Heading towards year 3 exams (uni 2017)

[Xenia]

Continuation of www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3538808-heading-towards-year-2-exams-uni-2017 as we have reached page 40.

Hard to believe they are all in year 3 now and many will finish university in June 2020.

My twins are still at it. One is working on his dissertation every day which may pull his mark from 2/1s since year 1 down to a 2/2 he fears but I hope not. The other did his first time exam/essay yesterday and just went upstairs to do another so I assume that is his final one. The the first twin has a time exam essay but not until later in June and he will probably go back to Bristol by then and do it there just to end things off.

I am not pressuring him to decide next year yet as he needs to be with the travel gap year friends to talk to them about it but I do want them both to have decided where they will be studying living in September in June even if their friends have not made up their minds and if no friends will commit to bristol then my son will stick to law in London as booked/planned living at home which is obviously the easier option and no rent to be paid either but I don't mind either way.

Good luck to her @hellsbells99!

The main issue is the water they squirt in your mouth during most treatments. Obviously the splash from this will fill the air making it hard to clean the room between patients. For a scale and polish they can use hand tools so that should be ok.Fillings and root canals looking at maybe Seotember at the earliest?

@hellsbells99 48 hours to complete an open book exam sounds harder to me than the short sharp shock of the closed book version. Good luck!

DS was saying one of his friends had an open book exam yesterday. She had 8 hours to write 400 words. To me that sounds a nightmare having to summarise your knowledge of a topic into the perfect 400 words, rather than 2 hours to splurge everything you know in the usual exam way.

And RedHelen, hope your dd finds 'Covid alert' ways to enjoy her bonus summer hols.

Yeah 'Open Book' was DS's last exam I think. He doesn't really like those but said it was fine, so fingers crossed he has done ok.

The aerosol is worrying stuff @RedHelenB but I saw something from a local dentist on their FB page saying that they use electric drills, so this is safer from a Covid-19 point of view? 🤔

I have an appt (different surgery) next month, so will wait & see what happens.

Hopefully all our students are going to have a good break before moving to their next phase. 🙂

I was surprised to see a new dentist near us is open and accepting new patients by appointment. They don't specify which treatments they are currently offering beyond check ups, but typically for Central London dentists, they are promoting a lot of cosmetic stuff, plus other things like Botox. And another one seemed to be open by appointment right from the start. We have always commuted out of London for our dentist. It started because a friend married a dentist but we soon discovered both that preventative dentistry paid in the long run, but also treatment outside London is far cheaper.

Congratulations to all who have finished, and good luck for those with exams still to come. DDs are next week, which is not helping the cumulative lockdown tedium.

Its so sad. This thread should now have been about celebrations, and graduations and plans for the summer ahead. It would also have been a chance for us to give ourselves a well deserved pat on the back. With a very special pat for Xenia who is coming to the end of a particularly long journey.

DS sent us a photo of his (second) Masters Certificate, which he received in the post. It does not mean that much as it is something you get anyway if you are taking an integrated PhD. It still seemed a bit sad. Private US Universities do things like graduations very well and we might have wanted to go over to see him receive it. I really enjoyed his two earlier graduation ceremonies and the chance to meet his friends and tutors.

RedH, I hate the squiring in the mouth at the dentist and that sucking water away machine. Perhaps they could let people just dribble instead if that is safer anyway..... I don't know. It must be very hard for them.

Need, thanks - certainly is the end of a long journey. My older daughter graduated 13 years ago. However I suspect both twins may have 2 more years of study (if they both do law) so it probably won't feel properly over until they have done their last exams ever.

Well done to your son on the masters. I am hoping Bristol will hold graduation ceremonies in feb 2021 - my older daughter missed the July one in her day there as working abroad but we all went the February after that.

