Reach for the stars...

niccatw

I may well be challenging you on that one again tonight Butti! Have to resubmit the case study. No surprise there! I'm not going to put much effort into it. And apologies to those of you who may be horrified by that! But, I've been here before! You've heard my gripes! And here we are again!

It seems to me there are only two things I can do; (1) resubmit the essay, knowing it is still not good enough to pass and see what university processes kick in and (2) visit occupational health and see if they will support me quitting the course on health grounds.

I'm still unclear on whether I'd have to pay money back. My boss said at a meeting that grant money has to be paid back even if you fail. I nearly choked on my tea as that had never been mentioned prior to me applying for any grant! But also, I just can't see that you can ethically make some-one pay money back for failing unless you had grounds for belieiving they were deliberately doing so in order not to pay?

And my boss has also said that if I was still finding it difficult to manage, she thought it best I did quit. Saying that, when I told her I had to resubmit, she suggested I meet with the professor and find out where I'm going wrong. He can't do that before I resubmit as that'd effectively be cheating.

Hmmmm.... I seem to have gone of on a circular rant again! I know what I have to do for me! I now just have to get the boss and the professor to understand that! And stop letting pride get in the way!

Anyway, best get on with it! Send me positive energy vibes please!

MrsMoo2U

Aw, Nic lots of positive vibes heading your way. You can never say that you didnt give it your best shot if you do decide to quit. There is nothing wrong with walking away if its not right for you. Hope you sort it out soon. As for having to pay if you fail what a load of b******s. If that were the case surely nobody would ever sign up to courses. Speak with the union rep for further education they should be able to help

Butti

Positive vibes to you Nic. God I hope you're not going through the night. I don't see what is wrong with seeing the professor before you submit. We seem to get a certain amount of coaching prior to submission - we all go along with our plans and we can ask for advice on how to change them.

The only bit of advice I can really give you is to shove a reference in on every single point you are making. May not be appropriate but seems to be working for me.

....and don't make yourself ill over this. You really don't need that. If you need to quit for health reasons I think that is okay and you should fight anyone who says no (maybe to the death!)

B x

niccatw

If it was a traditional case study I'd probably be ok. I've done two degrees and a postgrad certificate to date so I'm used to case studies.

This one just seems to be a massive leap (for me at least) from the theory to the "case study", which is actually a commissioning process consisting of 8 parts (and another 8 qustions at least in each of those parts!). In answering any one of those, I could reach the 1500 word limit. And I just can't figure out how to cram the evidence-base and show my understanding of it in the way I need to. It's seems just vague, wooly and contrived. Even to me!

All the comments say I need more information but I was already over the word limit when I first handed it in.

As you know, short and concise don't come easily to me! And I don't have a background in business report writing, where I imagine you'd have to be succint. Otherwise my diary would probably take up a quarter of the space it does .

I don't feel any further forward now than I did 5 hours ago. Just closer to throwing the laptop across the room and bursting into tears.

I don't know the professor's thinking on giving advice; perhaps it's because it's a resubmissiom? Or perhaps I've misunderstood what he meant.

All I know is that right now I don't feel I have the physical and mental capcity to do this. And if the last year has taught me anything at all, then I need to walk away from it now. My problem then becomes that of being assertive in getting that point across and not being persuaded to give it another go. Which is what happend just after christmas when you were reading the very same gripes I have right now.

On the plus side, yesterday and today have been NSDs and I paid another £11 and some pennies to RBS from my "spending" account and £15 and some pennies from my direct debits and bills account...

MrsMoo2U

Oh dear Nic, do not make yourself ill again.

Ok, so you know that you CAN do this as you have done it before, you know that the problem seems to be keeping it short. So having identified both of those things is there anything that you can do to get over that hurdle (if you want to that is)? I know that the case study has to be in soon but can you ask for an extension on health grounds? Now this might sound a little crazy but I have heard that some students pay people to write their thesis. So is there anybody that you could get to look over your draft and precis it for you. If your problem is finding it difficult to be succinct then there is always somebody who is good at saying the same thing in less words.

I seem to have joined your club of being up through the night dont I? Good luck with the resubmission and hey, if it doesnt make the grade its not the end of the world. You could be Chris Hyder filling your bucket list if you havent read his thread go look at "Fond Farewell" it will put things in perspective for you.

niccatw

Thank you Cherisong . It's done. Not well, but done. Boss called on another matter so she now knows how I feel (again). She also said it's not the end of the world and to let her know what university processes kick in when I know the outcome.

My flatmate's laptop has packed in on him this afternoon. He's lost 12,000 words of his thesis and he didn't have it backed up outside of his laptop. :eek: Kinda puts my moaning into perspective and I haven't had the chance to look at "Fond Farewell" yet.

