Does anyone understand the Oxford University undergraduate system?

[KatieMorag]

...specifically the exam system?

Are collections the same as exams elsewhere? Why are they at the start of term and not the end?

Are they set and marked by individual tutors? Or does everyone reading eg first year French sit the same exam on the same day? Or is it only those in the same college?

Why would a student have no collections because their tutor was on leave?

What happens if you fail your collections? eg in other unis you have to do resits or you can't go on to the next year

The faculty will organise some tuition and lectures and set the public exams. It depends on which subject she is studying as to how important the faculty is - if it is a science course with practicals then they are more likley to know what she is doing than if it is an arts subject.

If I were trying to track her down I would start with the University offices, but also phone the Porter's Lodge at her college as they know everything(!) (but don't tell them that you're her mother in the first instance).

You asked below about matriculation. Matriculation happens at the start of your degree at Oxford - it is essentially the ceremony which admits you to the University. It would be a challenge to manage to be rusticated prior to matriculating!

[small hi-jack: ellbell did you see my thread I've been offered some lecturing work ]

thanks ellbell. the system of class / degree exams and resits that you refer to is familiar to me, so i have been very confused by her talk of exams that don't matter and don't happen if your tutor is on mat leave

i suspect that she has been forced to take a year out because she either didn't sit or failed the penal collections at the start of year 2. she didnt tell us so we woudl fund it for her.

the dying granny story is to give a welfare reason for the year out i suspect

I don't want to put the staff in a difficult position re confidentiality. And its not life and death ( although we are pretty worried) as she is out partying every weekend, so she is coping with the "stress" ok. She is very VERY active on the university social scene IYKWIM

www.onlineexamresults.com/ will apparenlty give you her exam results (ie mods, not collections). The University site won't publish the data due to the Data Protection Act.

thanks ladymuck, its an arts subject. dont want to say which subject as i've already given so many details, i don't want to make her identifiable. not that she's on mumsnet of course

No worries! Have you found her mods result yet?

hatwoman - we have sent many many emails, with varying success. she tells us quite a lot of information, just much of it is untrue . later she says she didn't want to tell us the truth in case it worried us

no can't find mod results online. have searched the grey book i think. its defo mods at the end of 2nd term first year

Did you use my link below - someone has taken photos of the result announcments?

I must be looking in the wrong place coz there are only 6 names on the list and there are several hundred students on her course

If she sat Mods in 2nd term then that narrows down the subject, and I think that the link I posted will only show the Summer term results ie those people who failed mods first time round and then passed the resit.

If you fail the resit in the summer term then you are out (unless they've changed the rules, but this certainly used to be the case). But she would have known this before the start of the 2nd year.

i am confused... here

These are the results of those sitting the Law mods in Trinity (or summer) term, ie those who passed the resit. You would need the same info for the Hilary Term, but I don't think that that website gives it - it is only giving the Trinity term 2006 results.

oh i suspect she did know it before second year, its just we didnt

so she had a chance to resit the mods in june and didnt (or failed???)

so what exams will she have to sit to get back into second year?

Well you don't know for certain that she failed mods. All that that list of names tells you is the people who retook mods and passed. I would get onto the university offices and find out how you can get details of whether she passed mods or not.

denning.law.ox.ac.uk/published/modsexamresit.pdf is the examiners report on the summer term sitting, which indicates, together with the other page, that no-one who sat the resit failed it.

denning.law.ox.ac.uk/published/modsexam.pdf is the exam report on the Hilary Term mods - indicating that no-one who sat mods failed outright.

So from this I can deduce that your dd has not failed Mods. What I can't confirm is whether she has sat and passed them. Certainly 2 people sat the Trinity Term mods for the first time by the looks of it (only 4 people did not fully pass the Hilary Term exams).

The risk with her subject is that having done mods in spring she will have relaxed in the summer term (and I'm not sure there are many places more romantic than Oxford in the summer term, but I may be biased. If she has passsed mods then whatever requirements are now imposed on her will be imposed via her college (and primarily by her tutor).