Oxford/Cambridge - current students support/chat thread 2022 - cont

[Panicmode1]

@petitebleu - so sorry to hear about your DS. I hope that some time out over Christmas may help to give him some space and time to think about his next steps.

DD's degree is entirely assessed through 8 exams this summer. She has discovered that they will be computer based but in person. She has had years of hearing horror stories from family members of computer crashes, endless whirring as computers make connections, disappearing answers, students deleting their answers by accident etc.

She is definitely feeling the fear, especially they will be the guinea pig finalists. Couldn't they have just held on for another year before throwing something else at the covid 2020 intake?

DS received some good news today.

He has been hoping to get a summer research placement but they are quite competitive. Last year he applied for all those he met the criteria for but was not successful.

This year he has so far applied for three international programmes (tiny chance) and was ready to start applying for the Cambridge undergraduate research opportunity placements (slightly bigger chance) when they open this term.

Today he received an offer for a summer internship with a research group that really interests him (physics of bio-inspired materials) in Switzerland! I'm so happy for him.

He thoroughly deserves it Ironoaks. He's a prime example of developing confidence and blossoming by finding his happy place at C.

Lovely news @Ironoaks.

@Cliff1975 it's a wake up call reading your post. I hope your son can make plans for next year soon and shake the dust of C from his feet. I'm reminded of my dh who was pretty unhappy at C though he did make one close lifelong friend and had some connection through sport. I think in his case he might have been unhappy in other places too, but C is such a specific environment it's easy to imagine the kind of misery your ds is experiencing.

Great news @ironoaks, hope he enjoys Switzerland very much.

Super news @Ironoaks - congrats to your DS!

And thinking of all of the finalists - what a stressful time of year....I'm only going through the A level mock process with DD again, and that's bad enough!

Is that a bit insensitive @HewasH20 given other posts on this thread?

Great news @Ironoaks - so pleased to hear of successful applications 😊

Many congrats to your DS Ironoaks - very exciting!

The idea of computer exams is horrendous. Is the idea that they take the exams in Exam Schools as usual, but on computers? Are the PPEists the only ones this affects or is it a general thing? Appalling!

Many congrats to your ds @Ironoaks .
@HewasH20 how does the computer thing work? Is it handwritten then uploaded? Or typed? I must say ds was quite relieved to go to proper exams in the Examination school last year - for his prelims the internet went down for 1 paper and he ended up having to use my work laptop and mobile SIM with me panicking that the program would not be blocked.
DS taking his Part B this summer and hoping it will be the same format as last year.

I don't think my DD found taking her exams (3rd and final year) on computer rather than pen and paper a problem per se. For her the added stress was more the concerns about the robustness of the system, Internet etc doing them from home with newly-created systems. The proctoring requirements for finals were rigorous, she was fortunate to have excellent tech support in the form of DH who put a lot of effort into setting things up. As it was, she had no technical problems.
Those aspects really should not arise with in person computerised exams by now at all. If there are issues, it won't be up to the student (or their parents!) to sort out.

DD1 did Mods online from home and there were no problems at all to my great surprise and relief. Given that everyone types their weekly essays, it does seem reasonable to type finals as well — it must be hard to write fast enough if you’re out of practice.

Per user’s point about being allegedly insensitive, my DS hasn’t had a great time at C to say the least but I’m happy that it’s working out well for others.

@pantjog "...working well for others." Always to be hoped for but then with us it seems to depend on what DS deigns to impart to us and that pivots on a few variables: on how well he is feeling/ whether recently fed/ been with others/ work completed/ supervisor feedback. Otherwise we must, for the time being, assume that ignorance is bliss.

Great news @ironoaks. Congratulations to your DS.

DD had online exams for Part I and Part II finals and they were fine. DS will have finals online too. I don't know if he could actually write all his papers by hand. He hasn't completed an exam using pen and paper since A level mocks.

And I don't think an examiner would be able to decipher his hand writing.

I hope things get better for your DS, @Cliff1975 and rowing and choir are really good activities to do on a regular basis. I'm glad he's also got a partner who's supportive.

@SchrodingersKitty I'm really pleased to hear that things are better for your DS after everything he's had to contend with and that he's making new friends and feeling happy at Oxford at last. That's lovely to hear.

Glad things are also improving for your DS, @Juja and I hope he recovers from his virus soon and appreciates your care package.

