Current Oxford/Cambridge students support/chat continued (2)

[Panicmode1]

The other thread is nearly full so I took the liberty of starting a new one...

@Teriyakieverything, I cannot recall your DC’s subject so this might not be relevant but DD got eight weeks paid work in the summer in one of her tutor’s labs. College provided accommodation.

Another option is being a student fundraising caller (in term time). The amount paid varies between colleges but can be quite lucrative for just a few hours commitment.

Thanks @ofteninaspin , DD is a 1st year NatSci. I don't know how you would find out about lab work opportunities, I asked her and she isn't aware either, but I'm not sure how clued up she is about these things or know where to look to be honest. She is focusing on revising at the moment, as she has a Maths exam between when she gets back and term starting properly. As there isn't a hard deadline for landing a summer job, she's not really done many applications and I don't want to have to keep reminding her or put too much pressure on her, so without her realising, opportunities are slipping past....but to her, the summer job applications she has done just seem to disappear into the void anyway, so I can see it is quite demotivating.

I find it quite weird that she could churn out pages of maths, quantum physics and chemistry workings that I cannot ever hope to understand, yet get stressed when she has to draft emails or covering letters, and needing help with email etiquette and wordings. I think she is so used to the short informal messaging style of 'written communications' (emoji's included in that definition), I have to help her to phrase things differently and give more context etc.. Anyone else find this with their DCs? Or maybe employers will have to adapt to an extent to the new generation's more informal style?

DD was at Oxford. Doing paid work in a tutor’s lab over the summer seemed to be a very established thing at her college - arranged directly with tutors in the summer term. I don’t know if there is anything similar at Cambridge.
DS graduated from Cambridge last year but he did banking internships each summer.

Did your DD have a weekend/holiday job before university that she could return to in the summer?

DD was quite nervous about applying for her first formal grad job and asked DH and I to check the wording of her CV and cover letter.

Casual summer work can be picked up quite easily in shops and cafes depending where you live, of course.

@Teriyakieverything my NatSci DD1 was all set to return to flogging ice cream to this corner of SW England after her first year, but a family friend contacted us to ask if she might be willing to work for her as her intern had let her down at the last minute. DD was interviewed briefly and got the job. After her 2nd year she found a placement in a lab at our local "RG" university. It was dire - so much so that DD said she would rather have sold ice creams as she learned nothing and was ignored by the staff. Then Covid came along so she did bits online after her 3rd year. She got a decent internship after her 4th year which was advertised in her department.

DD2 is also a NatSci student but not at C. She has never managed to get an internship, mostly due to Covid and living in a place full of tourists and old people in the summer, rather than any useful or relevant businesses. However, she worked in the ice cream shop, then in a local cafe.

Don't worry about work. Your DD can think about it after exams. And yes, my DD1 is very clever and hard-working, but the thought of speaking to a stranger on the phone fills her with dread. DD2 had no issue with phoning the local takeaway as we drove home from rehearsals so the food was ready when we passed by (no delivery round here!) but DD1 was "too scared".

I don't know how DD manages during term time, with all the requests I get to draft openers for phone calls etc. when she's at home. I honestly wondered if she did nothing but talk to academics and friends, but no. She's just fine when there's no amenable mother to hold her hand for a bit. She does tend to find unfamiliar social contact difficult, being neurodiverse.
Me, I'm bloody bricking it about finals coming up. DD insists she is going to do very badly indeed, but seems quite nonchalant about the prospect.

@DahliaMacNamara - the letting go and allowing our DC to do things their own way can be hard - well I find it is as my DC1 is quite chaotic and nearly misses out on all sorts of stuff but he does find his way through even if I'm exhausted thinking about the trip hazards he puts in his way. DC1 got finals this term too and rang me to tell me he's taken some books out of the library to revise! After reading so much detailed stuff on his particular academic interests he said he's now going to read overview text books for revision... he is a little nervous as its his first exams in an exam hall since GCSEs as A Levels were cancelled and his prelims were done in his college room. Good news is his three assessed essays are nearly done. Does anyone else's DC have extended essays as part of their finals in addition to their dissertation?

DS has two exams tomorrow and another on Thursday, then plans to go back to the lab for a couple of weeks to try to get some more / better data for his 4th year project (due mid-May). He has written up what he has and could submit as is, but he feels it could be improved upon. Then the legendary General Physics paper is in early June.

Hope the students you're supporting have a good Easter (or Trinity) term, particularly those for whom this is the final one.

@Juja- none of DS's exams include essays, for which he is very thankful.

No essays here (STEM) but final dissertation due tomorrow and then 6 exams from 29 May, 2 that week then 4 the week after. 4 years gone in a flash! I still haven't been to a college formal, DS still hasn't been punting, or been trashed, or studied in the Bodleian Library. But he does love his department and I get many pictures of the building.

