant an extra exam opportunity. The Rules and Regulations of the Examinations Committee are published in the Course Catalogue. The Examinations Committee also publishes important information, such as the dates of diploma ceremonies, or how to obtain an extra exam, on Nestor. All communication with the Examination Committee must be in writing and addressed to: Mw. J.M. Baan, Examinations Committee, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712 TS, Groningen. Be sure to include your student number and address in your letter. Course Exemptions If you have already completed some coursework at another university you may be eligible for a course exemption. Exemptions are granted when the course content is judged to be the same as one or more courses in the B.Sc. Psychology Programme. The form for requesting exemptions is available at the Student Services Desk. Note that although exempted courses count toward the 180 EC required for the degree, they are not graded nor do they count for purposes of student grants. We re here to help. The sources cited so far the Course Catalogue, UK, Nestor, the Psychology web site will likely contain most of the information you need. Any general questions about the Programme and how things work can be asked at the Student Services Desk, open weekdays from 9:00 am 12:00 pm and

12 pm-5.00pm (telephone number ). The Student Services Desk can also provide you with an official copy of your grades to date. The academic advisors, Laura Ballato and Libbe Kooistra are available for advice on planning your programme and offering help with any problems that threaten your study progress. Office hours are Tuesday (Laura), Wednesday (Libbe) and Thursday (Laura), 11:00 am 12:00 pm, room 0023 (Laura) and 0007 (Libbbe) in the Heymans Building. If you have questions about study programmes, courses & exams, study abroad, personal circumstances, graduation, or anything else? Find the answers to frequently asked questions at the Questions and Answers pages: If you can't find the answer to your question, just submit it using the web form to a member of the faculty staff. You will find the link to the web form below each question. Your additional question(s) will only be read by the person who is connected to that particular question, for example the study advisor. Your data will remain private. Tot ziens! We look forward to welcoming you at the welcoming lecture on 3 September! Prof. dr. K.A. (Karel) Brookhuis, Programme Director Dr. F.J.J.M,(Frank) Steyvers, Programme Coordinator 12