Somefink abaht SnM and Exams and Studying over the Summer

Stabshauptmann

I dont agree with Panda that autumn repeats would actually give lecturers more time for research. She made a logical arguement but I think that the university looked at it in more detail and came up with the layout that suited their aims best.

I agree with dajaffa that the abolision of autumn repeats was not intended to benifit students, but it has indirectly benefited some by allowing them a free summer.

I acknowledge as someone who has had to repeat under the new system that I would have done better under the old, but Im honest to say that that was purely because I managed my time wrong. The opportunities to study were not reduced.

I did not look at this purely from a commerce perspective, I said that the S&M system was in need of adjustment, that IMO the S&M in quinn worked better before the changes and this is the system that should have been adopted by brady.

gubbie

hullaballoo wrote:

And if you did do the number of specified hours, you could still find time to go out as well - maybe even to be involved in societies. The real situation is that people don't manage their time properly, and prioritise society work ahead of study, because study is a pain in the rump.

Now, if people are going to get in a hump with me just because Sangre's coming up trumps in my mind on this, you don't want no drama. No, no drama, no, no, no, no drama
So don't pull on my hand boy,
You ain't my man, boy,
I'm just tryn'a dance boy,
And move my hump.

No if you did the number of specified hours you would not have a social life in some courses-in engineering you are supposed to do two hours atonomous learning for every one hour you do in lectures. I have 30 hours a week-around 20 of these are lectures, therefore I'm supposed to do an extra 40 hours a week study? Thats about 60-70 hours of work a week. That doesn't leave much time for socialising. And considering mine and Panda's courses are so people-people, working in a team based, its something you could get major screwed in

dajaffa

mloc wrote:

On another point, dajaffa is correct in his statement that the lack of autumn exams is primarily due to providing lecturers etc with more research time. It goes deeper than this however.

Ahem, touch of deja-vu: I'M A GIRL

Stepherunie wrote:

typically for every basic physiotherapy job available in Laois (I know the head so have definite numbers) they have about 20 applications from newly qualified physiotherapists.

No, I believe she said 50! :eek:

Sangre wrote:

You've failed an exam, you have to repeat. You may not do as well as a result...how dare there be a downside to failing!!

Can I please point out that August repeats were not just for people who don't study enough + fail exams. There are many cases where people actually miss exams due to exceptional circumstances. I could list off examples, but I think we can all accept that situations like this occur quite frequently in a university of this size.

mloc

dajaffa wrote:

Ahem, touch of deja-vu: I'M A GIRL

Oops, sorry about that. A lovely girl you are too! But sure, there all lovely girls.

Sangre

dajaffa wrote:

Can I please point out that August repeats were not just for people who don't study enough + fail exams. There are many cases where people actually miss exams due to exceptional circumstances. I could list off examples, but I think we can all accept that situations like this occur quite frequently in a university of this size.

How can many people miss exams due to exceptional circumstances? They wouldn't be very exceptional then would they?

Of course it happens, the college is huge and probablity dictates it nearly must happen, but of course as I've already said, a college of this size shouldn't base a major policy on the miscircumstances of a vast minority of students.

dajaffa

Sangre wrote:

How can many people miss exams due to exceptional circumstances? They wouldn't be very exceptional then would they?

Of course it happens, the college is huge and probablity dictates it nearly must happen, but of course as I've already said, a college of this size shouldn't base a major policy on the miscircumstances of a vast minority of students.

22,000 students, there won't be huge numbers of cases, but there will be some cases every year. A major policy should allow for this.

Frankly, if we took the attitude of not giving a sh1t about a very small minority we should be ashamed of ourselves. I mean only a small minority of car drivers are involved in very serious accidents, but by no means should we disregard an improvement of road safety because the percentage of those affected is very small.

Gordon

dajaffa wrote:

I mean only a small minority of car drivers are involved in very serious accidents, but by no means should we disregard an improvement of road safety because the percentage of those affected is very small.

Woah! Bad analogy alert!

Road safety is improved to curb the accidents (nearly a good pun). Hence fewer accidents happen due to the measures in place for lessening accidents. You don't mean to say that if there were exams in August - there would be less people with extenuating circumstances do you? Exams in August would bring about less sick people/family members dying suddenly?

cast_iron

dajaffa, i hope you are not studying for anything management related. You gotta weigh up all the pros and cons and there will nearly be always a sacriface.

Sangre is right in what he says - college policy should not be set on the circumstances of a small minority. Saying that, it should be a consideration in the process, but can't 'veto' the main proposal.

dajaffa

Gordon wrote:

Woah! Bad analogy alert!

Road safety is improved to curb the accidents (nearly a good pun). Hence fewer accidents happen due to the measures in place for lessening accidents. You don't mean to say that if there were exams in August - there would be less people with extenuating circumstances do you? Exams in August would bring about less sick people/family members dying suddenly?

Ah no, what I was trying to say was that just because something doesn't affect a huge number of ppl, it can still be an important concern. I'm really not thinking straight with all the studying at the mo...

cast_iron wrote:

dajaffa, i hope you are not studying for anything management related. You gotta weigh up all the pros and cons and there will nearly be always a sacriface.

Sangre is right in what he says - college policy should not be set on the circumstances of a small minority. Saying that, it should be a consideration in the process, but can't 'veto' the main proposal.

I'm not saying it should veto the main proposal, I can see the pros of the new system too. Just so far from what the college have said I've seen little in the way of a "back-up plan" for anybody with extenuating circumstances. There will be people with extenuating circumstances for whom things will work out fine sitting the exam at the next session, but with the breadth of courses across the university, if this is the policy with no exceptions, I fear for the future of the students as they aren't being considered in the changes being made.


If I'm not making sense, I'm sorry, my brain hurts!

cast_iron

Well, I am wondering what people with extenuating circumstances will do - the ones who can't take 15/20 exams at Xmas.

Most likely repeat the year, I suppose?

dajaffa

I presume you mean 15/20 credits? Well they can take them in the summer. The greater problem is failing in the summer cause the repeat(s) in a new academic year + if you have more than 2 repeats from the summer you're losing a year.

Actually if they can't schedule exams properly now, how the hell are they going to manage when they have to factor repeats into the same session?!?

cast_iron

Maybe I'm not too familiar with this new SnM.

What I meant was, if for some reason somone couldn't sit their 7 or 8 exams in summer (due to extenuating circumstances), they would find them hard to carry over to Xmas (with another 7 or 8).

But you seem to be saying that this would never have been allowed in any case (anything over 2 means a repeat year?)?

If I'm way off in understanding this SnM, then don't bother trying to explain to me. Get back to study:D.

dajaffa

cast_iron wrote:

Maybe I'm not too familiar with this new SnM.

What I meant was, if for some reason somone couldn't sit their 7 or 8 exams in summer (due to extenuating circumstances), they would find them hard to carry over to Xmas (with another 7 or 8).

But you seem to be saying that this would never have been allowed in any case (anything over 2 means a repeat year?)?

If I'm way off in understanding this SnM, then don't bother trying to explain to me. Get back to study:D.

Basically yeah, you can only carry over 2 modules from one year to the next. If you didn't have any repeats, you'd have 6 modules in the 2nd semester. If you missed all your exams, and that resulted in you failing more than 2 modules(with continuous assessment, you could have some passed befors the final exam if you'd done very well), you'd be knocked back a year.