If you’re an Arts student then you probably spent the last week desperately trying to cram in time to write up the four-or-so essays that you had ample to time to do over the semester but left until the last minute. I’m not exempt from this observation one bit. I know I definitely didn’t come into first year Uni with the intention of slacking off for the first eight weeks, only to realise that, ‘oh crap, I’ve got all these essays to do and hardly any time left to do them in.’ The thing was that in high school, I could have written an essay in one night and still have gotten a decent mark for it. But the reality is – as one of the earlier posts pointed out – that this isn’t high school and we’ve all got to up our standards, I guess.
It’s so easy – far too easy – to fall into the habit of not doing things or not handing things in on time, or going ‘hey, I’ll only lose 10% of my mark if I don’t hand this in today’ and then suddenly one day becomes five and you’re thinking ‘P’s get degrees, yo.’
Guess it’s time to get my head screwed back on properly and work hard for those upcoming exams. 🙂 Hope everybody had a great week. Chin up, keep smiling (or at least surround yourself with the ones who are worth it) and dance naked in the streets at least once. 🙂
9 thoughts on “The Week That Was”
All the cool kids write 2000 word research essays the day before they’re due. Including me.
But Ps do get degrees. And it’s not as if I’m a delinquent who munches on dirty fast food whilst watching emetic television shows instead of doing essays. I’m too busy reading about Napoleon or 19th century aristocracy whilst drinking fine tea.
In fact the essays are somewhat of a hindrance to my learning. I absorb more knowledge of a greater depth during a viewing of a single episode of Jacob Bronowski’s “The Ascent of Man” on DVD than during the gamut of “From Homer to Hollywood”‘s lectures, most of which are woefully pointless. Forcing students to write out of fear produces nought but misery and poor prose.
True, true. I may not be an arts student, but there is this 12-page analysis I have to do for one subject. According to the subject handbook, that was supposed to be started on during week 2. It’s already week 10, and I am just starting with the background research— and it’s already due next Wednesday! Kinda makes me nostalgic for those times in Year 12 English when it’s possible to get an A+ for an essay that was just finished 15 minutes before it’s due. *Sigh* Anyways, considering that this particular assignment would cost me 25% of my mark for that subject, I have really, really slacked off during these last few weeks. And it doesn’t help that I’m seemingly surrounded by people who consistently get H1s… makes me feel more irresponsible than I already am.
The arbitrary word counts which the University picks out of a hat fill me with contempt and apathy and ignites my destrado. I am tempted to hand in an essay which pads out the remaining X-hundred words with “waffle waffle waffle waffle waffle etc.”
Lol, that high school comment was from me and i understand completely your “oh crap, last minute” feeling. don’t get down about the whole thing. remember, this is just first semester (which, for me, is only the first of twelve very long semesters…. *sigh*) and keep everything in perspective. for an assignment that’s worth 25% of a subject, if you only got 80% on it, you’ve only lost 5% of your final mark for that subject. so keep smiling and look onwards to the next hurdle to jump across.
haha yeah, if an 80 is bad, i think ill just go have a cry about my 72% h2b for management then…lol. To anyone else doing management, any ideas on what the average was? 😛
Sebastian – well, you are quite clearly far too cool for me 😛 I am sadly that delinquent who munches on dirty fast food. Except I’m even too lazy to watch TV. I just sleep. You’ll have to educate me on the riveting life of Napoleon and 19th century aristocracy one day. I did that once, back in high school, for a journal that we had to keep throughout the semester. Except, instead of ‘waffle waffle waffle’ I decided to randomly write inane things like ‘Jesse McCartney is sooooo hot’ smack bang in the middle of my sentences. My teacher gave me a tick and a ‘well done, Vivienne. Your journal entry was well thought out and well written’ when it clearly wasn’t, proving that she hadn’t read it at all.
Gianina – Hee! 12 pages? That’s horrendous. I’m about to throw up on this laptop at the very thought of writing a 12 page analysis for any one of my subjects. Wow, and that so probably wasn’t very comforting for you 😐 I apologise 🙂 Well, as Yuan said, it’s only first semester of first year, I suppose. And ugh. H1. I used to think getting an 80-100% would be a snap, but I’ve been forced to rethink that, sadly. :)But we are troopers! We shall troop! 🙂
Yuan – 6 years? (oh, look. i’m glad to see that i still have SOME basic math skills 🙂 ) IF I manage to do honours psych and then postgrad, I’m looking at possibly eight years, so you and I can have fun being merry little old uni people. Huzzah! 🙂 Oh, and I just clicked on your name linky (because clicking things is fun) and I was quite pleasantly surprised to read in your profile that you frequent fictionpress too. 🙂 You don’t, by any chance, write on there do you? (Heehee, since you’re the one who brought up the high school thing, I may just have to cite you. I have citations on the brain! Nnngh)
Suzanne and SarahM – Oh, I would be ecstatic if I got an 80%. In fact, I might just drop dead from the shock of it all. 🙂
All the cool kids write 2000 word research essays the day before they’re due. Including me.
