It would appear that the students at my uni have decided that for next year they want the new year exam period moved forward to before christmas. It's normally in January. This is so that they can have a stress free christmas and get january off. There is a slight problem with this – there is only one week available before christmas and four in january and some of us have 6 exams. Nowt like removing the time to prepare for the exams and set yourself up for a fail. Idiots – thick as ****.

Idiots – thick as ****.

Or perhaps they actually find it all rather easy, leaving you the thick one? 😉

No – they are also saying that they need to be spoon fed more as they cant cope with the idea of having to learn it for themselves….

They are also wanting 1st year to count towards their degree classification too.

How about the moon on a stick?

That probably wouldnt be good enough.

first year is spent getting everybody reading from the same hymn sheet, if mine was anything to go by. For those of us that had already done 90% of it, disinterest soon set in.

I didn't finish my degree, I got waylaid by music, girls & booze, not necessarily in that order 😉 but that was a long time ago

Not all students are lazy. I had a part time job working a minimum of 20 hours a week for the whole of my degree…But I agree that is a stupid move.

Nothing worse than watching someone slacking off after having their entire degree assessed via 2 hour weekly seminars (*cough* History *cough*) when mine rode completely on a series of tough final exams and two massive FYPs.

You'll be fine – stop moaning – you'll be able to enjoy xmas with the kids! 😀

I was planning on enjoying christmas with the kids anyway.

"They are also wanting 1st year to count towards their degree classification too. "

I used to go to Uni in Reading and know work at Imperial. Imperial does this and I think its a great idea.

Doesnt have to be much just 5% maybe less it just keeps people on there toes and means that they **** about and fall behind and then continue their bad habits into 2nd year.

Seems with the advent of paying fees, students are becoming more demanding!

Some have worked out the cost of each lecture etc, and have been noted to complain if they feel it wasn't worth the money.

This may help to improve some teaching methods, but too much weight given to the student view could well reduce the quality of their education as they get more spoon-fed.

Tell them their exams will be when they are set by the university not by the students.

Having done an honours degree that was purely exam based, and then a masters which was primarily assignment based; I would do away with exams as much as possible.

Continual assessment is fairer as it assess your performance over time, not just one one lucky or unlucky day, and more realistic as it can be worked into a real-world project.

One or two exams are good for testing how someone reacts in a pressure situation however.

students at my uni have decided

don't believe it…students have zero power…all run at the convenience of lecturers / department heads etc …these are the ones who could do with an introduction to the 'real world'…students will get theirs in time.

Not all students are lazy. I had a part time job working a minimum of 20 hours a week for the whole of my degree…But I agree that is a stupid move.

1 job! Pah… Bloody luxury.

Sure moving to before xmas must mean ramping up the numbers of lectures per day so that all the work can get covered in sufficient time?

masters which was primarily assignment based; I would do away with exams as much as possible.

I'm currently doing a masters and it's all assignments….I would say that I definitely understand the material that I'm being taught a lot better than if I just had an exam at the end but I learn better through practise.

Needs to be in January to allow them to study the material.

<Rant>
Except now you can't fail and be binned off the course.
Back on my course if you failed more than two in one diet, bye-bye if you failed any of the summer re-sits bye-bye.
Certainly focusses the mind.
Oh and exams much better means you can booze for months then study at the end.
Just like real life periods of relative ease followed by periods of stress and if you do badly you suffer the consequences.
</Rant>

Not all students are lazy. I had a part time job working a minimum of 20 hours a week for the whole of my degree…But I agree that is a stupid move.

Only 20 hours, lazy git.

Judging by the grammar,spelling and punctuation here, hope you are not studying English

Same hymn sheets, ramping

What sort of language is that?

don't believe it…students have zero power…all run at the convenience of lecturers / department heads etc …these are the ones who could do with an introduction to the 'real world'…students will get theirs in time.

That is a gross generalisation. Where i work we welcome the input of students into the courses. The SU is also a powerful lobbying body – they can be a bit naive about some issues, but they make useful contributions.

On exams, some uni leaders have called for a massive reduction in the number of exams.

Ours are before and after Christmas.

No offence Capt' but I hate how

naive

is used to denounce any position that the old guard, the 20th century thinkers, our political class, media and industrialists think is unrealistic. The only reason many political opinions are unrealistic, is because the aforementioned groups refuse to change or let go of their power.

I'd have had no problems with doing exams before christmas hols, if you understand the course you're learning it and applying it as you go, not mindlessly turning up to write notes then cramming in the weeks before the exam just to pass?

don't believe it…students have zero power…all run at the convenience of lecturers / department heads etc …these are the ones who could do with an introduction to the 'real world'…students will get theirs in time.

Vast generalisation, many MANY lecturers and profs started their careers in industry and interface with it daily. Those who think that profs are not in the real world are the ones who have an out of date view of a part of that world. And students do have some power, but I agree not generally to dictate term times – that normally lies with the staff who will likely be being pressed from a few angles, not just by students but also by bosses and general policy.

I'd have voted for January off too!

And I thought I had it easy as a student after my dept decided to stop running collecitons at the begvinning of each term….

Yes, it is a perennial issue: students think that universities are run for their benefit alone, and those who lecture find students to be a general PITA and get in the way of their reserach.

I'd love to go back to university to do a research degree. Maybe it's something to do with the way Dr North swans in and out of work as she pleases, and conducts her life through a series of "meetings". Genius.

I've decided to start a revolution and get this dumb assed decision reversed.

