Schols Schols Schols, information and venting thread.

swimfan22

I was scheduled to have two exams on Monday, which while far from ideal, I had resigned myself to doing them & was prepared. I hate to think what a rejigged timetable will look like...

PurpleFistMixer

Jesus, I didn't think they could give 2 exams in one day... both 3 hour exams?

swimfan22

They were both two hour ones. I suppose when timetabling for the week is so tight, they were inevitably going to have to have ones in the morning and afternoon. I like the two subjects involved, so while my initial reaction was 'Oh my...', I just got on with it. Now though? Who knows?! When are they likely to have decided on a revised schedule I wonder?

d93c2inhxfok4y

Let the guesswork begin?

I think you're right PFM in thinking Saturday...
The exam I had postponed was Business 1. Sociology 2 was also postponed. I've been looking at the timetable, and between BESS, MSIS and Business and a Language, there's at least two exams scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday that people taking Business 1 will be taking. I'm not sure about Sociology.

So unless they put three exams on in one day, it can't be on those days. I seriously don't see this happening. There's a free slot on Thursday alright where they could fit Business 1 in, so maybe it'll be on then.

But that's relying on Sociology being able to fit in somewhere, and not only that, pretty much every other paper that has been cancelled. I think it's really likely that the whole day will be shifted to saturday. They're really really not going to want to have them on when lectures are starting back. I think, barring further cancellations 'cos of more snow, they'll be on saturday.


/guesswork

swimfan22

Has anyone heard anything? Seems ridiculous that at 4.30 the day before exams were due to start there has been no word of any kind...

PurpleFistMixer

Got an email saying the exam's been postponed. When to is still a mystery. Thankfully I've wasted most of today refreshing the page and being pissed off, so I'll be set for whenever the exam actually happens.

desertstorm

and my timetable had been spaced out so good

this is all mightily annoying

CaramelBear

Monday, Wednesday, Friday. All 3 in the morning. It was perfect!
God knows, they might shift it off to Sunday even - in which case I simply refuse to sit them. Hmph. Snow is forecast for all of tomorrow. Chances are, Tuesday's exams might get postponed too. The whole year has been a mess from the start, with or without snow!

PurpleFistMixer

Oh god, please not Sunday... Restaurant reservation we definitely wouldn't be getting back...

Also, does anyone have any idea when we're going to get more information? Whether or not I have an exam on Tuesday has a pretty big impact on what I study tomorrow, so I'd sort of like to know...

swimfan22

I reckon it'll probably be tomorrow before anything is announced (possibly even decided!) at this stage. PFM I know exactly where you're coming from, I had two scheduled for Monday but I also have (had?) one on Tuesday: is everything just being pushed back a day, or is Monday being rerun but on a different day? Stresssssss.....

PurpleFistMixer

If they announce on Monday that the exams are on Tuesday that's pretty poor form, but I guess postponing the exam the day before is almost as bad so I wouldn't put it past them... I'd like for the exam to be on Tuesday, but I'd like more than a few hours (worth of study time) notice...

CaramelBear

Our class rep, along with TP's rep had sent an email asking the exams office and senior lecturer to consider giving us proper notice, at least 24 hours, about when the exams have been rescheduled for. Techinically, they shouldn't need such emails at all... But we decided since nobody's sure just on what system the college is run... <begins swearing at this point>

swimfan22

CaramelBear wrote: »

Our class rep, along with TP's rep had sent an email asking the exams office and senior lecturer to consider giving us proper notice, at least 24 hours, about when the exams have been rescheduled for. Techinically, they shouldn't need such emails at all... But we decided since nobody's sure just on what system the college is run... <begins swearing at this point>

Totally agree. I don't disagree with exams being postponed on the grounds of safety etc, but giving less than 24 hours notice AND then not providing any further information (despite the notice on the College website saying further details will be posted "as soon as possible" :rolleyes:) is just disgraceful. It's stress students do not need.

