First Year exams ( continued from prep for uni and starting uni 2015)

[voilets]

Dear all,

I have really enjoyed these threads. So if anyone else wants to keep up posts on DC travelling through trials and tribulations of uni life - do post here.

Have your DC been revising at all for instance? Do you now stand back?

Thanks for posts.

My Ds does go to revision sessions and these help but in a lab for example last week ( advertised extra help) no-one was there! He is shy to ask as it makes him feel embarrassed on quite a high flying course! He doesn't want to appear stupid.
Some lecturers have helped and that has been great. Some say no - read a book!

However, good news. He has been studying really hard and all except one exam, he now feels quietly confident. How a week or two can turn things around.

Biggest hurdle is he has not made friends on course. He told personal tutor and asked whether study groups were ever set up. The Professor did check and found out "No, we don't offer this." We had a buddy set up for 4 sessions which was very good but generally he has been alone to study. For A level he always had friends around studying together.

DS does have a history of SEN and has DSA but has made good friends elsewhere at uni. I think he feels intimidated about how clever his fellow students appear! He is bright but socially under confident. It is a huge disadvantage not to discuss work with peers.

I'm hoping we can approach uni about how to Ds can tackle this. Drop ins don't seem to happen.

DD2 has two whole days of 'open' exams.
Meanwhile DD1 is also revising for exams and her internet is broken so she has set up camp in the library.
DD3 has had an AS Maths today.

DS has his German writing GCSE tomorrow.

DH is away atm in a nice hotel. Aaargh

Good luck to all the students doing their exams. Glad your ds is feeling more positive Violets.

Ds has turned up out of the blue to use the washing machine and empty the fridge because he's so bored revising in his room in halls. He's just been moaning about the poor level of teaching of one of his subjects. Apparently the lecturer never explained anything but said in his very first lecture that nobody should ask him stupid questions because he'll just send them to find out themselves. (Seems like an unconfident teacher that avoids questions to me )

On a very different note, have your students given any thought to voting in the referendum? Bearing in mind the news that many students don't bother to vote (despite this probably being the most important election in their lifetime) I asked ds his plans. Oh yes, he wants to vote and even managed to get himself registered on the electoral role when he registered in his uni hall. But we've just cottoned on that on June 23rd he'll be home and nowhere near his uni polling station. So what do people do? Are your guys registering for postal votes? (I'm not sure how that system works).

Dd1 and dd2 have both registered to vote at home. I think there have been debates at the universities.

My DS has been organised and registered himself both at home and at uni, with postal votes for both.
Not sure that he is intending to vote twice, though!

Haffdonga - this link is to the application for postal votes

www.gov.uk/government/publications/apply-for-a-postal-vote

Thanks Selmum I will stand over ds and ensure he fills it in.

DD is registered to vote both at home and at Uni. Her uni polling card for the recent mayoral elections never turned up. Last night she texted me to say the mystery is solved: two of her flat mates had intercepted it, doodled all over it and stuck it on the kitchen noticeboard.

It seems (she told me about this when she was home three weeks ago) that bad feeling has been building up in the flat about some petty disagreement that happened in January. Two of the girls have taken against DD and her best friend. The really silly thing about it is that DD and best friend will be sharing a flat with one of these girls next year, so sh is not doing herself any favours. The polling ard things is just one of a litany of petty actions (hiding things, tearing things down off the notice board etc.) but it does seem to me to have crossed a line.

Seeing DD on Sunday when I know she will want to talk about this but I can't reallly help.

Our polling cards arrived this week including one for dd to vote here. She comes back for the holidays a few days before the referendum so that has worked out. I don't know if she is registered to vote at university - can you be registered to vote in two places?

Sounds horrid muffinmonster. Is hard waiting in wings - we can just give them options now, they have to deal with so much on their own. Horrid petty stuff though.

Am so thrilled that my DS has had really nice flatmates - some of whom he will go on to share a house with.Just need him to make buddies on course now!

Voting - card didn't arrive at uni ( is registered there and here) but we have one here for him and he will vote.

can you be registered to vote in two places?

DS1 registered at home and Uni (same one as yours, I think Mrs B). Fine to vote twice in Council Elections, amd maybe those strange PCC ones a few weeks back. Definite no for GE and Referendum. DS1 quite a keen voter but even he baulked at the crime commissioner one :)

Interesting boys. We are taking my in-laws to visit dd today so I will ask if she is registered there, too. Dd still hasn't registered for a doctor at university so the chances of her having registered to vote there are slim There was a general election when I was at university and I know I had a polling card for home and university.

