To give up

[Headdesk]

Im going a degree that I thought I'd love and I did, but now I'm failing. Im doing well on the practical part of it but the essay parts I'm failing. I failed my last essay which I'm now having to re do. I'm in second year and I should be doing better, but if I'm failing at this stage then how am I going to write my dissertation? The worst part is I just sent my essay to my lecturer to read over before I hand it in and he sent it back saying it's going in the right general direction but I need to do more, I worked so hard on this redo and I feel it's the best I can do. I'm really considering giving up because I don't think I can do any better :(

Can you access some pastoral help and just have a good chat about things? What about fellow students? Are they struggling too? Are the lectures accessable and helpful enough?

My ds jacked in uni in year 2 and we have since heard that the uni had a bad Ofsted regarding the lazy arse lecturers and lack of support.

You are paying for this degree so go and kick ass. If you need more help you should get it. Don't give up yet.

what degree subjects are you doing?
can any of the other students give you some help?

what did the lecturer say do you need to 'do more of' in your essay?

My lecturer is brilliant, he told me the books the read and helped me a lot but Im trying my hardest and I'm just not getting it. I ve rewritten this essay so many times and I thought it was good but then to have it sent back and say it's not is really disheartening. My deadline is Monday and I really don't know what to do. I absolutely love the practical side of my degree and if it was all that I'd be fine. I've never been good at writing.

I do Photography. Apparently a lot of other students failed this unit too.

Headdesk, I do private tutoring to support essay writing for £25/hr. If you want me to have a read through and give you some feedback, I could do so? It may help to see where you are going wrong and have some specific guidance on how to improve? PM me if interested.

You see if it's true that lots of students are failing then it's the quality of the teaching.

Do you have contact with other students and if so talk to them.

Not sure some lecturers realise that they are actually supposed to be teaching students who are paying good money to learn and he may well be nice but still need a kick up the arse!

It's not the lecturers, the students that failed are all the ones who go out every night and do a lot of drugs (Which I am not like at all! I'm just stupid).

Essay writing is a very specific skill, that takes a very specific brain/mindset. Given that you are taking, and enjoying, a course in photography, which is a creative, Left-brain activity, it's no surprise that you might find a right-brain activity like essay writing tricky. It doesn't mean you're stupid at all, just that your brain is constructed in a way that means you are stronger on the creative side. I'd either go back to your tutor and ask if can have a special session on how to construct an essay, because you feel like you're missing som chunks of knowledge, or maybe find a post-grad from your course who could advise on 'what good looks like'. You can't amend if you don't know what you are aiming for. Best of luck.

Your university should have a team of staff who can help with academic writing structure, planning essays etc. Ask in your university's library or Student Services if your tutor's not aware of them but they should be there.

and you're not stupid - stupid people don't get half way through a degree.

I think it's purely luck and the fact I'm pretty good at photography that I've got this far tbh, though my highest mark last year was from my essay, I don't understand where I'm going wrong this year. I've seen my lecturer a lot more than other students this unit about this essay and I'm still not getting where I'm going wrong. I emailed him saying I'm not sure I can carry on because I'm not understanding what I'm doing wrong and he told me to go see him tomorrow which I will.
He's been a brilliant lecturer, not just with the unit, I've had a lot of issues since I started uni (separation and divorce and depression) and he's always been brilliant. I can't fault his teaching at all. It's all me.

you are not stupid

Take peterParkers advice.'

However your attitude to your self worries me op. You sound very down.

Oh just seem your last post op.

Go to see him tomorrow and hopefully he can help you more. He sounds a good one.

There are books that give help with essay writing and I found they really helped me when I started my open uni degree. I was always pretty good at essay writing but got out of the habit between college and starting my degree and this book helped get me back into it.

As pp have said though, if you're very creative it isn't surprising you find essays a bit tricky. I'm the opposite and find essays okay once I've worked out what needs doing but I'm not overly creative.

Seriously up, do consider coming to see me and / or getting a tutor who can help you. Essay writing is actually not that difficult when you have a good structure to follow and are aware of what you need to do, step by step. Many students don't know how to write properly going into university, but you can absolutely learn to write decent essays.

