Are we being over-assessed this year?

Sangre

I would reply constructively to MNG's posts but I've to get up early to go to the library tomorrow. I've to do two essays instead of one this year, thats twice the amount! I also don't want to be called a dick.

hullaballoo

Lads, less of the abuse. You're all well able to post constructive posts without saying words like "ass" and "dick" &c.

Vainglory

Er..

As a quick response..

It's not the fact that we have continuous assessment that irks me..I'm a fan of continuous assessment.

It's the fact that the format and amount of continuous assessment we have is so vastly different to the last two years. If I had started off like this in first year then I'm sure I would be adequately adapted to 1000 word essays etc and it would prove no problem for me now, in final year. However, the opposite is true, and these new rules are creating added difficulty in an already pressurised year.

Stabshauptmann

Yeah, I do have sympathy that they changed the rules of the game half way through. Didnt they actually promise that they wouldnt disrupt final yrs when they first brought in modularisation. When they say students voted for these changes is that true?

Vainglory

Kaptain Redeye wrote:

Yeah, I do have sympathy that they changed the rules of the game half way through. Didnt they actually promise that they wouldnt disrupt final yrs when they first brought in modularisation. When they say students voted for these changes is that true?

They told us that the way we were assessed wouldn't change, although people could vote for whether they wanted Christmas exams or not (which many did.)

All this is a radical departure to what was implied by the college when modularisation first came on the agenda two years ago, i.e. that it would be introduced on a rolling basis and continuing students would be unaffected.

Samos

Sangre wrote:

Anyway, I'm sure if Arts students put in any hours that Engineers have to put in, they'll fly through this. The fact that its a devasting blow that you've had to hand in 3 in the same week shows the 'leave it to the last minute' attitude.

Things have changed this year for the engineers too. Semesterisation now means that we'll be doing most of our finals at Christmas with the second semester consisting of project work. Continuous assessment (excluding project work) is now 40% and exams account for 60%. We would be flat out from the beginning of the year anyway, but now at least the efforts count for alot more. The staff have been very accomodating in this transition period, allowing us to decide on dates of exams and to have a say in how coursework will be provided and assessed. The 'leave it to the last minute' attitude still exists, but the work does get down and certainly won't be left to the last minute before an exam. The workload may seem larger, but the extent of the stress involved is somewhat diminished, and the results should reflect this with a significant improvement.

Samos

Vainglory wrote:

They told us that the way we were assessed wouldn't change, although people could vote for whether they wanted Christmas exams or not (which many did.)

All this is a radical departure to what was implied by the college when modularisation first came on the agenda two years ago, i.e. that it would be introduced on a rolling basis and continuing students would be unaffected.

We all expected that it would come in on a rolling basis and that would have made sense, but there's no use in crying over spilled milk. The attitude from my class in particular has been overwhelmingly positive. There was plenty of consultation with staff, whose aim it was to reduce the workload and improve the quality of assessment. We got a chance to vote on each major decision. Clearly, your department got it wrong or had ineffective communication with the students affected. I'm sure they will be willing to make concessions if you express your grievances to them.

rainbow kirby

**** happens... just roll with the punches. Being honest, I much prefer the semesterised system because I don't cram well, and it really does take some of the total stress off about summer exams. No point in complaining now anyway tbh.

Sangre

Samos wrote:

Things have changed this year for the engineers too. Semesterisation now means that we'll be doing most of our finals at Christmas with the second semester consisting of project work. Continuous assessment (excluding project work) is now 40% and exams account for 60%. We would be flat out from the beginning of the year anyway, but now at least the efforts count for alot more. The staff have been very accomodating in this transition period, allowing us to decide on dates of exams and to have a say in how coursework will be provided and assessed. The 'leave it to the last minute' attitude still exists, but the work does get down and certainly won't be left to the last minute before an exam. The workload may seem larger, but the extent of the stress involved is somewhat diminished, and the results should reflect this with a significant improvement.

Are you talking about engineering or Arts? And if you're talking about Eng., what does that have to do with anything I said?

Chakar

I haven't got many complaints about Horizons just that the staff are under pressure and this drips down to us students.

Anyway Horizons has definitely been good for my education in UCD as I would imagine I learnt a lot more than in the old system as with a end of the year exam.

Samos

Sangre wrote:

Are you talking about engineering or Arts? And if you're talking about Eng., what does that have to do with anything I said?

