What should I do??

mrcow

spaceage wrote:

I was feeling pretty bad as we've had a rough family time and still are, I went to see the GP but am concerned they will at this stage say that I'm making excuses

Well it is an excuse. And a valid one. Lots of people get concessions each year over exam performance due to ill health (and that includes stress btw!). If you are implying that they are going to say that you are making up excuses by producing a doctor's certificate (or similar) then they know better than to do that.

I understand that things have not been great at home, but I really don't think that you should be doing all this alone. Is either of your parents around to help back you up and perhaps go along with you to any meetings?

It's been so long since I went to university (mid nineties ) that I can't remember all the different support groups that they could have, but I know for sure that they are numerous. Your student union could be able to advise you on how (and whether!) to appeal against your marks due to personal circumstance and they should also have councilling services for students who are finding things hard.

I can't stress enough though how important it is to get as much support as possible from your faculty.

You have my sympathies btw. I did biology and was doing really well until things got over my head very quickly in the second year! Trying to keep up and cope (let alone excelling) can be a stressful task. It's a long and boring story anyway.

But keep your chin up and stay positive. It's only a couple of exams, which I'm sure are well within your capabilities.

peace-babies

Hi i know how frustrating this is i got ill midway through the first semester of this year with a virus that i have only just fully recovered from consequently i failed a lot of modules as i couldnt attend lectures and even though i had doctors notes there seemed to be no special consideration.
In the end it got me so upset not to mention stressed i phoned several people including my tutor and people in the department and told them exactly how i felt including that i was let down by the marking system and was considering changing uni (it turned out there was no communication between anybody in the depatment and several sick notes had gone missing) then suddenly marks appeared to go from a fail to a pass (strange how threatening to leave made things miraculasly appear) .
Get a note off the doctors they cant say your making excuses unless you claim that you were in a coma. Some staff do understand how stressful exams are and to find that you have failed especially when you tried so hard only adds to the stress its just a matter of finding the office staff who underrstand this rather than the ones who believe students get drunk and do tap all work so don't believe a word you say.
Is there a support depatment at your uni it might help to speak to them to see if there is anything they can do and as somebody else said keep your tutor and any lectuters on your side.
Also something i found useful was to email people in the department and keep the responses so i had a record of what they said about resits and whether i would have to resit the year or just the exams very useful when nobody gave me the same answer and gave wrong information which sent me in circles.
Hope you get it sorted

melancholly

if you do have any problems then fill out (or get your supervisor to fill out - will be different at different unis) a special circumstance form. they won't mark you more leniantly (anonymous marking and all that!) but if you are close to a boundary then they'll go through all your papers and might pull you up. you have to do this before the exams to stop people using it as an excuse (and while you clearly have a reason there are always people who try to abuse the system). i know that won't help you now, but it's worth rememebring for next year!

as far as taking the exams, i think it's just another hoop you have to jump through - it's tedious and annoying but better than not being allowed back! i'm sure that through something like the the feedom of information act you can get to see a copy of your exam papers but most markers don't put many comments on them so it might not help in that sense, although i'm sure a tutor could get hold of them and go through them with you to see if it's just that you missed the point of a couple of questions and they wrecked your overall mark, or if it's a more general problem.

with that many people on the course failing, i'm sure you could express concern over the quality of their teaching(!) - and also find out if the setting or marking of exams was affected by the AUT strike. but then again, like mrcow siad, keep your tutor on your side as much as possible!

don't stress too much - loads and loads of people do resits and it doesn't mean much to them! it's nto fun but it's a necessary evil - i go with the shouting and ranting for a bit option too, then get down to revision to stick it to them by getting great marks in the resit (even if they're capped at 40%, if you get 70% on the paper it'll really show them that something went wrong with the marking last time!) sending hugs in your direction!

misskool

Just to keep on with what the others have said and speak to your tutors for advice. Tell them all the circumstances, try to get the paper re-marked and ask them what could have happened since you've done well previously.

And one a side note you'd rather not consider but if you need some help,I'm doing a PhD in Biochemistry so if you need some tutoring or help reading through your scripts, PM me.

Gem_

what university are you at? PM me if you dont want to say on here. I have teaching contacts in a few uni's so I might be able to check on the marking polices.

Multiple choice cards are usually put through an electronic reader by some poor long suffering post grad or a member of admin. They will not have been double marked (as happens to most scripts) so it is worth chasing up. I got 12% once in a exam due to a mistake by the card reader, got 68% when they marked it again but it took some pressure to get them to do it. Something strange is going on for you to get 0, normally random guessing with a pin will get you somewhere between 20 and 30% - unless there is negative marking.

Good Luck

Gem

talksalot81

DrFluffy wrote:

Do they? .

As a general rule yes! Mostly the ones who dont are the ones who get all the firsts

Mad_old_tory

I feel for you mate, I've just finished my first year and scraped through in a couple of modules. Really didn't do enough work this year and need to get things sorted for next year so I don't make the same mistake. It's a shame that you have put all the effort in and have failed by such a small amount, hope things work out for you

Basil_Fawlty

Thank you so much all of you :T it's nice to get some encouragement and support for a change!!

I've done an interesting calculation...

Initial number of Biochemists at Level 1 = 15
Current Biochemists cleared for Level 3 = 9

Therefore 6/15 x 100 = 40% failure/dropout rate. :eek: :eek:

Now doesn't that say something about the department?? :think: How I'd love to email that to my department but they'd just turn on me I think

I've emailed them to say I can't resit the second year due to cost and accommodation issues so my only options are to resit or leave. No reply yet :rotfl:

studentphil

At my uni you can take upto 80 credits a term (would normally be 60 a term), so maybe it is possible for you to take some of the resits like as extra credits next year.

talksalot81

spaceage wrote:

Thank you so much all of you :T it's nice to get some encouragement and support for a change!!

I've done an interesting calculation...

Initial number of Biochemists at Level 1 = 15
Current Biochemists cleared for Level 3 = 9

Therefore 6/15 x 100 = 40% failure/dropout rate. :eek: :eek:

Now doesn't that say something about the department?? :think: How I'd love to email that to my department but they'd just turn on me I think

I've emailed them to say I can't resit the second year due to cost and accommodation issues so my only options are to resit or leave. No reply yet :rotfl:

I wouldnt be so surprised by that.... I doubt that the department would either! As a rule sciences are not so hard to get into (grades wise) so plenty of people apply as a way of 'getting in'. They may well think that they can just get through on the course, but who are we kidding, you do not get through something like biochemistry with 3D's and not working your !!! into the ground. So these people quickly realise that, drop out and do something else. Im from physics and it is just the same.... I have had to teach new students who I wouldnt have trusted to plug in a lamp, letalone get a degree in physics!