Urgent advice wanted - dd at uni about to hand in essays late and lose 5 marks for each - should she speak to tutor?

[Mumofunibaby]

Just that. My dd is in her 2nd year at uni and had 3 essays due together (2 yesterday, one today). She got in a right state and handed in 1 essay a few hours late yesterday, the second she is just finishing now (was also due by 2pm yesterday) and as a result, the third essay due today will also now be a few hours late.

The problem is that her uni deducts 5 marks per 24 hours an essay is late. So she is likely to lose 3 x 5 marks in total. Which is a lot. And a real shame as she just scraped a first in her first year grades, but could end up with a 2.2 in her final degree now.

She is dyslexic but hasn't registered as such at uni, partly because she struggled to organise a dyslexia assessment during lockdown.

Could anyone with recent uni experience or who is a tutor please advise - is it worth her contacting her personal or subject tutors to ask for some leniency? She says there is no point as they won't give any and stress you lose 5 marks if your essay is 1 minute late, let alone a few hours. But that does seem really harsh, as it's basically because they've all come at once so being late with the first one has had a domino effect on all the others.

She is very stressed and has been in floods of tears about this.

All suggestions appreciated. Thank you!

OP, do you think your Daughter might have ADD/ADHD or is she simply disorganized? She might want to look into that too. None of this will help with her current predicament however. This lesson learned the hard way may force her to address this for once and for all, although that is a bitter pill to swallow.

You get told well in advance when essays are due, so I do think time management is the issue here. It can be hard for students when deadlines are all in one week or a few days, but that's just the way university is.

In regards to her final grade, she has second semester, and next year too. So has plenty of time to make up for it and bring her grades up.

To be honest, I think your worry and effort is misplaced here. I wouldn't be stressing about how she can make sure she doesn't get marks deducted, when it is fair that she does (unless there are other reasons we are unaware of as to why the essays weren't done in advance). I'd be focusing on searching for help in regards to her dyslexia. If she's struggling to organise that, then that's where she may need her help. Student services are there to help, so would be best to get in touch with them.

If she struggles accessing the forms and filling them all in, could she go speak to student services or the student support officer? I know with Covid it’s not as simple as walking into their office, but maybe she could write a short email or give them a quick call to request a face to face / zoom conversation on the subject.

@Hemingwayzcatz

She should apply for extensions if she’s struggling to meet the deadline. The uni won’t bend the rules for her and why should they, dyslexia isn’t an excuse for poor time management.

I mean, it really really is!

@Aquamarine1029

Sorry, but your daughter has to deal with the consequences of her disorganization and lack of preparedness. Hopefully, she'll learn from it.

100% agree here.

Also she needs to register her dyslexia.

Sounds like problems completing/finishing work, please get her to seek help at uni to support her - it's not about her capability it's about her wider personality type with finishing work I'd guess

20 years in HE is a support role. Actually, learning support plans will often stipulate that disabled students can have extensions and also that course should avoid clashing deadlines if at all possible. So it’s not as straightforward as saying it needs to be managed. I second, personal tutor/academic advisor, the departmental/faculty support person (there is usually one) and the academic/admin who helps with disability - look them up for her if you need to.

She sounds like she has got completely overwhelmed and got very anxious. She needs some short term support and some more longitudinal learning support. But make a case now in that short term.

Also, ime you get told right at the start of the module when the essays are due. If thats the case here she will have had months of notice for this. Im lacking in sympathy for her tbh.

Perhaps talk to her about time management.

I think you're misunderstanding how classifications are worked out. Five marks lost on four pieces of work is not going to send her from a first to a 2:2.

@Mumofunibaby

Thanks. Yes, she has had weeks to do these essays. So it's not that it's a surprise. But she certainly hasn't just left them to the last minute to start - she's been working on them for weeks, all through the Christmas holidays (barely had a day off). She is very conscientious and gets stressed trying to make them perfect.

She has been late with one essay before (and took the 5 mark hit without complaining, as she assumed it would be a one off). But I feel awful for her as with that, this is now going to be 20 marks she's lost, and her final degree classification is based on performance in essays - there are no final exams for her to redeem herself in.

Her essays are excellent (as I said, she got a first last year). But she clearly struggles with time management, and I don't know whether that's related to her dyslexia, or to stress or what...

We are certainly encouraging her to seek help with time management and dyslexia going forwards. Part of the problem is that the dyslexia makes it hard for her to navigate accessing the dyslexia support system and filling in the correct forms etc, IYSWIM.

Thanks so much for all the advice.

I know exactly what this is like, I was exactly the same and unfortunately my Daughter was too. Its not helpful for posters to pile in with the "why's). If you can't imagine any of the why's don't waste people's time asking.

