University of Westminster - Student Protest!

celyn90

I wouldn't worry about the exam grades to be honest, as you will all sit your exams together and the grades will be normalised across your year group. You still have a fair chunk of time to revise even if it is shorter than previous years.

If it is about the knowledge, then there is nothing to stop you doing extra reading after the exam time during the hols.

I do think that you have to look at what you hope to achieve by taking this sort of stance. I think it is unlikely that your university will alter the timetables you have been given as it takes a tremendous amount of work to co-ordinate, process and mark examination scripts university-wide. I worry that you will waste what time you do have.

If it's any consolation I wrote my thesis in eight weeks (final copy was around 700 pages) as well as working full time in the lab and writing a paper for my boss (another 200 pages of supporting information). These sorts of things can be done, you just have to knuckle down work like you've never worked before. We never had reading weeks when I was an undergraduate either. Despite not having these half-term weeks it is still possible to consolidate your learning as very few courses I have had experience of actually are full time in the sense of 9 - 5 each day (I had two full days a week in the lab but the other three days were never solid blocks of lectures). Plus you have the holidays in between terms and weekends & evenings. I doubt very much the actually amount of contact time has been reduced from previous years, it's probably just arranged differently.

I can see it's a worry for you and really do wish you all the best in your studies, but please don't lose sight of why you are studying by stressing over timetabling.

The_One_Who

To answer your question WUS, no it hasn't impacted on my grades at all. I don't understand why it should. I've just had to manage my time and give up my social life for a bit.

melancholly

i guess i can understand that this way of doing exams is very different to a levels..... but having been somewhere where i had 4 essays a week and crammed exam weeks, then i can't be too sympathetic - i mean i know it's not ideal, but it's certainly not any worse than a lot of other unis. i'd have sooner had lots of breaks and spread things out, but it just wasn't going to happen.....

i think that it's dangerous for your grades to spend so much effort protesting rather than working.... although i can kind of understand your irritation at the situation i think it will be counterproductive to get heavily involved in a protest at this late stage - especially since the exam rooms are all booked as well as the invigilators so there is no way the univeristy will change their mind.

Lokolo

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Can't speak for DMG24 but my exams started the week after the last coursework deadline.

As do mine at the moment.

I am still at university. I have 2 assignments due after Easter (Easter is in a week and is for 2 weeks). I then start exams a week after.

Also the OP was saying how they've got to learn 8 modules worth. Not sure about his uni but you only do 4 modules in the summer.... 4 in winter..

Westminster_Uni_Student

Lokolo wrote: »

As do mine at the moment.

I am still at university. I have 2 assignments due after Easter (Easter is in a week and is for 2 weeks). I then start exams a week after.

Also the OP was saying how they've got to learn 8 modules worth. Not sure about his uni but you only do 4 modules in the summer.... 4 in winter..

Hi, we have all of our main exams held in the summer. I've completed 16 tests/in-class essays/reports etc so far this academic year. I feel for the students who have to plan their dissertations for next year now on top of completing lab reports/tests etc.

My friend who is studying Physiology and Pharmacology has reliably informed me that my estimation of 11 pieces of coursework was completely wrong as he has had to complete 18 pieces - with two of these 18 containing 12 report write ups in total.

The_One_Who

At my university there is a department who do all the honours exams at the one time. So you do you third and fourth year exams at the end of fourth year. These students still have dissertations to do and as they are literature students a hell of a lot of reading to do.

In my opinion you can either like it or lump it. The university isn't going to change its entire system to suit a few students. This year my university put its exams before Christmas instead of after, people got on with it since protesting and moaning wasn't going to change anything.

Bamber19

In my final year of my law degree I had 4 exams in a week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I had just under 2 weeks to properly prepare for them. Quite a few people got poor marks because they focused on the first exam for two weeks and then spent one day studying for the others. I realise it can be frustrating when you've had it easy in previous years but you'll get little sympathy from anyone who has been in the same situation throughout their university career, albeit studying Law, which is well known to be a breeze in comparison to physiology and pharmacology.

dieselhead

I have to offer my support to Westminster Uni Student, it seems recently that universities have been giving their students a raw deal and its nice to see that there are some students who are prepared to stand up for what they want. Students have always been a very militant group, something that has fallen by the wayside since most students now have to work to support themselves through university, something that was not the case when my parents attended university. I remember the irony that I could not attend the protest against tuition fees in 2003 as I had to work.

Anyway best of luck Westminster, I hope you achieve your objective.

(oh and as it appears to matter in this discussion I do have a degree)

Oldernotwiser

dieselhead wrote: »

I have to offer my support to Westminster Uni Student, it seems recently that universities have been giving their students a raw deal and its nice to see that there are some students who are prepared to stand up for what they want. Students have always been a very militant group, something that has fallen by the wayside since most students now have to work to support themselves through university, something that was not the case when my parents attended university. I remember the irony that I could not attend the protest against tuition fees in 2003 as I had to work.

Students used to be militant but mainly for causes outside their own personal interests, like Vietnam, Chile, etc. I was at Essex in the 70s and that was certainly true there.

mabe_uk

Lol, stop complaining mate.

My University ( Cambridge has 8 week terms).

My course is basically 4 degree's in 1 essentially. Since we have to master mechanical, civil, & electrical and maths to a high degree ( Engineering).

If you saw how much work we have to do as well as courseworks/labs/ etc. It is like murder, though some people may argue people from Cambridge are the most intelligent so we can cope.

Still if your term is cut from 12 - 10 weeks surely that gives you an extra 6 more weeks anyways or 4 if you just count the first 2 terms.

Stop protesting and get on with your course.