Heading towards year 2 exams (uni 2017)

[brizzlemint]

Starting uni 2017 continued.
Tales of radiators, errant boilers, tomatoes and potato mashers...oh and university students.

DD has been in a flat above a shop this year and is going into a student house next year. DH and I are going up for the weekend after her exams (she moves out on the Monday), so we can clean. They think they can do it, but probably haven't even considered the oven, under the bed, etc. I wouldn't dare touch the windows, as they're ready to fall out any second. They've never needed to open them, because the draught was sufficient (benefit of draughty windows is no mould).

Back in the day I went to some good parties in some very grotty flats.

Worth remembering that they may need to give notice on things like broadband.

Nice long chat to DD yesterday; lectures finished on Wednesday, exams start a week on Monday so lots more revision. I was pleased she's getting some daylight - e.g having lunch outside watching swans nesting and finally producing cygnets, and observing moorhens chasing a snake swimming in a ditch. (She used to be scared of swans, let alone snakes! And cows, which roam around many of the green spaces.)

Perhaps the grotty flat will have helped build up your daughter's immunities before she has to meet patients, Needmore sleep. 😁

Not sure I'd like to be near a snake, Errol. I'm not keen on the idea of things that can get about without legs. (Shudders.)

Not far from here, a corn snake that had been missing for a few months turned up in the bathroom of a house - in the loo, I think!! OMG, imagine rushing to the loo and seeing that!

I found 4 grass snakes sheltering under some corrugated metal the other day when I was out walking, bet it was lovely and warm under there!

Just to clarify: the house the snake turned up in wasn't where it had escaped from, it was a neighbour but not sure how close the houses were.
The owner reckoned it had been living in the drains 😮

Snake might be better than what might be found in the loos of some student houses

Prompted by talk of deep clean on here, I asked DD if they have to do one. She said LL says professional deep clean (sensible woman!) And her flatmate has it sorted - result! Just as well as DD will be off travelling at the end of the lease and another flatmate has offered to move her stuff to their new house - she has the best flatmates

Just realised that she will need to plan what she's doing after she graduates by Christmas if she wants to stay with them

Dd has another exam or two to go. I'm waiting for my own study results due next week sometime. She's coming home tomorrow for a few days

DD has her first exam on Monday, another on Wednesday then 3 the following week. She should be finished by 5th June. She has persuaded her boat crew to train later in the day so they are going out after exams are over rather than rushing in the early mornings.

Good luck with your results floraloctopus

DD had the worst exam of her life last week. She could not answer all the questions. It was so hard people were sitting in the exam hall crying. She did well on her coursework for the module, so is crossing her fingers for a pass overall.

She is moving flats, but doesn't want me involved at all. She and her flatmates have organised everything. They are genuine adults I am relieved tbh, not to be dragging her stuff all the way here in June and then back again in September.

FF, I am sorry about the worst exam. Hopefully everyone else found it really bad and account is taken of that. One of my son's had his last exam (and he has finished all essays) which was "decent" which I presume means not too bad. He should be back from Bristol in mid June with his twin. I am not sure if his twin has quite finished yet. I think he may have an exam this week and one more essay after that due 2 days after the last exam.

DS is done for the year. No exams and final coursework handed in. He has a couple of meetings about internships for the summer so s staying n this week. He got down to the last three for a very competitive one in his field but missed out in the end so I am crossing my fingers for him.

Three years at University, from the perspective of an adult, seems so short. The third year with applications etc, will presumably have an air of finality to it. Some of DDs friends are going abroad or off on placements, so its goodbye already. She will be around till the bitter end as they have three weeks teaching after their exam. However next term will be applying for intercalation years. DD is not particularly interested in the Bristol options so is likely to try for London, or perhaps Birmingham or Belfast. Like with Masters, open days (if they happen at all) are not that long before application deadlines so she will need to be organised. It may be worth noting that some Masters degrees have a strange rolling deadlines where they accept qualified applicants until the course is full. And that fees can vary a lot. Luckily the intercalation will be a BSc so I am assuming fees are capped.

Ds home from his vacances en France where they stayed in a beautiful villa with what sounds suspiciously like bed bugs. (They all got covered in bites after sleeping under blankets they found in a cupboard.) Pretty much stripped him off at the door and all belongings are on a boil wash or in the freezer as per NHS instructions.

Had a chat about his plans for cleaning up this year's flat. He looked a bit surprised. Oh, it'll be alright he says I'm sure the landlord won't mind. Ha [hollow] ha. I gave him a little economics lecture about the relative costs of a tin of oven cleaner and bottle of Cif compared to his deposit.

FF sorry about the awful exam. Fingers crossed the results are better than thought - I thought I'd totally messed up one of mine but got a better grade than I though. It's so hard to tell. As it was so hard the grade boundaries will be lower so fingers crossed.

Malbec thank you..3 days to go I think.

What are intercalation years?

I was thinking the same about the grade boundaries floral. It is a hard subject, but the university would not want a situation where most of the students failed. It wouldn't make them look good.

Onward and upward, she has two more exams to go.

Both have mine have entirely finished now (but coming home in mid June when term ends) so that must be a relief. one had a difficult last exam but thinks the other exams and essays etc will make up for it so that will probably be all right.

DD had a chat with her tutor about her post grad options and seems to be quite positive about being able to find something she wants to do. She was getting a bit despondent, so we suggested she asked for a meeting. He blocked out an hour of his time for her, which I was quite impressed with.

I'm somewhat curious when various places finish (as in, no more exams or coursework). How long are typical summer terms workwise?

Extremely short here Errol. Official end of term is 7th June but DS handed his last piece of work in last week so as Easter was so late, I think this term has been less than 4 weeks.

Wow, that is short. So how much did the other terms tot up to?

DS started back on 29/4 after a month break for Easter and breaks up mid June I think.

The other terms were 16 Sept to 13 December and 6 jan to 3rd April so they were quite long. He didn’t have reading weeks either as my DN at another uni did.

(MAh not be the exact dates there).Each term was about 12 weeks though.

DS's terms were similar to Best's DS. No reading week for him either.