@HewasH20 , 8 typed exams in exam conditions sounds dire! Your poor DD! m I never feel technology is reliable. I think DS2 (O) has handwritten exams in the summer term but party of finals include some exam he took last year, an extended essay and a long thesis as well. DS1(C) I think has typed exams but not in exam conditions and over a chunk of a few hours each, I think. Thank heavens he doesn't need to hand-write as, even after remedial handwriting classes aged 9, he never got the hang of legible and swift handwriting and has been able to type everything ever since!

@Ironoaks - that's fantastic news for your DS about his summer internships in Switzerland! Wow! He's doing really well! I don't even know what physics of bio-inspired materials actually is but it sounds very impressive!

By the way, is anyone else's DCs being impacted by staff strikes? DS1 (C) has already had one seminar cancelled and maybe more pending and may also have a fill-in PhD student doing his supervision rather than the proper supervisor. That's probably a positive though but I just wondered how many others are missing out on teaching/ tutorials/supervisions because of the strikes?

Certainly not my intention user1465390476 when I got into my hotel room after a long day at work and night out with colleagues and fired off a couple of late night posts. I had to trawl back through yesterday's messages this evening to find out what you were talking about.

In my defence, some of us have been posting on a series of education threads together on MN since year 10 when our DC started their GCSEs & we do tend to get excited by their good news after sharing highs and lows over 7 years.

Congratulations @Ironoaks to your DS. @Cliff1975 I'm sorry I don't have any words of wisdom to impart. Your DS has done amazingly well to get to this point. Choir & rowing were my DD's goto activities in her 2nd & 3rd years.

@HewasH20 exams online are a bit odd, but as @ErrolTheDragon says, our DDs had the same in 2020. At least O & C have had a couple of years to refine the process, so they should be ok. Our main issues in 2020 were that of bandwidth. We were on a crappy copper telephone line of super slow broadband. Both DDs were trying to learn & do exams online and I was trying to teach & set lessons all at the same time. The irony of the whole situation is that we now have a fibre-optic cable to the house, but I am back in school and both DDs are away at uni. I'm going to do an online parents evening with it tomorrow, so here's hoping it can cope.

@mutterphore whilst it's not ideal for your DSs to be taught by PhD people rather than their usual supervisors, at least they are getting some input. Most PhD supervisors will have been through the process themselves relatively recently.

I have to say that I'm not in the least bothered by PhD or DPhil supervisors, not that it's any of my business in any event. DD2 took her supervisory role massively seriously and since a seasoned senior tutor had told a third party that DD2 was the cleverest student he'd ever taught in his long Oxford career, I don't think students were missing out on quality either. Some tutors are jaded; PhD students are likely to have a good deal of energy and dedication.

Tbh I was really relieved to hear that ds had a PhD supervisor for the subject he's struggling with. I think talking to them has been less intimidating for him than to the top Professor in the field etc.

Malbecfan I'm so glad that I just scraped in to my last ever parents' evening at school in March 2020 in person (DD4/ Y13) before Covid shut the world down. That was my fifty fifth annual parents' meeting at school (I missed DD1's Y7 one because DD4 was being born). The History dept in particular gave me a very good send off (Messrs G and H). What a shame that they're now online - the in person evenings were really enjoyable.

@mutterphore Thank you. DS texted yesterday evening and apologised for being so grumpy in the morning - said he hadn't eaten.

My experience was that PhD students and post docs provided excellent value as tutors

The exams will be held in the exam hall & I've advised DD to find out what the impact will be on her exam arrangements because she has additional time and rest breaks. Hopefully there will be the chance to practice with any CBE software.

She sat her prelims in her room with Covid. I think it's simply fear of the unknown, especially as she's used to scribbling frantically for 4 hours.

@goodbyestranger don't be cross with me about this but I really like online Parents' Evenings. The appointment times out after 5 minutes (10 in 6th form) so when you get a really annoying parent, you don't have to suffer for long. Last night I managed to prepare, cook & eat the evening meal in between appointments. I did a couple of calls via Teams video call to people who had not managed to get appointments (a whole other saga due to an officious admin person) but it is so much easier than face to face. Plus you don't get the ear-wigging parents as was the case with our DD2. Then you don't have to drive home afterwards.

Malbec I absolutely see the benefit from your pov. I quite liked watching the quarrels which inevitably broke out once the appointment time plan had gone out the window (always at a pleasingly early stage). And the parents who came armed with files with their DC's name on it! Love the idea of those parents who wouldn't wrap it up being timed out after five minutes :) I liked the approach taken once by Dr S (Chemistry/ no longer in post). He said absolutely pointless talking about DS1, there was nothing to say - just chatted about rugby or the Indian takeaway for the allotted time instead :)