Ds just finished first year exams at uni. Feels mostly went ok apart from one where he had a migraine half way through so it went a bit pear shaped. He has informed the uni of this and doesn't seem too worried but I am! They have asked for proof that he suffers from migraines so they can take this into consideration. He did visit the gp last year before A levels when he was getting them a lot, and was issued with preventative medication and a letter for 6th form, to get him through at that time, although he hasn't had a prescription for about 6 months as he stopped taking them earlier in the year. Will a letter from the gp to say that he does suffer from migraines be ok? It might not matter but he would prefer not to have to resit this particular exam if possible and I am in panic mode (that's what i do!). Anyone have similar experiences?

dd1 was ill during the first year exams. Ideally your ds must get a doctors letter ASAP for proof that it was a genuine illness. Did he go to the doctor as soon as the exam finished? Did he inform the university in writing?

The whole flat mate thing can be difficult as there are so many different expectations. One of my dd's has made friends with students who seem to want to furnish the new place from Harrods. And I'm not kidding!

Thank you. He went to the office after the exam and they told him he had to file something online and provide proof. As its not an illness as such, ongoing migraines, I'm assuming a letter from the gp will be ok. Maybe if they still have a copy of the letter issued last year that will be good to have as well. Ds is not worried as it was only one exam and he has been getting firsts in all of his assessments so far. Sorry if I sound over the top. I'm panicking and ds is so laid back about it all. It's what I do best!

We've had very little contact from DS over the last few weeks (even less than the usual meagre amount) and I was starting to get a bit worried. I knew exams were coming up but he hadn't said when they actually were.

He finally responded to my increasingly frantic requests with a "can we Skype after exams are over" yes fine I replied when is that. DS's answer was "tomorrow" That will be his fifth 3 hour exam so no wonder he's had his head down but he could have let us know that they had actually started. Obviously this is not information that I need to know. Thank goodness the term dates are on the uni website or we'd have no idea when to go and get him at the end of term.

We cleared DS's flat out on Friday afternoon. Room in section man was behind on inspections so we didn't see him. DS's room and ensuite were OK although I did take my cleaning stuff and gave it a once over. The kitchen was ok too although I wiped the cooker down, washed up the pots someone had left, wiped out the microwave and cleaned the surfaces. The last person to move out (not us) is responsible for any breakages/mess left in the kitchen but everything looked in order.

DS has got a polling card here and received one at uni too.

Cooroo DS is getting his first tattoo on the 28th June - going to go the full length of the inside of his forearm.

voilets hopefully he can forge some course friendships in yr2. DS though doesn't go on his nights out with course peers he goes out with flat mates and friends of flat mates. He did go out for something to eat with some of his peers after their last exam on Monday but I think that was quite unusual.

inspection man

Just been chatting to DD who has another two weeks of exams to go. Today she is revising Arabic and is full of amazement that she can actually speak and write a fair bit of it after only 8 months of learning. Bloody good job she didn't jack it in last November

Hope everyone's DC are doing ok? Not long before we have them back clearing out the fridge and getting under our feet!

Just finished his exams. He feels okay about them. So that is good. Hopefully, all will be fine.

Coming out of halls soon. The first year is only 8 months really - but it has whizzed by.

Hope all DC are optimistic about exams.

DS has finished his exams. Thinks they went OK. I have asked him when he gets his results, but he has no idea.
He now has 3 weeks at uni not doing very much, as far as I can tell. We can't collect him earlier, as we are off on holiday next week.

So many seem to be coming home this weekend.

DD has one more exam next week, but won't be collecting her for another two weeks as has other society things on.
I think term officially ends a week after exams do, though not sure what that final week is for.
Results will be just over a week after she comes home.
Will be goung back to move stuff into house in July, and by the sound of it plans to be back and forth several times over the summer.

Good luck to all those that still have exams to go!

Hi all. My dd hasn't started her exams yet - lectures just finished yesterday! She will be coming home in two weeks.

dd2's exams have finished but dd1 still has exams next week.

dd2 did a five hour shift in her new role and is really enjoying it. Looking forward to house sharing next year. She doesn't come home for a couple of weeks.

This year had flown by.

It certainly has, LittlehumHams!

DS has his last exam of 4 on Tuesday. The other 3 have not gone well. He says the exams did not resemble any of the past papers that they had been told to revise from and there were questions on the papers that they had not covered nor been told to study. Part of me thinks that he has not got the idea of independent learning but apparently his friends don't think they've done well either and all think they will be doing re-sits in August. He sounded so down last week I was really worried about him but it wasn't possible for us to visit him.
He will be coming home middle of next week but we aren't going to fetch him - he's putting some stuff in storage. Goodness knows what his flat will look like or if he'll get his deposit back. His idea of clean is different to mine - and no doubt the room inspectors