Tonight I have mostly been sitting on the sofa in my gym gear (it has the safe effect you know) and staring vacantly at the TV. I didn't sleep well last night. I gave up the assignment as a bad job at 1am and went to bed. I tossed and turned and tried to switch off. Next thing I know the low battery tone (which is a one off, low tone beep) on my phone beeped at 5am and it woke me up. I didn't really get back to sleep. I'm planning on making up for it tonight! Zzzzzzzzzzz!

I'm watching Superscrimpers: Waste Not Want Not... Martin's copyrighted the site, right? Though I'm loving the food tips, must get more creative in the kitchen (and I don't mean planning the kitchen I would like to have!)

niccatw

RBS now sitting at £4,517.95

With £26ish still on its way there

Jesthar

Yeowch to the flatmates essay! That is a true bummer - I once lost a whole major A level maths project the night before it was due to be handed in! :eek:

Can he get the hard drive out the laptop? With the right cable it could be plugged into a desktop, and then he might be able to get all his data back...

Sorry to hear the community gardening is stalled - now is SO the time to be getting all the main planting done! All my French beans and half my runner beans are up already, plus half a dozen peas and loads of lettuce seedlings. No sign of the toms yet, but plenty of flower seedlings are up. Need to buy some Sweet Peas, though - sent off for an Unwins catalogue, but it hasn't come!

Hmm, TVs. Well, modern flatscreens use a hoobload less power than old bulky uns, but if you wait six months maybe freeview+ TVs might have become reality, or at least the prices for standalones will have come down All decent TVs are HD these days anyway. Panasonic are pretty good, I've heard

Oh, and :T on the loan again - fantastic work!

Butti

Hi Niccatw

This one just seems to be a massive leap (for me at least) from the theory to the "case study", which is actually a commissioning process consisting of 8 parts (and another 8 qustions at least in each of those parts!). In answering any one of those, I could reach the 1500 word limit. And I just can't figure out how to cram the evidence-base and show my understanding of it in the way I need to. It's seems just vague, wooly and contrived. Even to me!

This seems to be quite steep. You could try and draw out the main points in a couple of sentences and then put in a third sentence directing them to further information. I am doing a journal article on 'affordable housing' and I know it is different to a case study but that is how we've been told to do it. May work for you.

My flatmate's laptop has packed in on him this afternoon. He's lost 12,000 words of his thesis and he didn't have it backed up outside of his laptop

No...no...no....no....No! I know we should show sympathy in this situation, and I have no doubt that you have ...and have probably also made him a cup of tea :A BUT why didn't he at least have it backed up on the Uni system. When I was doing mine I had it on my PC, on the uni's system AND on a disc in the bag on my bicycle just incase the uni and our house simultaneously burnt down! Paranoid - moi? :rotfl:

Anyway you do whatever you need to do to keep yourself well. Holibobs soon isn't it?

B x

niccatw

niccatw wrote: »

Tonight I have mostly been sitting on the sofa in my gym gear (it has the safe effect you know).

Hahaha! Bit of a Freudian slip, perhaps? I meant same effect!

Jesthar, it'll probably be a good six months in reality before I get around to the TV anyhoo, so I'll employ gadget-boy, TV freak friend again then to shortlist his favourite telly's for me!

Butti, I'm with you on backing up documents every-where you can! So you can imagine how well my nonchalant "But you've got it on a flash drive, right?" question went down!!! Jesthar, he took it to PC World before I knew that was his plan and could stop him. :eek: They'll rob him blind. And probably render any possible salvage mission impossible! He seems eerily calm about the whole thing (so perhaps it is on the uni system and he's being melodramatic in the hope I'll make him lots of cups of coffee).

My case-study resubmission bl00dy passed! Barely. But it passed. So I think the best course of action is a wee day trip to St Andrews and a meeting with the professor to establish exactly what they are looking for. The comments are all that I'm not sytematically reviewing the evidence base, and, hands up, that's not as thorough as it could be, but my problem is in getting it across that I have read and understood what I have reviewed.

So onto module 3 it is... cue stress levels peaking in 3 months unless I get this sorted now! What I also have to do it be completely inflexible about changing my study 1/2 day at work, because flexibility doesn't seem to work two ways for some people!

Jesthar, would you like to design me a t-shirt that just says no!!! :rotfl: I'll wear it underneath my professional veneer and when some-one asks me something I can't say no to, I'll just burst open my top and show them the t-shirt! They'll be so relieved to see a t-shirt saying no, they'll never remember they asked me a question!!!! :rotfl:

This month is turning out to be rather spendy! I had a meeting yesterday for the conference we are arranging in October but the person with the important information (i.e. hotel contract) couldn't make it so we still can't finalise the flyer. So we went for dinner instead . Which was rather tasty! But it doesn't half scupper your planned NSD!!!!

And tomorrow I'm heading to Go Ape, where I will mostly be screaming in terror through the tree tops! After which I imagine I'll probably need a wee medicinal tincture or three. I should probably work out where it is I'm going too...