Thread 51 - Covid GCSE Cohort - Summer 24 - End of Uni Yr 2

[Oblomov24]

2024 Summer, end of year 2 for those at Uni.

This is a support thread for our young adults post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting, and their results ( or life updates for those who went into work or have had results earlier). It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, uni vs employment please don't within this thread.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue. We were previously on the secondary board and then further education, now we shall be here in 'Parents of Adult Children' gulp

Our DS/DD may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed). Experience is that everyone is welcomed wherever, whatever their child is doing we have some in work, gap years , apprenticeships etc too. Lots of contributors with different experiences and always sympathy and advice to be had.

Previous thread 50:

50

They have a tutor for each unit, he went to one about the course work to check he was going in the right direction on the essay - didn’t ask him to read his essay, just the general direction - was told he couldn’t do that because ‘if I do it for you then I have to do it for everyone and I don’t have time for that.’ He asked for feedback on last years exam marks and got none. He’s stopped asking now. He doesn’t require learning support for any needs, he just wants some reasonable feedback but apparently it’s too much effort. 🤷‍♀️

Fingers crossed that your DS has got it right on these exams. 🤞🤞

@crazycrofter it’s terrible isn’t it. I hope all unis are not like this because DS2 will definitely need some support I’m sure. Hope your DD does well despite the terrible tutors!🤞🤞

Last law exam finished here today too. Just French to go. DS had a bit of a mare with last Thursday/Friday's exam. He got an error message when trying to submit and it ended up being 2 minutes late. That means a zero mark after 29 very long hours. Student Services were as useful as a chocolate teapot so he called the lecturer who coordinates the law department project work he's been involved with. Although she doesn't teach DS at all she has been amazing. She's spoken to the exams team and it seems he will get away with it. She spent about 30 minutes with him on Teams. She messaged him before this week's exam to check he was okay and then Teams called him again today. I've told him to buy her some flowers. So there is one helpful person in the law department 😁

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn DS had a session with the course convenor following the horrible January exams. He found it really helpful. He's also been the only student at the rare tutorials he's made it to. He said today that the exam was easier because he'd read his notes over the weekend. I dispair sometimes. I do wonder how he cruised through school.

Oh how stressful for him (and you!) @mummyinbeds thank god there was one nice person! Glad they’re over now. If these don’t go well I’ll tell him to try and speak to the course convener (do you know their name?) thanks for the tip.

DS goes to tutorials but they are usually 6 or 7 people, don’t think he’s ever been the only one to turn up, I think he’d love it if he was, he says only him and a girl in the group ever talk or answer questions!

We are behind you lot with exams, DS1 had his this week, but DS2's are next week.

Agree that assessment methods should be something DC look at when choosing a course. DS1's dyslexic GF always wanted to do Medicine, very bright, but bad at exams, A level results not good enough for Med, so she decided on nursing where all assessment was by assignments, so she got a First and should be able to progress to very senior levels in nursing, which frankly right now has many advantages over being a doctor.

Being a junior doctor right now is really, really rubbish, as a mum of 2 medics it is quite depressing. Not only will they be unable to choose where in the country they work when they graduate, this year lots of F2s are facing unemployment or have settled on specialties or locations they really did not want. And all for £15/hour whilst paying GMC, BMA and studying for extra exams which you have to self fund.

What Monkey’s said re exams. No experience of the 24 hour nightmare here, I am really saddened by the lack of support some of your DC have received to date.

Haven’t wanted to trivialise with matters of, in the scheme of things, are quite petty. We have DD’s case back finally no thanks to any help from BA, and now need to replace 2 x large cases due to cut locks as mine was feeling left out of the drama.

I will raise a hoorah Cantonet as and when we get DD’s Irish passport over the line. Predictably, they rejected her certified witness after another 3 months of pending and were back to square one on resubmission, even though we have followed the rules to a T. Some apps clearly fall into the rogue bucket, others get processed with no issues so pls don’t let our challenges hold you back!

Their calling will make it all worthwhile Monkey in the long term. I hope 🤞

Sorry to hear of all this crap and nonsense. That popcorn no exam feedback is just crap. Thank goodness for the only nice lady on the planet instead of a computer says no type, in mummy's ds law submission paper.

I have learnt a lot from you guys, and agree with Monkey re considering a courses assessment methods - not even sure that ds2 will go to uni, (he doesn't have a clue) but if he does I'll be paying a lot more attention to how they are assessed.

