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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBUto feel so angry with Dd's Uni

377 replies

Booklover123 · 09/05/2017 22:46

Dd taking her finals, first exam was today. Phoned me straight after distraught, as they had failed to provide the necessary appendices. Entire room were in tears, invigilators contacted dpt but to no avail.Were told to continue exam which they could not without the supplementary information! Tonight dd has received an e mail from said dpt "apologising for the error and mistake will be rectified". But how wii this be done? AIBU to be absolutely fuming with this utter balls up happening?

OP posts:
LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt · 09/05/2017 23:44

At the end of the day, universities are now a business and need to be held accountable

The department emailed the students shortly afterwards, acknowledged the mistake and said it would be sorted out. That sounds like accountability to me. Unless you are saying that businesses never make mistakes? Which is very much not the case, in my experience.

BeeThirtythree · 09/05/2017 23:44

zimmerzammer I think revision would be effected as students then spend time trying to sort this exam mess out, writing letters of complaint etc .
So we should all adopt a ' life's just shit,sometimes' attitude, repress any emotion and just accept any wrongdoing towards us.

TrinityTaylor · 09/05/2017 23:46

jesus i don't think my mum even knew when my exams were, never mind ringing her in tears. are you going to send an angry note to the teacher op?

grannytomine · 09/05/2017 23:46

Reminded me of my finals back in the dark ages. Invigilators were two retired members of staff. I got soaked getting there and it was freezing, there was a door just outside the hall that banged shut about every two minutes and people kept popping in to speak to their former colleagues and would whisper loudly. I got a thumping headache and was royally pissed up and stood up and ripped my answer paper in two. Everything stopped, the visitors left the invigilators looked uncomfortable and I couldn't move. After what felt like an age I sat down and they brought me a new answer paper. I was still cold and wet and the door still banged but at least I didn't feel like we were spoiling a reunion just by being there.

I did a letter of complaint, I passed the exam but don't know if my letter helped.

I'm so glad I will never have to take exams again.

Original poster
Booklover123 · 09/05/2017 23:46

Kelly, I do think individuals should be answerable. Too many are carried along by their colleagues for years on end. Look at those poor women butchered by their breast surgeon in court last week

OP posts:
Topas0117 · 09/05/2017 23:48

Jesus stop being so hysterical!

The uni aren't going to let their cock up anybody's marks in any way! It most certainly won't have an impact on her degree result or future prospects. Take a chill pill.

grannytomine · 09/05/2017 23:49

We all loved our worst lecturer, he was so rubbish we all thought we would fail his module and he must have thought the same as he pretty well gave us the answers the week before the exam.

KellysZeros · 09/05/2017 23:50

I also agree staff should be accountable, but you directly stated you hoped the lecturer would be sacked for this, without knowing it was anything to do with him/her, and for cancelling a few lectures (which again, may have been for an important grant panel, an urgent operation, funeral)

Original poster
Booklover123 · 09/05/2017 23:50

Granny, they certainly don,t like this particular lecturer!

OP posts:
TrinityTaylor · 09/05/2017 23:51

why are you so involved in your adult child's life?

i'm very close to my mum, but uni is uni - it's for getting pissed and doing stuff WITHOUT your parents butting in and is a huge way of learning independence.

SuperBeagle · 09/05/2017 23:51

If your DD is so concerned about the long term impact of this one exam, it makes me wonder what her grades are like on the whole.

BeeThirtythree · 09/05/2017 23:51

Oh so the students cried! It's their first exam, full of nerves, probably sleep deprived from revising...find they can not complete the paper, the information they are getting does not seem promising, nobody is managing to rectify this problem...so of course they were distraught, they had not received the email at that point! They are told to carry on, but can't! Go paint a house, but you have no paintbrush, oh and this will determine if you qualify as a painter!

Original poster
Booklover123 · 09/05/2017 23:52

Yes, that's a fair point, Kelly.

OP posts:
Sprinklestar · 09/05/2017 23:53

Lord - it's a pretty basic error though in a world that holds exams extremely regularly! Maybe I'm an anomaly but I like to expect more than the lowest common denominator - particularly so when I'm paying the best part of £10K per year for the privilege.

Original poster
Booklover123 · 09/05/2017 23:54

Bee, you are on my wavelength! My thoughts exactly . Thanks for your empathy and understanding.

OP posts:
TrinityTaylor · 09/05/2017 23:55

bee - good test of who has a brain or not though, in my opinion. Improvisation is a big part of life.

LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt · 09/05/2017 23:55

I had to cancel (reschedule) a couple of lectures due to a bereavement last term. I'm glad I didn't have parents baying for my blood.

TrinityTaylor · 09/05/2017 23:56

LordRothermere - parents should have nothing to do with uni, IMO. If a person can't cope there without their parents, they shouldn't be there.

Sprinklestar · 09/05/2017 23:58

And to all the posters wondering about parental involvement, the way the system is set up now means it's more than likely that the parents have paid their son or daughter's fees. Rightly or wrongly, I'd be upset if I felt my money had been wasted on a badly run course! Of course no one is infallible, but if you're in the exams business, you should run exams well. It's all very well owning your mistake, but that mistake shouldn't have happened in the first place...

Original poster
Booklover123 · 09/05/2017 23:59

Trinity, yes indeed uni is for having fun etc but there is a serious side to it especially as fees are now so expensive. I am pleased that my dd feels she can phone me and that we have a caring and supportive relationship and think my dd does not regard it as overbearing!

OP posts:
TrinityTaylor · 09/05/2017 23:59

but it has, and it's being fixed, so why the hysteria?

KellysZeros · 10/05/2017 00:01

But it is such an easy mistake to make. Exams office with 100 sets of exam papers forget to include an appendix. The mistake will be rectified. There's nothing to suggest it's a badly run course.

This attitude is one of the unfortunate consequences of fees, and making people think they're paying for a degree.

Out2pasture · 10/05/2017 00:01

odd your dd was that upset, i'm sure some of the students were relieved...yes the uni will take care of this.
for one of my highschool final provincial exams (so age 17) we were sent the wrong biology exam (rather than anatomy it was botany) everyone thought it weird we poked along and never thought more of it, yes the school fixed it.

bumblingbovine49 · 10/05/2017 00:01

The results and problem in the exam will be discussed at the exam committee where all the results are discussed and approved before being awarded. A decision will be made so that students don't lose out.

It is a pain when this happens but my experience of about 25 different exam committees over 7 years, this sort of thing happens in about 1 or 2 units every 3-4 meetings. Given that one meeting will deal with the results from 30-80 units (depending on the number of subjects dealt with) it is not that common but it happens often enough for procedures to be put in place. Don't worry about it.

LordRothermereBlackshirtCunt · 10/05/2017 00:02

It's not that "basic" an error. There is a whole chain of people and processes involved between the lecturer writing the paper and it appearing on the student's exam desk (which is why baying for the lecturer's blood seems premature, without knowing the details).There are often several concurrent exams, involving a few hundred students in each exam hall at any one time. It's not great that this has happened, by any means, but it's not that simple a thing to organise exams for tens of thousands of students over a month-long period.