But Ps do get degrees. And it’s not as if I’m a delinquent who munches on dirty fast food whilst watching emetic television shows instead of doing essays. I’m too busy reading about Napoleon or 19th century aristocracy whilst drinking fine tea.
In fact the essays are somewhat of a hindrance to my learning. I absorb more knowledge of a greater depth during a viewing of a single episode of Jacob Bronowski’s “The Ascent of Man” on DVD than during the gamut of “From Homer to Hollywood”‘s lectures, most of which are woefully pointless. Forcing students to write out of fear produces nought but misery and poor prose.
True, true. I may not be an arts student, but there is this 12-page analysis I have to do for one subject. According to the subject handbook, that was supposed to be started on during week 2. It’s already week 10, and I am just starting with the background research— and it’s already due next Wednesday! Kinda makes me nostalgic for those times in Year 12 English when it’s possible to get an A+ for an essay that was just finished 15 minutes before it’s due. *Sigh* Anyways, considering that this particular assignment would cost me 25% of my mark for that subject, I have really, really slacked off during these last few weeks. And it doesn’t help that I’m seemingly surrounded by people who consistently get H1s… makes me feel more irresponsible than I already am.
Oh well, good luck to all of us! 🙂
The arbitrary word counts which the University picks out of a hat fill me with contempt and apathy and ignites my destrado. I am tempted to hand in an essay which pads out the remaining X-hundred words with “waffle waffle waffle waffle waffle etc.”
Lol, that high school comment was from me and i understand completely your “oh crap, last minute” feeling. don’t get down about the whole thing. remember, this is just first semester (which, for me, is only the first of twelve very long semesters…. *sigh*) and keep everything in perspective. for an assignment that’s worth 25% of a subject, if you only got 80% on it, you’ve only lost 5% of your final mark for that subject. so keep smiling and look onwards to the next hurdle to jump across.
good luck!
*Only* 80%?
haha yeah, if an 80 is bad, i think ill just go have a cry about my 72% h2b for management then…lol. To anyone else doing management, any ideas on what the average was? 😛
ayeish… management. i’m still waiting on my result. At this stage i’d be happy with a 51%
Sebastian – well, you are quite clearly far too cool for me 😛 I am sadly that delinquent who munches on dirty fast food. Except I’m even too lazy to watch TV. I just sleep. You’ll have to educate me on the riveting life of Napoleon and 19th century aristocracy one day. I did that once, back in high school, for a journal that we had to keep throughout the semester. Except, instead of ‘waffle waffle waffle’ I decided to randomly write inane things like ‘Jesse McCartney is sooooo hot’ smack bang in the middle of my sentences. My teacher gave me a tick and a ‘well done, Vivienne. Your journal entry was well thought out and well written’ when it clearly wasn’t, proving that she hadn’t read it at all.
Gianina – Hee! 12 pages? That’s horrendous. I’m about to throw up on this laptop at the very thought of writing a 12 page analysis for any one of my subjects. Wow, and that so probably wasn’t very comforting for you 😐 I apologise 🙂 Well, as Yuan said, it’s only first semester of first year, I suppose. And ugh. H1. I used to think getting an 80-100% would be a snap, but I’ve been forced to rethink that, sadly. :)But we are troopers! We shall troop! 🙂
Yuan – 6 years? (oh, look. i’m glad to see that i still have SOME basic math skills 🙂 ) IF I manage to do honours psych and then postgrad, I’m looking at possibly eight years, so you and I can have fun being merry little old uni people. Huzzah! 🙂 Oh, and I just clicked on your name linky (because clicking things is fun) and I was quite pleasantly surprised to read in your profile that you frequent fictionpress too. 🙂 You don’t, by any chance, write on there do you? (Heehee, since you’re the one who brought up the high school thing, I may just have to cite you. I have citations on the brain! Nnngh)
Suzanne and SarahM – Oh, I would be ecstatic if I got an 80%. In fact, I might just drop dead from the shock of it all. 🙂
Nicola – all the best for that 🙂 I always hate waiting for my results. If the mark doesn’t kill you, then the suspense clearly will. Heehee!