I would say absolutely talk to tutor or whoever is marking. I had one friend who handed in every essay late and always got extensions - I never thought to ask. The one time I did ask I said the reason as time management and they did give me the extension. She really won’t know unless she asks.

Does she have a personal tutor who could assist with a referral ? Can you help with the paperwork, or the support staff would if she met them.

Forgot to answer your question OP, she should just try to get them in now, I doubt she can get any leeway after the fact but hopefully she can get advice going forward.

If her grade is completely based on essays then one thing they are continuously testing is time management. She's going to lose 5 marks every time if she doesn't get on top of this. Your energy would be better spent helping her contact student services, get her dyslexia recorded and encouraging her to speak up when she's overwhelmed. Some CBT may also be helpful if perfectionism is the root of her issues.

I honestly don't want to put the boot in though, but this is why young grads get a bad rep... she needs to be managing this herself.

She had extra time at school due to dyslexia. Her eye tracking is on the 20th percentile, so she struggles to read small type particularly. And she is doing an essay subject, so a lot of reading. So I imagine it probably does take her longer than the typical student to do the reading.

I am not sure if anxiety is also a factor here.

A lot of the problem is she has done so much reading, for these recent essays, that her word counts are way too high, so she is having to spend lots of time reducing her word count or her essays would fail right off, because they were overlength. So she can't physically hand them in till she's done that.

The reason she didn't apply for extensions before is because she was convinced she was going to get them all in on time. But everything she's setting out to do is taking her longer (much longer) than she calculates. She just seems very poor at estimating how long it will take her to do things.

In answer to the question above, she was getting high 60s to low 70s in her essays previously. So 5 marks off could bring her down to low 60s (out if 100). I'm not sure where the 2:1/2:2 cutoff is?

She is very conscientious and gets stressed trying to make them perfect.

This is something she is going to need to learn how to balance with having work completed ON TIME!!

We've all worked with the perfectionist who can't meet a deadline and leaves the whole team struggling to compensate.

Yes I am thinking about a particular colleague...

60% is a 2.1 for most university (bar the open university)

High 60s is 2:1 not first.

Just to say that at my university (and I don't know if this is standard across all universities) if a student is diagnosed with dyslexia mid-way through the year then all the assessed work that has already been submitted in the current academic year (not in previous academic years) is then re-marked in line with dyslexia assessment guidelines. This would not automatically remove the late penalties that she has received, but its possible that other marks may be adjusted (if she had been marked down for poor sentence structure/grammar, for example). Once she's got these assessments out of the way, she should absolutely prioritise applying to be assessed. Even if no adjustments are made at her university to work already submitted, it will still be to her benefit to have the diagnosis applied to any assessed work going forward.

It's good preparation for the world of work where a deadline is a deadline.
If she was struggling she should have asked for an extension
The real adult world doesn't allow you to miss deadlines you knew were coming up then cry about it afterwards expecting dispensation

@GoGoGretaDoll

If her grade is completely based on essays then one thing they are continuously testing is time management. She's going to lose 5 marks every time if she doesn't get on top of this. Your energy would be better spent helping her contact student services, get her dyslexia recorded and encouraging her to speak up when she's overwhelmed. Some CBT may also be helpful if perfectionism is the root of her issues.

I honestly don't want to put the boot in though, but this is why young grads get a bad rep... she needs to be managing this herself.

That's pretty harsh!

She hasn't asked me (or MN) to help, or asked her tutors to disregard the late penalties.

This is me asking, nothing to do with young grads!

I'm asking because I'm her mum and frustrated watching this.

Unless she has evidence her dyslexia impacts in time management then there's not much she can do.

During my degree deadlines were made clear weeks in advance, when the task was set. This sounds like poor planning on your Dds part I'm afraid.

Hopefully she learns from this in future

@piney07

I would say absolutely talk to tutor or whoever is marking. I had one friend who handed in every essay late and always got extensions - I never thought to ask. The one time I did ask I said the reason as time management and they did give me the extension. She really won’t know unless she asks.

Thanks. I'm sure I had an extension when doing my MA but can't remember why - it didn't seem to be terribly difficult to get though. Hence my questions.

My son had a dyslexia assessment remotely last year during lockdown - an email to a raft of assessors to see who could do it was all it took , plus the £500 fee!

As everyone has said - need to ask for help before hand.

@Darhon

20 years in HE is a support role. Actually, learning support plans will often stipulate that disabled students can have extensions and also that course should avoid clashing deadlines if at all possible. So it’s not as straightforward as saying it needs to be managed. I second, personal tutor/academic advisor, the departmental/faculty support person (there is usually one) and the academic/admin who helps with disability - look them up for her if you need to.

She sounds like she has got completely overwhelmed and got very anxious. She needs some short term support and some more longitudinal learning support. But make a case now in that short term.

Thanks, really helpful post.