Ryan Emami Oct 29, 2014:

melanie222,

I don't agree with you. Like many other Iranians, I have studied at both undergraduate and graduates levels in Iranian universities. We have these categories, at least in the Translation and Translation Studies:

- elective and compulsory courses: of course, there may be only a few elective courses like وصایای امام, انقلاب اسلامی, etc. and you must pass one of a pair of courses before you can graduate. In fact, I remember we had two specialized/specialty courses at the graduate level that were elective; that is, we had two choose to pass one of them. Unfortunately, I don't remember the names.

- general and specialized/specialty courses; compare these:

general courses:
معارف اسلامی
فارسی
انقلاب اسلامی
قرآن
specialty courses (in translation):
ترجمه اسناد و مدارک
ترجمه شفاهی
بررسی مقابله‌ای ساخت جمله
نگارش
گفت و شنود

I remember the courses were marked with تخصصی or عمومی in any documents, including the report card.

Hope this helps clarify the matter.

melanie2222 Oct 29, 2014:

You are 100% right about colleges in other countries,but in Iran universities are different.here we have only 2 tyopes of courses the ones that are elective & the ones that are not up to us to choose and we have to take for any major and are (once again)basic and foundatiopn courses of that major ,we call those تخصصي , which don't have any thing to do with specialty

Ryan Emami Oct 29, 2014:

Brilliant! I got it, thanks a lot.

Edward Plaisance Jr Oct 28, 2014:

I'll try...here are some examples of usage.... My favorite subject is history...I'm taking 3 courses in history this year.

What is the main subject of this course?

How many courses do I need to take for a major in this subject?

How many credits do I get for taking this course?

How many courses are on the transcript?

If you need more...let me know

Ryan Emami Oct 28, 2014:

You are absolutely right. These are two different categories. By the way, I've always been doubtful about "subject" and "course". Could you please illuminate me? I'd appreciate it.

Edward Plaisance Jr Oct 28, 2014:

clarification... The question here is not between "elective" and "required".

Typically, most required courses are not "specialty/specialized" courses.

Required courses are the basic/foundation courses in the first and second years of college. The third and fourth years usually have more elective courses.

"specialty/specialized" courses usually occur more in the third and fourth years of college, and post-graduate...but again, we are talking about two different categories...that is, "required/elective" is one category, and "specialty/specialized" is another category