Advice on two big exams on one day

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on what to do with my situation.

To cut it short, I had a 10am marketing exams and a 6pm law exam. I had initially anticipated that this wouldn't be so much of an issue and I would be able to get through it however it was the most stressful day ever. For the first exam, I woke up early after only managing to get 3hours sleep. The exam was pretty tricky, after taking a short lunch break, I started going over my law notes. As you may know, law requires you to memorise a lot in terms of cases, statutes and all sorts. I'm not sure how, but those 4-5 hours flew by, towards the last 2 hours i began panicking, because even though i did prepare before hand, I just couldn't retain the information. This was a combination of Tiredness and stress. Last 30min before the exam, I had just given up and thought I was just going fail, my whole world was falling apart- literally. This module I really wanted to do well in.

To be honest, I would've preferred the exam to be one after the other with not much of a gap. Anyways due to this I think that my performance in my law exam was greatly effected. And I was aiming for 2.1/1. I achieved a good mark for the coursework however that is only worth 30%.

So to end this, I don't really think it is at all fair that our uni exams start so early (from the 28th April) and secondly, not fair when theres 3 exams in one week ( that includes 2 in one day). Is there any way that I can put my reasons forward to possibly retake in july WITHOUT being Capped at 40%. I'm in my second year of uni. I don't think I failed the exam, but was hoping for better.

What do you think?

Lastly, quite a few people were in the same situation as me, some people even had an exam the day before. However, in some departments, some students only had law and didn't have marketing (isn't a core module for them), and thus they are likely to do better as a result. Not that we are in competition but just saying.

Please let me know your honest opinions and advice if there is anything I can possibly to about this. I don't think I can but any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Reply 1

Uni of Westminster

Hi there,

I'm so sorry to hear about your stressful day - two exams in one day is a lot of pressure and it must have been hard not feeling like you could do your best. I just wanted to let you know I've seen your post and I'm looking into this for you to see what's best to advise - I'll let you know when I've spoken to Student Advice.

Alternatively if you want to call them you are welcome to - 020 7911 5000 ext 66080. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

In the meantime if you have questions about anything else let me know.

Rosie

University of Westminster

London

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Reply 2

Sixformer

Thank you so much, I'm so glad to hear that you understand what the situation must've been like for me and the rest of the students. I'm not going to put my hopes up and I thank you immensely for taking a look at this for me. I would like to hear what options I have in this case (if any). I think it's extremely unfair to put any student in a situation like this. I spoke to my module leader regarding this, for the simple fact that it doesn't occur to anyone else in the future. I really do hope to hear from you soon and find out if anything can be done.Many thanks for seeing this and responding.

[QUOTE=UniWestminster;56879167]Hi there,

I'm so sorry to hear about your stressful day - two exams in one day is a lot of pressure and it must have been hard not feeling like you could do your best. I just wanted to let you know I've seen your post and I'm looking into this for you to see what's best to advise - I'll let you know when I've spoken to Student Advice.

Alternatively if you want to call them you are welcome to - 020 7911 5000 ext 66080. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

In the meantime if you have questions about anything else let me know.

Rosie

Reply 3

Uni of Westminster

Hi Sixformer,

I've spoken to Student Advice and they have said the best people to speak to are your Faculty Registry. From there you could apply for Mitigating Circumstances and give your feedback about the timing of the exams. Like you said, if it's something that is affecting our students and their results it's important that we know about it!

The Faculty locations and contact details are here.

If there's anything else that I can help with just give me a shout :smile:

Rosie

Reply 4

Sixformer

Thank you Rosie for getting back to me. I will try that although the registry are usually unhelpful as they have limited information and always direct me to someone else. I have spoken to my tutor who advised me that if anything I should probably talk to the module leader however she also mentioned that she doubts anything can be done in this case and how they only look at situations where I wasn't able to take the exam. Nevertheless I will give it a go, however in regards to mitigating circumstances, do you think I will only get an opportunity if I had failed my exam or got somewhere near 40%, because we have received our results, and I actually obtained a higher than expected mark. However in the possible case of a granted opportunity to re take without being capped, I would probably go ahead as I feel like, still if I wasn't in this situation I would've done a lot better.Many thanks

[QUOTE=UniWestminster;56916107]Hi Sixformer,

I've spoken to Student Advice and they have said the best people to speak to are your Faculty Registry. From there you could apply for Mitigating Circumstances and give your feedback about the timing of the exams. Like you said, if it's something that is affecting our students and their results it's important that we know about it!

The Faculty locations and contact details are here.

If there's anything else that I can help with just give me a shout :smile:

Rosie

Reply 5

Muttley79

I had two three hour finals papers on the same day in totally different areas of maths. No-one expected any consideration for that; we just got on with it.

Reply 6

Sixformer

I think 2 papers in one day is reasonable. However in my case, there being a 5hour gap, made a massive difference and likewise 2 very different areas of subject. At the time of my post I was really upset about it and how it all went BUT I actually did way better than I anticipated so im okay now however it's nice to know something can be done, or not for future reference

Original post by Muttley79

I had two three hour finals papers on the same day in totally different areas of maths. No-one expected any consideration for that; we just got on with it.

Reply 7

Muttley79

Original post by Sixformer

Sorry that's a doddle - a five hour gap would have been great - we had an hour to eat and get back in the exam room.

Reply 8

Sixformer

That's what I had anticipated however after a difficult early morning exam you have to consider the lack of sleep one would get, so by the time it hits 6pm, being stress and sleep deprived you can only imagine. Also did I mention it was a law exam??!

Original post by Muttley79

Sorry that's a doddle - a five hour gap would have been great - we had an hour to eat and get back in the exam room.

Reply 9

Muttley79

Original post by Sixformer

How is maths any easier than law? Lots of theorems to remember -

Our morning exam was not exactly a walk in the park ... we had not time for a break at all.

Reply 10

Sixformer

Lol I'm not comparing your situation to mine, if it was fine for you then that's you. The whole point of my post was just to see my options. I have had two exams in the past, one after another, and I didn't think that was an issue and hence why I thought this would be do able. Anyways I achieved a good mark for exams I'm complaining about nonetheless . But I do think that unis should consider the way they do the exams Abit more.

Original post by Muttley79

How is maths any easier than law? Lots of theorems to remember -

Our morning exam was not exactly a walk in the park ... we had not time for a break at all.