I'm Going Back To School

[marty21]

i graduated in 95, i think.....

i was so proud of myself. it felt like a great acheivement at the time. still glad i did it, even though it was hell on earth at times and i wanted to give up every other week.

i was a sucker for punishment - went back in 94 to do a pgce - i was about to turn 30 , it was a whatthefuckamidoingwithmylife sorta thing

then back again in 97 to do a post grad housing thing

maybe it's time to do some more stuff

 

[ViolentPanda]

well unless i fuck up the enrolment etc (or they're pissed off that i'm 2 weeks late), I'm restarting the third year of my degree next week. After.. ahem.. 8 years off

Boss has gone for it, but it's going to be a bit bloody hectic, and I'm worried that my Tuesday afternoon lecture -where I have to leave the office at 2.45 - will suffer most, because there will always be one more thing that needs doing....


So please be ready to help with my essays.

1) Good on ya!

2) Once you've graduated, I hope I'm not going to have to post "Jeez Dub, you've changed " threads because you've become all mimsy and tolerant of idiots.

3) Like you need help with the essays!

 

[May Kasahara]

list of things dub needs to buy

1. university scarf
2. university sweatshirt
3. university mug.


any others?

lava lamp
'Take me to your dealer' poster

 

[Orang Utan]

And a Jim Morrison poster.


Oh and Bob too

 

[Kanda]

Oh and Bob too

 

[Dubversion]

no Bob.

definitely no Bob

 

[Relahni]

i graduated in 95, i think.....

i was so proud of myself. it felt like a great acheivement at the time. still glad i did it, even though it was hell on earth at times and i wanted to give up every other week.

innit!

I graduated in erm 98. Fuck knows how I did it. I used to have nightmares for about a year after graduating that it was just a dream and that I would have to do the whole thing all again. Not sure what that was about!

So proud of myself too.

 

[_angel_]

i used to love doing essays - yet now i get these essay anxiety dreams, had them for years, thinking one is due, and i wake up all anxious and that

i graduated in 1988

I still get nightmares about doing GCSE's and being at school!

 

[jbob]

Group work makes me want to slaughter fucking puppies. Take your transferable teamworking skills and shove them up your arse - I'm a misanthrope and I don't want to work with anyone else.

For undergraduate study, I agree and applaud your sentiments here. I found it painful for the more prosaic fact that many students lack confidence/are lazy/incompetant, making the whole thing is an exercise in well meaning futility. It's particularly dreadful and unfair if group work is part of your assessment criteria.

However, the postgrad I'm now doing has well read, committed and opinionated people from whom I definately think that I will acquire some useful transferable knowledge from. None of the 'group work' (or more accurately seminars in the true sense of the word) is assessment based - as the emphasis has very firmly shifted towards independent study - but the albeit limited contact I've had so far has been quite inspiring, simply on the basis that there is actual discussion and constructive debate. And people read the fucking books.

 

[Dubversion]

Oh. don't doubt that happens at post-grad. at undergrad - ugh

 

[foo]

oh by group work, did you mean seminars then?

i really enjoyed them. most people my course were, like me, mature students and i loved the conversations we had - they helped me understand stuff better - talking with other people can often make you see things from another angle ime.

we didn't play any 'team building' games though - if that had been on the agenda, i would've been out of there like a shot!

saying all this, i did try a couple of Eng Lit seminars though, when i took a Shakespeare module - and ran for the hills...ugh indeed.

 

[jbob]

oh by group work, did you mean seminars then?

i really enjoyed them. most people my course were, like me, mature students and i loved the conversations we had - they helped me understand stuff better - talking with other people can often make you see things from another angle ime.

we didn't play any 'team building' games though - if that had been on the agenda, i would've been out of there like a shot!

saying all this, i did try a couple of Eng Lit seminars though, when i took a Shakespeare module - and ran for the hills...ugh indeed.

Likewise, I was a mature student when I did my undergraduate studies. Perhaps you got lucky and had motivated students (vaguely interested would have sufficed), but not on my course. By in large it was split into 3 groupings: those that were arrogant and lazy - and thus had no idea what the work was about and didn't care; those that were only at university because it is what people of their background did, but they individually lacked the neccessary requirements for HE; those that did the work and tried their best to contribute something. The latter group was in a clear minority, so seminars were by in large a complete waste of time.

 

[May Kasahara]

I seem to remember spending an inordinate amount of undergraduate seminars talking any old shit just to try and break the awful, cowed silence. I was always the first person to start talking, and sometimes I think it did me no favours (like when I hadn't done the work, which if I'm honest was quite a lot of the time).

 

[Pieface]

God...that was exactly what I was like too

I loved the seminars where the group had some people who would contribute though - they were enjoyable and reminded you that there were other people doing the course with you

 

[May Kasahara]

Oh definitely - seminars, even the quiet ones, were where I got most of my brainsparks going and saw new and different perspectives on things. Lectures, by and large, were just opportunities for me to carve things like JEFF MILLS IS GOD into the woodwork

 

[Pieface]

Lectures just demonstrated to me that I was definitely not doing enough reading....

GOD! WHY DID I DICK AROUND SO MUCH WHEN I WAS THERE????!!!

It's not like I'd have a better job or anything but there was so much more I could have got out of that course....

 

[sojourner]

I loved seminars. Although it was mostly me doing all the talking. Surprising, eh?

 

[Dubversion]

well. student card got. I am now a student

unfortunately, a failure to read the literature properly means that rather than the 150-200 quid a unit i was expecitng it's over 3 grand to do this year. I've fobbed them off with talk of Lambeth Council for now but need to see if they will cough upm and if not, if Student Loans will.

if not, i'll have to drop a unit, call it part time and pay less.

 

[Part 2]

Sounds like a brave step. Good luck.

School put me off formal learning for life. I've tried so many different college courses and never got to January.

 

[zenie]

if not, i'll have to drop a unit, call it part time and pay less.

How does that work then?

Don't you still pay the same amount but it's more spread out?

Fuckin top up fees (you should be able to get help though )

 

[Dubversion]

How does that work then?

Don't you still pay the same amount but it's more spread out?

Fuckin top up fees (you should be able to get help though )

nah, it's mad. a full time undergrad year is 3k or more.

each unit is circa 200 quid - so 8 units a year, 1600 quid. the maths is nonsense.

So if i go part-time (max 6 units a year) it'll cost me 1200 this year, 800 next or something

 

[moonsi til]

Just want to say to congrats and good luck I am 'topping' up to a degree, I did 4 modules last year and 4 this academic year to obtain my degree. Thankfully my work is funding and I get a study day each week to go to uni etc but it was hard work and other things in my life had to take a side step but it is def worth it. My top tip will be read little but often...rather than pushing yourself in one weekend...