I'm relaxing in caravan bed, so decided to send ds1 some Gower brownies, for exam brain sustenance.

@ealingwestmum so glad the suitcase has found it's way home. DD flies BA to Ghana in a few weeks. I can't imagine what she'll do if her luggage doesn't arrive.

There are some advantages to 24 hour exams. No way could DS pass a normal in person exam. He has missed so much of the course so needs to refer back to recorded lectures and handouts and text books. I just wish they didn't make the law exams so complicated. It's like they want to cover the whole module in each question. DS finds breaking down the issues into manageable chunks really difficult and then can't manage the timing at all so spends ages on one point and runs out of time - even with 24 hours plus extra time.

I think that's why so many are going overseas @Monkey2001.I have 2 nephews doing medicine currently. One didn't get the London location he wanted as it's so competitive ( unusually he had a really nice cheap flat with a friend ) so has had to move & the other is struggling.

Hi all, been away ages and just catching up.

DD had said her friends at Nottingham studying

psychology are having to work much harder than her school
Friends at Manchester met.
They don't have any lab work or exams at all in the 3 years. She thinks its very unfair As when they are off at Christmas and Easter they don't have any revision or even essays due.
Maybe we should have looked at unis better but she was adamant she wanted one of the best she could get into.

DD is finding her Biology exams very hard going. She soft failed one module in Jan and got
2-2 in two others.
This time she has 4 exams and first one she didn't finish.
She said the extra 30
Mins she gets for
Being dyslexic just isn't enough.
. 2nd exam went much better,
3rd exam was a 24hr exam
Which she said was the
Most humbling day of
Her life! She thinks she has done ok but it took her approx 15hrs to complete .
She messaged me

I have to sequence data and make a figure It’s to tedious and all about computer software I hate this stuff

Thankfully finished before bedtime and sent it off with 15 hrs to go (she had 30 hrs)

Not sure how much feedback she gets as she wouldn't
Ask for it.
She does get to meet her tutor regularly and has feedback from
Assignments/essays from her.

DD is not impressed with a lot of the lectures,
Says they just read off the powerpoint so she doesn't go to all her lectures and watches the videos instead.
She does seem to be working hard and certainly revised a lot whilst home all of April so if she doesn't do well in these exams I'm not sure she will be getting the 2-1 she is hoping for next year as I cant see what will be different. I don't think she will fail any this time but she was hoping to do well to catch up
Some of the lost marks in Jan.

She is much happier in 2nd year compared to 1st year thankfully.
Having a house has made a massive difference, really likes her housemates.
Her boyfriend visits every few weeks too which she likes/needs.

No work sorted for summer holidays, there is just no way she has got thr headspace to deal with anything other than lectures and work due. She is playing hockey but not off out socialising loads. Just find ls the while uni part exhausting.

She only has 1 more year to
Go so needs to
Start thinking whats next. She wanted to
Become a clinical
Scientist but so fee
Places that she would need a 1st so is starting to look at other options. She would like to do an MA but we cant fully fund that. Loan would only be 12k
Max and courses she likes at nottingham cost £14k and then need to add living costs.
Hopefully she can give
It some
Headspace after her holiday...
And get a job of somesort.. she knows she can work for her Dad if needed but that wont help her CV.

Psychology can be very different, depending on the award. If it is a BSc then it is likely to be more science based, whereas a BA is more social science and essay based. Obviously a generalisation, but the science based degrees will include labs, maths etc much more so than BAs. It is worth considering this when looking at options!

There are probably other subjects which sit on the middle and could go either way?

Geography I think is like that, I seem to remember at my uni you could do BA of BSc for that one.

Hello @Heifer great to hear from you after so long. Glad DD is happier, even if she is not getting the grades she wants, happiness is the most important thing which we take for granted until it is missing!

Hello @Heifer 👋

DD has finished her exams but they are really hard. She said the things that came up wasn’t what was covered in the course content and lectures which is unfair.

Some modules are better organised than others but she’s generally happy

Hi @heifer! I was wondering how you and dd were doing - nice to read your update. Another difficult Nottingham course though 😬I don’t remember finding uni particularly difficult-but then maybe History is quite easy for the right sort of person? If you can analyse a load of written information and write a balanced argument, that’s it. There’s certainly a lot more involved in Psychology and probably other subjects too.

Glad the case turned up @ealingwestmum !