Perhaps they could do something like 10 graduates at a time in a more low key way but still with photo, gown etc handed out by a lecturer and just do one a week. [ I am still £700 down on the graduation hotel rooms but am waiting to see if the hotel cancels them itself if it has to be closed in July. If not I will only then try to get a refund - unlikely as non refundable and if not then the twins will enjoy a couple of nights in a nice hotel I suspect.

thanks for all your 'good lucks' for DD. Yes, a 48 hour open book exam does seem weird - far too much time to overthink things and to include too much information. They have to allow time for technical problems downloading the paper and then uploading all their answers (got to take photos of his page etc).
Well done Needmoresleep's DS for his Masters.
I hope everyone else is getting on well.
DD is thinking of going back to her house after her exams finish to spend the last couple of weeks with a couple of housemates ..... and also to empty and clean the house. The only problem is that she then has to come home to us so I am not sure how I feel about that. Although said housemates all seem sensible and are not going out partying at home so hopefully will all be clear.

xcross post with Xenia - sorry. I am also hoping we get a graduation ceremony at some stage - it would be nice. Hope your second DS decides what he wants to do. It is difficult as no one knows how the next 12 months will pan out. DD has a job sorted for September (hopefully) but has abandoned her travel plans for the summer (although she is still secretly hoping for a miracle)

@hellsbells99 good luck to your DD!
DS (only first year) has a total of 5 online exams - each one is two back to back essays in 48 hrs, culminating in 6 over 4 days this week. He seems to be quite calm about it

I am taking my DD back to houseshare a week on Sat with mates. They have all been v v sensible and have basically self-isolated for nearly 3 months despite being v v low risk (and May have already had a mild version before lockdown) plan is to move into new houseshare at the end of June and stay there for the rest of the summer.

online exams are so much easier than sitting them in an exam room. No real need to revise much beforehand (as long as you know the subject) and you can prepare a detailed plan, from your notes/text books) once you know the questions and have picked what to answer.
I have tried to suggest that people don't ask for the answers on the whats app group but clearly people can just do it off the group direct.

24 hours is to cover all time zones i think.

be glad when exams are over, from supposed to last 2 weeks in ealy May its been over 6 weeks with weeks between each. very demotivating really.

oh and all our exams we have been given a word limit to stop us writing too much. (ie 1000 words) which just means you spend hours crafting it to get the best 1000 words.

Burnoutbabe - DD has done stacks of revision! Although some of her revision notes do refer to pages in her books 😉. As it is a Stem subject, it is learning how to apply stuff, what equations to use when etc. I have just supplied her with an iced coffee and she is fine.
BigTillyMint - 5 online exams back to back is a lot!
It is weird how you are guaranteed your mark from March as long as you pass everything .....otherwise you fail 😳

DD did loads of revision for her online exams. They were open book, and they had a window of a couple of weeks to do all 10 in, but there was a right time limit from downloading each paper to uploading it when complete.

DD has done stacks of revision for her online exams!
also discussing questions on a whatsapp group is an automatic fail for DD , as her finals are for law ro a qualifying exam for a profession.- it would be the same for medicine I think? and other 'qualifying' exams?
its also cheating

Yep it is suggested it's against academic integrity for us too to discuss exams (also law) but that's not going to stop anyone doing it. Or asking their lawyer parent or friend etc.
I don't think anyone is getting others to write their exam but more to explain concepts or point out bits they have got wrong so can be corrected.
I expect the range of results this year for all universities will be skewed very high.

it is suggested it's against academic integrity for us too to discuss exams

That seems an oddly equivocal way of putting it tbh. Surely it is against any decent person's normal integrity to discuss exams before doing them. The idea 'that's not going to stop anyone doing it' ... sure, it's not going to stop everyone from doing it but you make it sound as though cheating is the norm rather than the exception.

• Or asking their lawyer parent or friend etc. I don't think anyone is getting others to write their exam but more to explain concepts or point out bits they have got wrong so can be corrected.*

Maybe it's a bit harder for STEM students to find someone both willing and even vaguely able to be of much help.