You said in your previous post, "I'm sure if Arts students put in any hours that Engineers have to put in, they'll fly through this," and I used this as a starting point for my opinion. The new structure has actually made things easier for engineering students, I think, and so it should be even easier now for Arts students to cope.

singingstranger

It took me a genuinely long time to get to reading this whole thread and tbh at the end I'm on Kaptain and Blush's side on this one. OK, yes, basically the logistical backup to this whole system is an absolute shambles that can never be apologised for, but if the main problem is actually just with the shock factor of having a completely different system then you have to put it into perspective with the rest of life in general. There will always be significant shocks to the system where you're plunged into somewhere you genuinely don't have any experience with, and probably especially so in JHJ's case where she's had a year away from traditional academia, but life is crammed full of these cases. Moving house, breakups, ... hell, even right now I'm in the middle of a massive seachange in my life. Even in the workplace alone there'll be oodles of times where things are just plain different and there's no choice but to grin and bear it, and this is - imho anyway - just one of those times.

Again, **** that they decided to not play ball and change the whole thing for incumbent students but really, in the grand scheme of things it's not the worst thing. And the end result in practice seems to be that people are being forced to go by their idealistic plans and actually maintain a certain level of study throughout the entire year. That can hardly be a bad thing, can it?

gubbie

Sangre wrote:

Anyway, I'm sure if Arts students put in any hours that Engineers have to put in, they'll fly through this. The fact that its a devasting blow that you've had to hand in 3 in the same week shows the 'leave it to the last minute' attitude.

Couldn't agree with you more.

It annoys me when arts students complain about having 3 essays due in a week... don't ye guys get about 3 weeks to do each one... an essay per week sounds pretty fair to me considering ye guys have 10-15 hours of lectures. I can only speak from personal experience but when you've 30 hours of lectures and practicals a week, and 20 hours of reports, assignments and projects, then you can complain. At least be happy that ye don't have to be in for 9 every morning!

Sangre

Samos wrote:

You said in your previous post, "I'm sure if Arts students put in any hours that Engineers have to put in, they'll fly through this," and I used this as a starting point for my opinion. The new structure has actually made things easier for engineering students, I think, and so it should be even easier now for Arts students to cope.

Oh right, thought you were disagreeing with hours put engineering put in or something when I was only using them as an example.

snickerpuss

I still haven't been registered properly. Also they changed the time of one of my next semester lectures and didn't even tell the lecturer so now i have to pick a different art history course, but of course i can't because enrollment is finished.

UCD this year is a mess.

Anyway the amount of essays this year doesn't really bother me, its just the length.

arbeitsscheuer

snickerpuss wrote:

I still haven't been registered properly. Also they changed the time of one of my next semester lectures and didn't even tell the lecturer so now i have to pick a different art history course, but of course i can't because enrollment is finished.

UCD this year is a mess.

Anyway the amount of essays this year doesn't really bother me, its just the length.

Likewise.

Hate to flog a dead horse (honest), but the registration is an utter, utter joke. Can't enrol; can't pay fees, can't get student card, can't use library.

Which I really fúckin need right now as I'm sposed to get books out to pick a more specific approach for my dissertation topic.

I'd drop out, but then what would I be left with to bítch about?

Cheers UCD. For consistently being substandard. And then some.

*blows a kiss

tintinr35

arbeitsscheuer wrote:

Likewise.

Hate to flog a dead horse (honest), but the registration is an utter, utter joke. Can't enrol; can't pay fees, can't get student card, can't use library.

Which I really fúckin need right now as I'm sposed to get books out to pick a more specific approach for my dissertation topic.

I'd drop out, but then what would I be left with to bítch about?

Cheers UCD. For consistently being substandard. And then some.

*blows a kiss

u knew what it was like why did u come back and do ur masters here :rolleyes:

Jonny Arson

tintinr35 wrote:

u knew what it was like why did u come back and do ur masters here :rolleyes:

Aye exactly, the arrogance of that Seb chap to stick with his masters course is frankly disgusting. How dare anyone not to take a defeatist attitude by not giving up on something for which they spent 3 years trying to achieve. Sure what help is having access to the library if you're taking a masters? Shame on you Seb

humbert

arbeitsscheuer wrote:

Likewise.

Hate to flog a dead horse (honest), but the registration is an utter, utter joke. Can't enrol; can't pay fees, can't get student card, can't use library.

Which I really fúckin need right now as I'm sposed to get books out to pick a more specific approach for my dissertation topic.

I'd drop out, but then what would I be left with to bítch about?

Cheers UCD. For consistently being substandard. And then some.

*blows a kiss

For what it's worth, my student card from last year(still haven't gotten around to updating it) is still working in the library, maybe because so many people are having trouble.

tintinr35

i still haven got my new student card and my old one is working fine but if anyones is not they can get a pass from the desk at the front!!

panda100

tintinr35 wrote:

u knew what it was like why did u come back and do ur masters here :rolleyes:

My sentiments exactly!

Blush_01

To be honest guys, that's not fair. As bolloxed up as the place was last year, it didn't effect people half as much as it is doing this year. This year is more of a shambles than UCD has ever been before where Arts and Humanities is concerned.

Also, Conor, who would be telling you that there's a problem with Horizons? The entire college has been f*cked over in order to impliment the bloody programme. What would make people complain to you personally about it?