Gosh, I'm very glad DD's course is all assessment based, with no exams -neither she nor I could deal with the stress!
Lots of sympathy and good luck to all DCs wading through exams,technology issues, and unsupportive teaching staff.

DD and her BF came to stay for a few days, at my request, to celebrate trending cancer treatment. All very lovely - we are a lot and crackers open the bubbly.
They drove back last night. The last thing I said to her BF was to give him directions to the nearest petrol station....so why did we get a message at 10.30pm to say they were on the hard shoulder of the M50, waiting for theAA....because they'd run out of petrol??!!
Apparently,her BF guessed he could make it back to Brum without filling up, which might have worked had they not been sent on a long diversion.

Do Gower Cottage brownies taste amazing, Oblomov?
I've sent them to friendsbefore, based on reviews, but never actually eaten one myself. (I make a pretty decent brownie myself, even if I do say so!)

Is that you ED, turned into FD?!

@Alwaysplayspicc Glad you're in celebratory mode. Can sympathise with the petrol price chasing. I used to take DS to hockey in Bradford occasionally and it was always on the warning light because it was at least 10p a litre cheaper.

@Monkey2001 There was an eloquent young doctor on Question Time earlier. No robust pledges from any of the panel.

I hope the final exams and assessments go well for all. DS is also lacking in feedback. Last year it was just a blanket no feedback for anyone. I think I said at the time on here, how are they supposed to improve with no guidance on what went wrong. This year some assignments have come back with a few comments but he hasn't been able to pin down his tutor for a one to one all year. His choice of modules for next year, after the ones he is really keen on, has been influenced by which tutor.

Eeek yes it is. I only use that one when discussing the DCs schools by name. I was going to post something yesterday here with that one then thought it would just cause confusion. One of the DC's schools has hit the national press this week and not for a good reason.

It's interesting having two at uni at the same time to compare. Nottingham - awful assessments and minimal feedback. Aberystwyth - an assortment of assessments (exams, essays, briefing notes, blogs, vlogs, simulations, presentations) and detailed feedback.
To be fair to Nottingham, feedback from the languages department looks detailed but I can't read it because it's in French.

I'm another one who runs the car on fumes in the hope of finding cheaper fuel.

Hi everyone, thought I'd add an end-of-year-two update also! Interesting to hear everyone's experiences across the different courses and unis.

DS has handed in his last essay - past few weeks have been crunchy for him with four essays totalling 10,000 words all due within two weeks of each other. It has tested his planning and organisation skills for sure. His course at Notts (Sociology) is mainly coursework/essay based which was a deliberate choice since exams are not usually his strongest point, or they weren't at school - might be better now but the memory lingers!

Regarding support at Notts, DS seems to have had a few helpful conversations with his lecturers when he's sought feedback, but that has been seldom. He has a personal tutor assigned but she cancelled (double-booked) the only meeting he had with her and he didn't reschedule it. I have told him in third year I want him to make an effort to meet with the tutor just to build a connection in case needed. Right now she wouldn't be able to pick him out in a lineup.

I do find it frustrating that the students don't seem to have much recourse if the "service" they are getting is not up to scratch. I have family members who are university lecturers and they put a lot of effort in with their students, lots of office hours, personal coaching, marking and feedback. I'm not seeing that from any of my kids' unis yet feel powerless for them to agitate for something more. It certainly doesn't feel like value for money and though I don't begrudge universities needing to charge, I do feel the mechanism for their "customers" to then demand appropriate and adequate service is missing. Feels like there needs to be a Service Level Agreement. On bad days it feels like they are paying a large amount of money to simply be sent to the library.

DS will be home next week but only briefly before he starts his summer job as an activity leader with a company that does summer camps for international students - kids aged 13-17. He did this last summer and it was hard work but paid well so he was tempted back again this year despite having said "never again" - he earned much better money than his friends doing bar/restaurant/shop work so it means he can also have a decent amount of time off in the summer, which is his main goal!

@Alwaysplayspicc
Gower's are nice, very rich though. Ds2 and I are making do with the Lidl ones that are quite good. It is you who is Brownie Queen though isn't it? You posted your recipe for me before I think. Would you mind again? I might finally get around to try to bake my own.

I agree with Blink, there seems to be no recourse for any student with poor Uni service. I've got quite a few things I'd say given the opportunity! (thus it's probably best there isn't the opening).