What's most galling is that they specifically sent out an email on Friday evening saying everything would go ahead, to basically suck it up & have plans in place to get yourself to campus, only to do a complete U-turn. Aaargh.

PurpleFistMixer

Yeah this is a bit ridiculous. Whatever, reschedule it, I can get over that the order of my exams may be changed, but I need to know WHEN they're happening. Even a tiny update to the website like "Sorry for the delay, we're still trying to figure out when to reschedule to" or anything to let us know that they're at least doing something about it would be nice...

dabh

With all due respect, I would suggest that people are being a bit unrealistic if they expect alternative arrangements to spring into place in the space of a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. Sunday happens not to be a normal working day. It is one thing for two or three senior people to keep in contact over the weekend to make a judgment call on the prospects for the weather. But to put in place alternative arrangements ... does it not occur to people that adminstrators would have to meet up, discuss arrangements with one another, take a decision on whether other days are likely to fall foul of the anticipated weather, check their files, meet up with other adminstrators, phone other administrators in their offices, book venues, get executive officers to, er, execute various necessary tasks on their desktop computers... These sorts of things are not going to happen on a Sunday evening!

My guess is that the Schol exams will finish one day later than originally planned, and that all papers scheduled for tomorrow, Monday, will be moved to the final day. I suspect that the last thing they would want to do would be to unpick the timetables for the remaining days, given the complexity of making things work for TSM etc. They will need to check that venues are available, and kick other people out of those venues if necessary. And I suspect that they would not have a problem timetabling the papers during teaching term. But there will be knock-on effects on examiners' meetings, deadlines for returning marks etc.

But, whilst the email says that information will be published on the website 'as soon as possible', stuff is unlikely to appear there until the arrangements are cut and dried, rooms booked etc.

shay_562

dabh wrote: »

With all due respect, I would suggest that people are being a bit unrealistic if they expect alternative arrangements to spring into place in the space of a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. Sunday happens not to be a normal working day. It is one thing for two or three senior people to keep in contact over the weekend to make a judgment call on the prospects for the weather. But to put in place alternative arrangements ... does it not occur to people that adminstrators would have to meet up, discuss arrangements with one another, take a decision on whether other days are likely to fall foul of the anticipated weather, check their files, meet up with other adminstrators, phone other administrators in their offices, book venues, get executive officers to, er, execute various necessary tasks on their desktop computers... These sorts of things are not going to happen on a Sunday evening!

Yeah, but surely that's the kind of thing that they might have anticipated at some stage last week when the weather was terrible and they were sending out e-mails assuring people that the exams would go ahead? It would have been much more sensible to work out a contingency plan well in advance so that the e-mails today could say "Exams on Monday postponed until X date, the rest will continue as normal weather allowing" rather than "Exams on Monday postponed until sometime. The rest will be something. I guess. Kinda. Keep an eye on the website, won't you?"

Everyone doing schols, good luck! Hope this ****up doesn't throw any of ye off too much!

dabh

shay_562 wrote: »

Yeah, but surely that's the kind of thing that they might have anticipated at some stage last week when the weather was terrible and they were sending out e-mails assuring people that the exams would go ahead? It would have been much more sensible to work out a contingency plan well in advance so that the e-mails today could say "Exams on Monday postponed until X date, the rest will continue as normal weather allowing" rather than "Exams on Monday postponed until sometime. The rest will be something. I guess. Kinda. Keep an eye on the website, won't you?"

Well, I believe it is common practice for businesses to arrange for stock to be delivered "just in time", so that they don't have lots of stock hanging around in large expensive warehouses. Businesses and institutions may adopt a similar policy towards so-called "human resources". (Not a term I like! To be considered as a mere "resource"...)

From my observation, the Exams Office operates with a skeleton staff outside the big examination periods. They draft in extra clerical staff when the exams are running. Given all the changes to both the time and the nature of the Schol exam, I suspect that getting things in place for this year would have involved a significantly greater degree of hassle for them. The small contingent of people who normally work there may well not have had the luxury of dividing their time between finalizing the arrangements (on the assumption that things will be working normally) and also implementing contingency plans.

