1st Year Joint honours Exam Clash

[Mumwithbaggage]

Dd3 has two first year exams next week - 24 hours Wed 10am-Thurs 10am, then 24 hours Thurs 10am till Fri 10am. Bonkers obviously.

Just want a bit of advice from someone working at a university please - I assume this isn't normal or good for grades or student mental health? She's emailed her academic tutor (who she doesn't really know) but who should she be sending her request for a change to?

Many thanks

I think you might be right @lastdayatschool.

DD had half of her finals as 48 hour exams and half as in person hand written exams. She said she preferred the in person exams.

I have a dc going through similar. It’s quite normal. Requests for a timetable change won’t be entertained at short notice- especially for 1st year joint honours where there’s a tricky combination of subjects/units/modules and students.

Exam timetables are usually published weeks before the exams. Last-minute timetable requests would not be entertained even if there was a clash.

So did DD2.

It's absolutely not a clash. The exams are on different days. Not bonkers at all.

That’s not a clash. It simply means one exam the day after another. I had two weeks of Finals for one of my undergrad degrees with two big exams on successive days.

The exam timetable is usually published several months ahead. It’s not a surprise. She has time to prepare, and if she’s worked consistently throughout the year, there shouldn’t be any concerns.

I'm assuming the 24 hours timing means they’re online or what we used to call “take home” exams, rather than 3 hours in-person invigilated exams? Which is what I, and probably thousands of other students did in the past. We survived. We thrived indeed!

I went to Uni when I was 17 and wouldn't have dreamt of asking my parents for advice for this sort of thing. I asked peers, lecturers and worked it out for myself

Well, quite. But I have parents ringning me up to tell me that their previous child’s essay is worth more than the mark I’d given it.

More universities are looking towards a viva or presentation to assess students. They have to be able to talk about or discuss a subject for at least 20 minutes and produce a written piece of work with references.
As far as AI assessments go most of the research being done at the moment is producing assignments that fail. They're usually too basic (think GCSE level), have no references (an automatic fail for university level work), a bit weird (slightly off topic but in an odd way), and there have been a few examples where it invented research papers/references! I've read a few and some would make a good plan to develop into an assignment but others were just wrong. Unfortunately it's only going to get more sophisticated so more exams, vivas, presentations, and practical assessments are needed.

Just to clarify, I won't be phoning anyone! Have more of an idea thanks to the sensible responses on here of what the exams actually are. She's just phoned me up absolutely appalled about the number of typos on the exam she took this afternoon so let's hope next week's from the same lecturer is of a higher quality!

Thanks for your insights on the AI angle @Diagonalsleeper

DD's and dsd's were officially 3 hour exams but had a 24 hour window as they were done from home.
By year 3 dd was doing 3 hour in person whereas dsd's were online (same year).

More universities are looking towards a viva or presentation to assess students.

DD had to do a presentation of her dissertation and do exams.

I've been doing an online degree (not the OU). Pre-Covid, I went to an exam hall each year and sat the paper in person. The last few years, I've had a mix of 3-hour exam in a 3-hour slot online, and 3-hour-equivalent in a two-week slot (!! so, really, more coursework). I much prefer the in-person ones.

I would be surprised if that was the case. I’m assuming it’s remote exams which need to be completed within a 24 hr window. The actual exam will probably have been written to be able to be completed in 3 hours or whatever it was when it was sat in an exam hall.

the expectation will be that students will have revised prior to the exam in exactly the same way that they would do if it was closed book in an exam hall. This is certainly not the time for research!

So essentially it’s two exams on consecutive days which is not unusual.

She's just phoned me up absolutely appalled about the number of typos on the exam she took this afternoon so let's hope next week's from the same lecturer is of a higher quality!

The lecturer is generally the first person to write the exam, but rarely the last to process it. Any exam paper will have gone across several people’s desktops. Mistakes creep in. But probably not made by the tutors. We rarely see the finished paper, such is the bureaucracy nowadays.

I once applied for a post where one of the qualities I had to demonstrate was attention to detail. I pointed out all the grammatical errors in the job ad.

I didn't get the job.

I wonder if the typos are as genuine as the 'exam clash'.

So once everyone pointed out there is no clash the OP felt the need to find some other fault with the uni. Perhaps your DD should concentrate on her actual revision and exams than reasons to complain to mummy.

@SeasonFinale · Today 13:18
So once everyone pointed out there is no clash the OP felt the need to find some other fault with the uni. Perhaps your DD should concentrate on her actual revision and exams than reasons to complain to mummy.

I accepted ages ago the explanation of 24h exams and was glad people who know more than me clarified.

Doesn't mean it's OK for RG universities (or any educational establishments) to produce bad quality exams with lots of typos.

I would never intervene on a child's behalf at university unless it was life threatening. I have a daughter who years out of university still trains Nightline teams on dealing with suicides on line and spent years heading up teams at 2 universities as well as Samaritans. I can tell the difference between first year mum daughter chat (which I asked for advice about on this occasion and accepted the concenses) and crisis. I'm not daft.

Hey, that's Mumsnet for you. Ask a question, accept the answer and somebody still has to have their negative little opinion that no doubt makes them feel morally superior.

My experience too.

Yes they say you should do it in 3-4 hours.

But most students do use the whole 24. It's just natural to try your best.

DD always took longer than three hours. She has CFS and anxiety, so she had time to have a panic attack, a sleep and something to eat then crack on with the exam. She graduated with a first last year.

i did the exams last year for a second degree, just for interest and i took the entire 24 hours to do it.
(though at nearly 50, i did go to bed at 10pm and then up early)
my fellow students generally worked through the night.
it generally meant for me 3-4 hours per question - time to plan it, then edit it to be better english, more evidence to back things up, check cohersive overall argument.

when a few marks can be difference between each degree boundary, (and needing 2.1 for many future careers) they are niave if they think anyone would just think Yeah, that will do and stop after a few hours!

it generally meant for me 3-4 hours per question - time to plan it, then edit it to be better english, more evidence to back things up, check cohersive overall argument.

That's pretty much how DD approached it. She did take less than 24 hours though. She knew she needed to pace herself and finish before going to bed because she didn't want to risk oversleeping or waking up feeling over fatigued and therefore missing the hand in deadline.

A lot of students seem to be nervous about in-person exams (largely because current cohorts tend to have less experience of them), and voice a preference for take home exams, but I personally think a lot of them would find them less daunting than the pressure to feel like you need to work through the night. Making the most of the time available in three hours in the exam hall is very different to feeling you need to make the most of 24 hours.