Just dropped DD off today at her college. We ve got the logistics fine tuned by now. Set off in the morning, arrive 11ish, unload stuff, walk to centre and go for Sunday roast in the Cambridge Chop House and then deliberate over what ice cream to have at Jacks Gelato. Do a sainsbury shop.

However, we left in a bit of a state of distress, because she realised that she didn’t registered for a Physics mock exam, but she thought she had and it’s meant to be tomorrow afternoon….

This only came to light when I asked her what her plans are tomorrow. I still don’t have a clear picture of what exams she has next term, and I have no clue what the admins and arrangements are, as she hadn’t explained it to me. Can’t believe she’s messed up on an admin point.

@Ironoaks regarding lab reports , is it a done thing to have get it proof read ? And by whom please? I’m just thinking she has handed in her lab report but not had it proof read ( she had a low mark last time).

We went to Jack's Gelato on 6th April with all the graduates in their gowns @Teriyakieverything and very nice it was too. Don't panic about the exam. I never had a clue which ones my DD had - I'd probably have forgotten anyway. Hopefully someone can help her sort it, like a college parent.

DD is quite a good proof-reader so never had lab reports proof-read as far as I know. However, just before Covid, she did a literature review on a niche topic and the supervisor was really impressed by what she and another student did, to the extent that he asked them to collaborate with their reviews and he would publish it. She asked me to proof-read her review with the line "please could you read this and check it. All the science is correct". Now when I'm teaching research skills to my year 12 students, I put her name into Google Scholar and this paper pops up. Massive kudos with my students!

@Malbecfan must have been quite a sight, everyone in their gowns in King’s Parade and holding an ice cream cone!

It was @Teriyakieverything especially DD and 2 friends posing in gowns with ice creams on one of those giraffes

@Malbecfan Ah yes, we saw all those multicoloured giraffes dotted around Cambridge today as well.

DD has emailed some admin person to try to sort out her physics mock tomorrow, she s not even sure if they are the right people, cc d the DoS. DoS is very good, and assured her that she should just turn up and hope they let her sit the mock, if not, there is a plan B. She is feeling better about it, and mind more at rest.

@Teriyakieverything I believe that mock exams are run by the individual college rather than by the subject department, and are for the student's benefit. She did the right thing to copy in the DoS.

DS hasn't asked me to proof read any of his lab reports. I'm assuming (hoping?) he does this himself. He did ask a trusted friend (not in his course cohort so no risk of collusion) to read through his 3rd year literature review before he submitted it, in case he had missed any glaring typos.

He is planning to do a 'giraffe trail' with friends once this week's exams are done.

Thanks @Ironoaks . Apparently, for all the other modules (chem, maths B, biology of cells), mocks are by her College, but the Physics one is set by the department.

Then what got me confused is that they have mocks and exams this term, at beginning and end of term respectively. But I thought they had mocks/tests/exams after Christmas…..so confused, no idea.

@Teriyakieverything - DS's marks for lab reports have always been a bit variable, even though he uses a similar format and number of references each time. I'm guessing there must be some marker subjectivity. As I mentioned previously, in Part I they only count for a tiny percentage of the overall marks for the year.

Someone gave DH a map of all 31 of the giraffes' locations @Ironoaks in the market square near Tourist Information. I think you were meant to pay for it but he was just trying to get rid of them. Some are quite a long way out; shouldn't be an issue for fit students, but doddery old me wasn't up to it, and besides I couldn't miss the gin tasting/mixing session that DD had thoughtfully bought for me...!

DD1 got an email today from one of her tutors about a mock she’s meant to be sitting tomorrow!
She wrote back to say she wouldn’t be back in Cambridge till Tuesday but could do it at home as it’s online and that is OK apparently

@BiancaBlank Gosh, what subject is this?

Good luck to all with mocks and finals - I hope the physics registration works itself out today @Teriyakieverything. DS's exams start at the beginning of June I think. We are going up to formal hall on Sunday - he's been back for a few days because he finds studying in the chaos of a busy house, too difficult.

He's never mentioned getting his lab reports proof read - I didn't even know it was a 'thing'. I will ask him on Sunday.

DS2 starts his GCSE campaign today (with French speaking!). Weird to have my third child doing GCSEs but he's the first one who will actually sit them - the older two had TAGs.

@Teriyakieverything Vet med. It’s one of the modules they do with the medics, and apparently they all knew about it since last term. Actually quite typical of DD’s experience since she started!

Registration for the Physics mock all worked out fine in the end, she was able to turn up and sit the mock. The exam itself was a bit icky she said, but everyone seems to have found it 'a bit icky'. Kind of quite a big shift in expectations when they are used to getting high 80%-90% for their previous exams at school, and finding that they struggle with some of it.