University life for freshers (2019/20) - Christmas backpacking (or not) and festive homecomings with all the tinseltastic trimmings!

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Previous thread.

@ZandathePanda that’s fantastic news. Hoping the recovery period is uneventful.

@Ginfordinner my DD didn’t party with friends back home. They pretty much deserted her (or maybe her them) in 6th form. Apart from family there’s not much else for her to come home for now and she’s going to stay on for a few extra days at Easter to help at the offer holder days. She has made a new life with new friends in Durham.

@ZandathePanda that's great news. Have a lovely weekend.

Good to hear that your DD has friends on her wavelength at university @Ginfordinner. Different people find their tribes at different times in their lives.

Sorry, overuse of the word different in that post.

@ZandathePanda so happy to hear that news. You must all be so relieved.

Dd seemed to outgrow her school/college friends during the A level years. She always had friends around, but they didn't really get the level of work she had to put in (was applying for medicine), and were often a bit disgruntled if she stayed home to study rather than party. She's still ostensibly friends with them, but is a different level of happy with her uni mates. It's lovely to see actually. It's one thing that's spurring dd2 on to apply to uni, as she's had a terrible time with her friendship group lately and needs to leave to find her new people.

TBQH, I would have thought it quite likely that young people may grow out of some of their friends after spending seven years with them. Same way as they do when they leave primary school.

@ZandathePanda Great news!
@Ginfordinner dd went out with a group of school friends once and a group of youth group friends once over the holidays. She's never been into going out.

Zanda- So glad to hear your DD is getting better and you are both home

,@minesawine and @Ginfordinner, that’s great your DC are happy to be back.

@ZandathePanda that’s fab - glad you have her home. And DD2.

@mum2eim, @mimiasovitch that’s great that they have found friends at uni who are on their wavelength.

Funnily enough, DS still gets on great with his squad from Y7 (infant one is a friend from Y3) I think he found it reassuring to come home to them at Xmas after being thrown into a whole different world at uni in terms of social backgrounds, etc

Thank you again everyone xxxxxx

Newcastle have been good with Dd1 and she has an extension for essays - she decided to take rather than postpone exams (which the university had offered). She may not do quite as well but it’s first year and she can then concentrate on modules going forward.

To (finally) start talking about university again - it’s so lovely to be able to ‘chat’ again - Dd1 has really gelled with her flatmates and hasn’t a big group of really close friends back home now which seems similar to other posters.

Dd had a great night in Newcastle with her flatmates once she knew her sister was back home. It’s so nice to do ‘normal’ things and be on here rather than having to concentrate on the very serious stuff. I hope that doesn’t sound odd.

Also has anyone else had a ‘bingate’ yet?! Dds international flatmates stayed over the holidays and didn't empty the bin once. It’s leaked everywhere and so has the food they left in the fridges! These students have now left the country. I mentioned Dd probably ought to tell accommodation services as there’s a lot to clean up but Dd doesn’t want to cause fuss.

Yep. Extreme bingate in DD's flat yesterday. There are two flatemates who never clear up after themselves. One of them came back after the holidays after the others. It took the messy flatmate just three hours to completely trash the kitchen. What goes through the minds of these selfish students?

DD has been back since last Monday and has left the flat four times - twice to go to Londis to pick up urgent groceries, and twice for exams, one of which was today . They are going to let their hair down after the exams though

I'm so glad that life is getting back to normal for you Zanda. DD has given us a fright or two over the years, but not to that extreme.

No bingate but bin juice. Anyone else? It’s a cocktail made in a bin(cleaned out first)

Dd is very thankful that her flatmates are generally very tidy.

Gin recognise the dashes to Londis 😂
Benji yes lots of bin juice. But the other kind made out of several weeks of leaky bin contents. Blergh.

How do these first year exams work? DS saying they need 40% to progress but is that a ‘soft’ requirement and if they miss by a bit They’ll get support and help to correct things?

I’m guessing because it seems very early to have exams only 3 months in, So it feels more like a ‘ok you’ve had your fun, this is what university is like, make sure your study/party balance can get you through exams like this’ ?

Dd is calling them mocks for the summer exams. You need 40% and you have to pass each exam.
However these ones, if you fail one you get assistance. If you fail the summer ones you have to retake.

DD was told that they need 40% to progress. My understanding is that anything they fail needs to be re-taken in summer.

DD always puts pressure on herself to do well. She is afraid of failure and of doing "just enough", which is why she did better than expected at GCSE, and really well at A level.

I feel, and so does she, that it is better to aim high and get into good study practices right from the start so that she doesn't have to play catch up for her finals.

Our experience (DS final year) is as described by Ginfordinner.

Christmas and summer exams treated the same - first year, 40% to pass and any failures re taken in August. All needed to be passed to progress to Second year and none were mocks.

In 2nd year, where all marks counted towards degree, Christmas and summer exams all counted and any failures were re-taken in August. However, re-takes are capped at 40%, so could massively affect final degree grade if a number of re-takes are required in second year.

As gin said, good study practices now will reap benefits in future years. We know a number who have stumbled in second year, and had to retake in August or, in one case, the whole year.

DS was never top of class (ABB A levels, doing a science at a RG) but very organised with revision and very hard working, he is currently on for a 1st and will be disappointed if he misses it, all his own pressure, not ours.

Dd was told if she didn’t do her exams now it would be in August so I presume that’s when there are retakes. 40% seems incredibly low.

@ Benjispruce, Wtf?

@MrKlaw, DD had to get 40% to pass first year. DS says he does too. Hope he’s not aiming to get 41%
DDs Y1January exams counted towards passing, DS doesn’t have any. Her y2Jan exams counted towards final degree grade. She doesn’t have any this year. Both have summative essays that count throughout the year

@MrKlaw
I’m guessing because it seems very early to have exams only 3 months in

These may be end of module exams - the way some degrees are structured they do a completely new set of modules each semester so makes sense to examine them when they are finished rather than wait till summer.

One thing I would caution is to check and check again when retake dates are (typically August) before you book your summer hols

Good point VanCleef. I hope this won't be necessary.

SophieSaph2020 DD sounds like your DS - never top of the class, but wants to do well. Her pre Christmas exams resulted in an overall 1st, but these post Christmas exams are much more important, so we will see.

@VanCleefArpels @MrKlaw Yes that is the case for ds. He is either doing completely different subjects in Semester 2 or new modules in a subject that is continuing. Tbh I thought his workload as quite light last semester so hopefully the exams will go ok

40% seems incredibly low.
I'm not sure it is for a pass mark.

When I did my exams you didn't have to pass every exam. Each exam was 8 questions and answering 4 fully in each paper would have given you a first easily. You did not expect to attempt all the questions unless you were Tyler only started them and didn't complete.
It was done so it was better to answer 1 full question rather than 2 halves, because they did "sum squared" marks. So 1 question with 20/20 became 400 (20 squared) but 2 questions with 10/20 became 200 (10 squared plus 10 squared).
It meant that it was better to concentrate on the subjects you were good at rather than all round. That was good for me as I was very one sided.

It’s a cocktail made in a bin
That takes me back. As a student I made alcoholic ginger beer in a bucket. We tried bottling it, but put some in an old squash bottle where it exploded over the floor in the kitchen. Our poor scout washed the floor daily for a fortnight (we were very apologetic and luckily she thought it was quite funny-she was very motherly!) until it stopped feeling sticky when we walked on it.

The bucket has subsequently been used as a nappy bucket and is now used for recycling!