Failed my last essay and im so upset

[juicychops]

Im in the first year of my OU psychology degree.

Each month we have to read a text book then write an essay on a question we're given.

The last months one was meant to be done as an exam under exam conditions in a local school but as i couldn't get there i was allowed to do it at home.

It took me ages to read the book and i understood none of it at all. There was 2 questions and you had to answer 1. I of course didn't read that properly either so tried to do both.

i tried as hard as i could on the exam and got 25% which is a poor fail!!

Im devestated! so far i have been getting between 70 and 80% on my essays and this is going to bring all my marks down so all my hard work has been for nothing

lost all motivation now and tonight ive got to start reading for the next essay

Well,look on the bright side. The first year counts for bugger all overall. Seriously. I went straight in at level 2, worked my arse off and did really well in all three courses. But it means very little in terms of my overall level. It's the level 3s that really matter.

You know why you did so badly. They will only have marked one of the essays.

If you are getting level 2 on your other essays, you'll be fine.

Is your tutor helpful? Mt tutor last year was brilliant at buoying me up in difficult moments.

What course are you doing?

Ive only ever spoken to my tutor once he seems ok not really needed to speak to him (although i should of with this essay)

im doing D100 level 1 psychology. I just want to get on to level 2 where i can choose the specific topics i study. Level 1 is so broad and boring.

Yeah, he only marked 1 of the questions. He said he marked the better one. and because i had rushed it to do the other one it turnt out really crap anyway

It's a blip.

Don't panic. Or give up.

I loved DSE212. It was great.

But if you're doing a named psychology degree then there is no choice really at level 2. But it is at least all psychology. Although some people on Biological Psychology whinged last year amount the amount of biology

Hi Juicychops - try not to worry too much about this. In an OU degree your level 1 course does not count towards the classification of the overall degree. I think maybe a call to your tutor would be helpful and as you found it hard to read the book in the first place, perhaps a call to ask which were the relevant bits might have been useful. I have to say that I admire anyone doing the S or A courses (speaking as a S student) because the thought of lots of essays makes me sick!!

Hope this helps and if you get stuck on the next book - call your tutor or speak to some of the other students in your group (often better than the tutors).

sympathy to you..if you struggled with the book then if that happens again maybe you could ask for some guidance

on the bright side and i may get shouted at for saying this, you could try thinking of it as the worst moment and next time will be better...better to get your worst mark out of the way at this stage it is about learning the ropes to some extent