Oddly I used to be a teaching assistant for uni courses in photography, as well as worked in photography and as a photographer for years- do be in touch if you think I can help!

Your university will have an academic support service which will be very used to supporting students with academic writing; essay writing is something that a lot of students struggle with. Look in your course or student handbook for academic support or learning support information, or ask your tutor.

You should also look into mitigation for your personal circumstances. Don't wait for it all to go wrong, take action now to access support and have your difficult personal circumstances taken into account. If this is your second attempt at the essay, you need to get support as soon as possible.

You are NOT stupid! You just need some targeted support for academic writing and for your personal / medical issues. Anyone would struggle with separation/divorce/depression and it will have made essay writing even more difficult for you.

I'm in uni all day tomorrow so I'm going to see him then in going to go to student advice. I just feel like absolute shit, I've never given up on things easily but I really feel like ive just had enough now.

If you're having personal difficulties, you might be struggling to structure your thinking in the essay. Sometimes these kinds of issues can cause people to lose their intellectual focus. You're definitely not stupid.

Getting that structured thinking back is definitely possible. You need to break everything down into small units. Make sure you understand the topic of the essay - usually it's something that scholars have debated, so you need to think about why the question is important. Then you need to think about how the different scholars you've read have addressed the topic, and about what is at stake in each argument. See if you can summarise the main argument of each thing you've read in one sentence (hard, but possible: pick the main thing that differentiates one piece of reading from all the others). Then think about who has the best argument and why. Once you have these building blocks you can structure your essay around them.

Your lecturers will be looking for you to demonstrate that you can think critically about the topic and that you can evaluate the arguments that scholars have made. You should be drawing conclusions using this scholarly discussion as evidence.

Ideally your university will have a marking scale with descriptions of what makes an essay an A grade, a B grade and so on. Most universities have them on the website somewhere. It can be useful to look at it to see whether you're doing what you need to do in order to get a higher grade (for example, a C grade essay is descriptive, whereas an A grade essay is evaluative - so you should evaluate what you've read about instead of just describing it).

Hope that helps a bit, and that you have a good meeting with your lecturer tomorrow.

I agree with others that you are not stupid, it is a matter of shifting from the more lateral, creative, image-based thinking to the very different type of thinking required for essay writing.

As well as the other suggestions here, try a few quick 'mind gym' exercises when you need to swap from one to the other (especially from photography practicals to written word).
Things like focussing on long distance then something nearby, then far. Figure of eight eye movements. Also a short burst of meditation before imagining words on a page and allowing essay structure and related thoughts to calmly return to your mind in an ordered way that you control.

HHave you seen examples of essays that past students have done on related subjects which got top marks? This can help with pointers of how to get the extra marks on paper.
Also, what is the exact marking scheme? Can you look it up for your course ao that you know what they are looking for?

Thanks for the suggestions, I will try them. I'm just struggling a lot. I don't want to quit, I had my career all planned out after uni and now it just seems like it's impossible.

It is really not uncommon to feel like this. Whatever you decide to do, accept that there are lots of options open to you. Lots of people feel like this in their second year and go on to get a good degree. Equally lots of people feel like this and then decide to stop their degree and go on to do something else (and learn lots from.it and often do really well - so don't be scared of that!)

Don't base your decisions on your feelings. Talk to the lecturer, listen and make notes. Ask him what specifically needs to change and what you need to include for the grade you are aiming for. (Check to see if this is online first though, if it is, print it off and ask him a couple of questions about it in relation to your own essay.)

Hi everyone
I just thought I'd come back and update. I passed my re-take. My lecturer sat me down and told me that I wasn't allowed to quit because I'd worked so hard to get here and already got through a lot of hard stuff in my personal life and he'd be very disappointed if I just gave up. So he gave me more stuff to read and I re-wrote the whole thing and passed :) im so relieved. I've also got my motivation back, Im excited about my projects again and have been told by my other lecturer that if my next project works out how I planned then I'll be getting good marks.
Anyway I just wanted to say thanks for all your advice and help :)

Well done. Fantastic news.

How brilliant!!!!!