Exams are great for undergraduate courses, because some undergraduates cheat like crazy on some types of coursework. They get caught cheating (in our labs the magic anti-cheating software gets them), but it is a pain having to tell people that they are getting 0 for the module* and deal with the ensuing arguments and fuss, whereas exams are much harder to cheat in.

They also are more practical to set/mark for large groups like you get on undergraduate courses, whereas in masters courses with smaller numbers, project based work is much easier to do & supervise (plus masters students pay more, so there is more money to pay people to supervise their individual projects).

Joe

* most academic / research people think that people should be chucked off the course if they ever get caught cheating, but apparently there are various reasons this isn't practical. Hmph.

* most academic / research people think that people should be chucked off the course if they ever get caught cheating, but apparently there are various reasons this isn't practical. Hmph.

Dr North had a couple of cases of blatant plagiarism on the masters course she used to run.

She was all for zero tolerance and turfing them out, but had to be persuaded otherwise by those who saw the ejection of students from overseas (and therefore paying large fees) wasn't good for the university's marketing image….

She does, however, tend to have a fairly short fuse with master students who she teaches (rather less so these days; her teaching is all CPD for scientists in universities and the NHS), like the time she thre somone out of a half day seminar becuase he was too busy texting and not listening to her. Apparently, also not the done thing when these people are viewed as paying customers…

1st year– 40% is all you need to pass?
as it doesnt count towards your final degree marking (yet) chill out it will be fine.

plus you get multiple choice/short answer exams in 1st year?

only now stopped working to get my 3rd year dissertation done! although agreed some/a lot of students are lazy gits….or trust fund babies…..grrr!

😀 remember to enjoy uni too 😀
you get to ride anytime you like pretty much….sweet

Good point re the cheating Joe.

It only takes one or two invigilators to remove the opportunities of up to 100 people cheating.

Even at masters level there were investigations into people in our class for cheating on a VB programming exercise. They settled that it was just coincidence though due to a group of people sharing a book they'd bought off amazon.

since i was 11 i've only had one christmas which wasn't overmarred by exams, that was in my gap year, when i was working in a factory.

i'd love my university to put exams before xmas, so that i don't feel guilty taking a few days out of revising before exams.
my uni is going through this process, however i'm final year, and will miss out on this (along with a new library and union 🙁

How is this lazy? Work density between Sept and Dec has to increase, as you don't have the extra month to study. Sure, they get a month off, but you've already taken the exams…
..If my exams were in two weeks, I'd be stuffed.

I know that some of my exam answers were/are used as examples of 'high first class' ideal answers (Earth Sciences stuff). In fact all my undergraduate exam results were A- to A+. That's because i worked like a bastard for the week or so before them. I honestly could not tell you anything about the content of the exams now. To do very well it's all short term memory (and a little bit of brain power) and therefore utterly pointless. Coursework is the best way, but I probably wouldn't have done so well with that! 😉

To do very well it's all short term memory (and a little bit of brain power) and therefore utterly pointless. Coursework is the best way, but I probably wouldn't have done so well with that!

Not if the exams are structured well and the questions set well. Maybe in courses where you can simply reel off memories.

In most cases you can get hold of past exam papers and get to grips with typical structures. I worked out answers to these and figured out the likelihood of certain topics coming up. I did put in a lot of work to devising ideal answers so it wasn't just 'reeling off memories'. I went over and over my ideal answers, so that I could pretty much write out answers, including equations, chemical formulae etc etc without batting an eyelid. As I said, i can't recall any of that now!

I agree that putting exams before xmas shouldn't be an issue as if you understand the work and have been doing further reading (as you're actually meant to) then you're going to know it and it'll be much fresher in your mind anyway.

For my entire undergrad course I dossed about until exams and then just worked like hell for a couple of weeks before exams. Coursework is much better I think (as least in comp sci) as it forces you to properly understand what you're doing….agree about being hard to make sure people arent just plagurising tho.

Erm, the first year is for drinking and trying to persuade women to sleep with you. Work starts in the second year.

Or have things changed a lot since I were a lad?

I went over and over my ideal answers, so that I could pretty much write out answers, including equations, chemical formulae etc etc without batting an eyelid. As I said, i can't recall any of that now!

But that's what happens with learning. The thing is if you don't keep using stuff you don't retain it, thats normal human brain function. Just like if you don't practice shooting a gun you lose accuracy. Have you used those equations since? Probably not if you went into industry. It's not a flaw of the education, it's a flaw through your lack of use of it (or them teaching irrelevent info maybe, depends on the course). I don't hold the contents of my masters thesis in my head as daily info because I've not used it since, but I worked for 12 months on it with continuous assessment, if you'd asked me the governing equations I'd be stumped, but last night I was chatting to someone who was working as an expert in that field and within 5 mins I was happily discussing detailed points and raising ideas. I spent 3 years writing C++ realtime code for my PhD, but I couldn't re-write it now off-by-heart, I could bearly remember the maths let alone the code, but I could figure it out given a day or so. Same with the exam details from undergrad, I haved't used energy methods/beam bending calcs for 4 years, but the one time I had to I knew exactly what I was looking for and all I needed was the first equation to re-ignite it. The point is to implant the info and the knowledge so you know it exists, even if you forget it after a time, you will know where and how to look to find it later.

Thought you'd love it, gives you more time in January to drive the length and breadth of the country, getting your totals up!

Why don't you sort yourself out and just pass them in December? As others have said you should just be learning as you go and the exams should really just be a regurgitation.

njee20 – passing wont be a problem.