Exams - Good Luck!

[Ollie]

Good luck to anyone with exams coming up this January!

I... have one in 22 minutes! :p

Ollie

[MariaD]

I have an assessment this month.... but I'm marking it rather than writing it!

[Marmot]

stats coursework and two exams but theyre well spaced so not too bad

[Ollie]

All mine are done as on this morning - now just got a house viewing and a 19th birthday party to see to then I'd better start on the coursework!!!

[MariaD]

Ah... student house viewings. I remember those being really depressing! All manky stained floral carpets and dodgy paintwork.

I'm about to start teaching a module via blog, which is quite strange. I didn't realise universities taught students online these days!

[Ollie]

Exam time is here once again! Anyone else got any this time? I had one today and have another tomorrow, which, as I'm sure you can tell from the fact that I'm posting this, I'm really revising well for....

[Marmot]

my first exam isnt until the 27th, and my last is on the 4th - you slackers with your short terms...!

[David]

Ha Ha. Short terms are for slackers? The work load is the same or greater, it's just our lecturers want more time for their research and cram it in at an insane density. The only place with shorter terms that we have that I know of is cambridge, and I've heard that they aren't exactly slackers.

[Ollie]

Pfft, don't they spend most of their time rowing or playing cricket? :p

[Marmot]

or wearing dresses to dinner

[Ollie]

Can't say I'd heard that one before...

[Marmot]

from wiki of oxford
"students dress in formal attire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_attire) and often gowns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dress) to dine."

[Ollie]

Each to their own!! :p

[David]

oxford


oh, no doubt. I wasn't talking about that bunch of pansies!! :p

[ollyhol]

the cambridge lot have 9 weeks terms, but for sciences their in 9-5/6 and sat morning. dunno about arts,

[newtrekker]

i had an exam this mornin! got 4 exams next week mi last is 11th june! cant wait till im free! i dont have to learn anymore!! lol

[MariaD]

York was always 10 week terms, and that's not a slacker uni either. Leeds was slightly longer, I think...

[Special_K]

No exams for me but can sympathise with you guys who are. My partner is a maths teacher so as well as having boxes filled with stuff to move house I'm also surrounded by piles of mock exams. :(:confused:

[MariaD]

I've got no exams at the moment but will be taking some either this autumn or next spring. I'm studying right now :-(

[Ollie]

I'm half way through my exams now - next one not till Wednesday.

Ollie

[Ollie]

Final one tomorrow, thankfully! Shame it's maths :p

[Marmot]

cant believe you guys are finishing already
i want to be finished :(

[David]

Trust me, I wish I had had more revision time. Make the most of it.

[kyle-mcc]

have you found out your sesults for your exams??

[David]

Nope, not yet, but I'm not looking forward to them though. One of them was so much harder this year that the student-teaching body (the students who tell the staff about our concerns) are lodging a formal complain. Needless to say, it did not go well.
I think I'll have to be even more of a study geek next year - even though I didn't think I could be. :(

Happy that summer is here for me though.

[MariaD]

If universities are making exams more stringent - good on them! Exams are only worth something if they represent a genuine challenge, with stringent assessment to ensure that standards are met. That is why a 1st from Thames Valley is worth so much less than a 1st from a Russell Group university. A 1st from Thames Valley is even worth less than a 2:2 from a Russell Group uni!

Not a popular view, I know, but I reckon you should be glad that your uni is trying to make sure that its graduates stand out from the crowd. Harder assessment means that the degree is worth more, and you're more likely to get decent work when you leave. It also helps to separate out those who are talented enough to go on to do a Masters or PhD. As an assessor, I find it worrying that the standard of student's work is so much lower in 2008 than what was expected of me in 2002. Many of my students this year (I've taught 4 different groups, both first & second years) have been unable to get basic grammar or spelling right, let alone assess evidence or construct an argument.

That's why private schools are opting out of GCSEs and A-levels and giving their students harder qualifications to take. If you're bright, taking an exam that doesn't stretch you is counterproductive and won't give you the opportunity to shine. Of course, this only works if you are someone who would shine at the harder exam. If you're mediocre (not implying that you are, btw!) then easier exams work in your favour!

Tin can stove looks good - I've seen instructions to make these before, but never managed to actually try it out. Good luck with it!

[David]

While that is true, I wouldn't complain if the exams were harder across the board, but since it is only 1 exam that is far harder it will disadvantage people who took that module disproportionately, and so will reduce the grade of degrees including that module more than it improves the reputation of the university. In effect the making one module harder like this improves the prestige of other students at the expense of those taking the module.

[MariaD]

Good point - do you know that it isn't indicative of a general shift in standards across the board? If it is just one exam, then that's a bit stupid, but if standards are raised across the board, then all the good students on the course will benefit.

[David]

Sadly I don't think it's just that the university is making exams harder, the exam just before was in a totally different class of difficulty (both maths exams). A lot of people are complaining about just that exam.

[Ollie]

I've moved a few posts from the penny stove thread as they seemed to make more sense here!

[newtrekker]

kinda exam related i got an A for my product design folder and my final project! just the exams to go now! haha!

[David]

Nice one!

[Ingieuk]

Just found out I've passed my Grade 8 Trombone with merit! woo hoo! :D

Btw newtrekker how did you find C4?