I suppose as we are told some papers are exams and sone are coursework, which everyone discusses it seems an arbitrary distinction to some.
I phrased it as I did as that's all they said. They didn't lay it out that discussion is cheating as such. I know it is so have said no discussion on the whats app group (beyond a bit of confirming exam process, number words allowed etc)
But it's naive to think most people won't do some form of cheating.
It's a slope. Okay to ask a flatmate to read your essay for grammar and general does it make sense? Who isn't a student. What about your parent? What if either of them also study the same subject? Or qualified in it?
We haven't been told what exactly cheating is. I mean I know but beyond not paying people to do exams or copying them from elsewhere I don't think the new rules are clear.
Though the people who swapped answers in the multiple choice exam only realised at the end that they mixed up the letters for each answer so my b may not be your b for that question!

Anyone breaching rules like that is at risk (and rightly so ) of being barred from being a lawyer. I would rather my children failed than cheated. Every week someone is struck off in the profession and often it is a straight lie over something - eg someone said she had left a case with law papers in at home but had lost it on a train and she has just been struck off (that was a slightly harsh case but it illustrates the point that there are very different standards of behaviour applied to lawyers than many others).

I do not know however what the exact rule is here - eg if you have an online exam which allows you to look at your books but not to discuss the possible answers with anyone then I assume people would not discuss the questions with anyone and if they asked a friend or parent about it that friend or parent would be likely to report them to maintain the integrity of the exam system. If we can weed out cheats from the profession before they even join it that is so much the better. However if the rules do allow you to discuss the questions with others then that is totally different - people can only operate within the rules they are given.

If one heads over to say student room and study help forum, then it's obvious many exam questions are being posted there right now and others are helping them. In the law forum people will generally not answer unless the person gives own opinion first but even then they get some help.
Past papers can also be accessed to see what similar questions in the past asked and what examiners expected from candidates.
So it's all very unclear exactly what is not allowed in sit at home exams. Maybe other institutions made explicit lists of all the things that would be considered cheating.

Looking at past papers is a very good idea for exams and part of being good at them. My sons are not reading law but at least one will study law from the Autumn (if he gets that 2/1 he needs for his post grad course) so they have timed essays allowing 48 hours or 72 hours for their 1 (or in the other case 2) exams. I see that their university Bristol also has online exams presumably for other subjects and that requires the students to sign an honesty statement. I don't know what that says.

I believe for exams some universities are doing an on line sweep of the room for each student to check on one is in the room etc who might be feeding in answers. Hopefully enough students are honest that things end up being okay.

They certainly should make it very clear what is allowed for on line exams so everyone knows where they stand. I presumed it would be like if you have a clash of A level exams where you know the questions early and are supervised by a parent or teacher until everyone else has done the exam so you don't tell anyone else the question or else that online exams were being done all at the same time (rather than on line essays you can answer over several days in place of an exam which are a different thing).

Perhaps students have their own internal conscience which will help them decide what might be bad and what is not.

It is just about never cheating to look at past papers however and anyone who is doing any kind of exam from the 11+ upwards would be silly not to look at past papers for months before their exam.

Oh yes past exams are common revision techniques.
But seems somehow wrong to use them after you have written your answer to then amend it into a better answer. Then again how is that any different to consulting the textbook or a revision guide or how to answer law questions textbook!
In theory you could read and memorise the last 10 years exams questions and answers before you enter the exam room. But no one really would.
It's all a bit weird and I'll be glad when exams are over!

The honesty pledge is very clear in my daughters Uni
I have heard via DD of one University that has had students admit to confering over an open book 'coursework' exam question in law in a group email - and the student involved has reportedly been reported to the SRS ( i think thats what its called- Xenia will know) and suspended from the University whilst being investigated.

I would say that only the less able students within a cohort would cheat and that the cheating might well produce a muddle in their minds, thereby being counterproductive - which would serve them right. I can't for a moment think cheating will be widespread anyhow. I agree with Xenia: I'd rather my DC failed than cheated.