CaramelBear

While that is understandable, the weather has been bad for weeks in places.They could have anticipated it, and at least begun thinking about a plan B. Stress for Schols is high anytime, the changes in the Schols layout was an extra stressor this year; this not-knowing-when-the next-exam-is madness need not be added to it as well =( Sigh. I just hope we get something at least by today. I didn't really expect any info yesterday: it was a Sunday. But today, they'll have to tell us something. I'm close to breaking point =/

pocket aces

CaramelBear wrote: »

But today, they'll have to tell us something. I'm close to breaking point =/

Same here, my head is all over the place. I just need to know!! Hoping monday's exam will be moved to saturday- doing anything else would just be a nightmare for the organisers, with the number of courses involved. Just have to convince myself to work hard the next few days!!! :pac:

PurpleFistMixer

I'm currently operating off the assumption that Monday's exam is going to be after the rest of the exams, so I'm putting it on the backburner for now. If they turn around and tell us it's tomorrow at some point during the afternoon (which I won't actually know about because I'll be in the library with no access to the internet) it'll be pretty bad. Here's hoping that doesn't happen.

Liquorice

Just wanted to pop in and wish you guys all the best.

The postponement really sucks. I would say 'don't sweat it' but schols makes people so highly strung that oversleeping by two minutes or misplacing a pen will send the most rational person into a VISION OF DOOM. I can only imagine what not knowing when an exam is going to be is worse.

But hey, try not to sweat it.

swimfan22

http://www.tcd.ie/Communications/news/news.php?headerID=1368&vs_date=2010-1-1

So everything's proceeding as normal for Tuesday-Friday. Still no word of when today's postponed ones will be, wonder what the problem is?

mathew

Just like to say best of luck to everyone.
The postponed exams are a bit of a pain in the neck.. but not much can be done about that I suppose.
Hope all the exams go well for everyone. You'll be glad you put in the effort!

dabh

swimfan22 wrote: »

http://www.tcd.ie/Communications/news/news.php?headerID=1368&vs_date=2010-1-1

So everything's proceeding as normal for Tuesday-Friday. Still no word of when today's postponed ones will be, wonder what the problem is?

I note that there are re-scheduled exams posted up now. A handful on Wed, rather more on Thu and Fri, and a few held over to next Mon.

Timetable of rescheduled papers linked to the following (which is the same link as in the quoted post):

http://www.tcd.ie/Communications/news/news.php?headerID=1368&vs_date=2010-1-1

I don't know how long this has been up, but noone seems to have commented on it in this thread.

TheAmateur

dabh wrote: »

I note that there are re-scheduled exams posted up now. A handful on Wed, rather more on Thu and Fri, and a few held over to next Mon.

Timetable of rescheduled papers linked to the following (which is the same link as in the quoted post):

http://www.tcd.ie/Communications/news/news.php?headerID=1368&vs_date=2010-1-1

I don't know how long this has been up, but noone seems to have commented on it in this thread.

Think it's up less than an hour, got the email about 25mins ago.
So, now eng have exams tommorow, thursday and friday.
Anyone care to tell me where this "Exam Hall" is? Is it the one on the right as you walk in front arch, where we usually re-reg?

mathew

Thats the one... bring a jumper

CaramelBear

I now have two of my hardest subjects on the same day... I was at least hoping for Saturday... I now have to cut my revision time in half. Well, I suppose this means I can go see Avatar on Friday evening itself

ronivek

Best of luck everyone doing Schols, it's one of the things I regret not doing

Sir Ophiuchus

Hoo-boy. Neuroscience and Critical and Cultural Theory tomorrow? Wish me luck, folks!

lou91

Sir Ophiuchus wrote: »

Hoo-boy. Neuroscience and Critical and Cultural Theory tomorrow? Wish me luck, folks!

I'm sure Shane O Mara will give you bonus points if you mention his sacred dancing hair cell video.
After looking through this thread, it seems like you're the only one determined/insane enough to be going for schols for a second time!
Good luck!