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stuck in a rut
Marks-wise, that is.
It's so frustrating!
I've just had my annual progress review at the end of my second year, where I've received my final two pieces of coursework back, and it's the same old story. I always seem to get the same marks.
I had four modules this year. In the first one, which was supposedly the most difficult, I had an essay (for which I got 67) and an exam (for which I got 63) and this was my best unit. In the second module I got a 62 for my first essay, really tried to improve for the second essay, worked much harder and got a 63, which I was a little disappointed with.
I've just got the marks back for the third and fourth modules. In the third module I had a bit of a rough time when I wrote the first essay, splitting up with my boyfriend, and got a 58. In the fourth module I got a 64 for my first essay. I was determined to do better. So I worked much, much harder, and definitely felt that the second essay for the fourth module was a good five marks better than the first. Apparently not. I've got a 58 and a 63, so it was in fact one mark worse.
The one good thing about the third module is that the anonymous second marker disagreed with my tutor and gave me a 60, and because the class boundary is in dispute it's been sent to an external examiner, so hopefully they will be nice and bump me up a grade.
But the whole situation is very disheartening. I feel as though, no matter how much work I do, it never seems to make the slightest bit of difference, and so I might as well piss around and scrape a 60 than work my socks off and only get a couple more marks to show for it.
Plus the whole system of degree classification is, in my opinion, ridiculous. I know this is a criticism of the university system as a whole, and nothing to do with Bristol University, but if they could just give you a number rather than a classification, I would be more inclined to work hard to achieve, say, a 67, than sit here in my comfortable little rut of 63.
Does anyone have any thoughts? I love my degree and when I get down to working hard it's really interesting and enjoyable, but I don't seem to be able to reach those higher marks and have anything concrete to show for the extra work I put in. If anything, the harder I work, the worse my marks seem to get.
It's so frustrating!
I've just had my annual progress review at the end of my second year, where I've received my final two pieces of coursework back, and it's the same old story. I always seem to get the same marks.
I had four modules this year. In the first one, which was supposedly the most difficult, I had an essay (for which I got 67) and an exam (for which I got 63) and this was my best unit. In the second module I got a 62 for my first essay, really tried to improve for the second essay, worked much harder and got a 63, which I was a little disappointed with.
I've just got the marks back for the third and fourth modules. In the third module I had a bit of a rough time when I wrote the first essay, splitting up with my boyfriend, and got a 58. In the fourth module I got a 64 for my first essay. I was determined to do better. So I worked much, much harder, and definitely felt that the second essay for the fourth module was a good five marks better than the first. Apparently not. I've got a 58 and a 63, so it was in fact one mark worse.
The one good thing about the third module is that the anonymous second marker disagreed with my tutor and gave me a 60, and because the class boundary is in dispute it's been sent to an external examiner, so hopefully they will be nice and bump me up a grade.
But the whole situation is very disheartening. I feel as though, no matter how much work I do, it never seems to make the slightest bit of difference, and so I might as well piss around and scrape a 60 than work my socks off and only get a couple more marks to show for it.
Plus the whole system of degree classification is, in my opinion, ridiculous. I know this is a criticism of the university system as a whole, and nothing to do with Bristol University, but if they could just give you a number rather than a classification, I would be more inclined to work hard to achieve, say, a 67, than sit here in my comfortable little rut of 63.
Does anyone have any thoughts? I love my degree and when I get down to working hard it's really interesting and enjoyable, but I don't seem to be able to reach those higher marks and have anything concrete to show for the extra work I put in. If anything, the harder I work, the worse my marks seem to get.
dont really know what to say but keep at it. keep working hard and trying to improve. if you keep working and working one day it will all fall into place and youll get much higher marks.
maybe theres something fundamental youre doing wrong each time thats getting you marked down? have you asked how you can improve your marks?
maybe theres something fundamental youre doing wrong each time thats getting you marked down? have you asked how you can improve your marks?
maybe theyres something fundamental youre doing wrong each time thats getting you marked down? have you asked how you can improve your marks?
This is possibly the key. It could be something as fundamental as your writing methods, structure of your essays, argument (or lack thereof)...ask your tutors, if that facility is there - though I suspect you may have already asked these questions of them! It's miserable when you are working hard with no gains. But that probably means that it's not the *amount* of work that needs changing - it's how you do it.
Perhaps, over this long summer vacation, you could invest some time in reading some books about writing style & essay argument, and write a few essays. Completely take your methods apart and put them together differently. It's scary to do, and you might go backwards a bit before forwards, but it might make all the difference.
Alistair Fowler's "How to Write" is a simple, digestable starting point, perhaps. There are lots of other texts too.
Good luck sorting this out - you've time yet, so don't give up!
I asked my tutor this morning whether there were any essay-writing guides which would actually help, and he recommended one, so I might have a look at that and the one you've suggested.
From the comments on my essays it seems that one main criticism is that occasionally my essays can be slightly disjointed, and that I don't use critics particularly well. When my tutor asked me how I used criticism I thought about it and realised that I tend to flick through secondary sources for ideas, then plan my essays and work out exactly what I want to say, and then when I'm making a point I'll often just quote a critic who says what I want to say as a way of illustrating it. But I think part of this is due to a fear of plagiarism.
I think that generally speaking I do need to put more work in (consistently, for seminars and tutorials, not just for essays) and do more wider reading, but I think you're right - I need to change the way that I work, not just the amount I do.
Do you really think I could make a significant change over the summer?
Realistically I know I'm not going to get a first, since I've never had anything higher than a 67 and I would need to get firsts in absolutely everything next year to get one overall. But I don't want to say that because it's a bit of a defeatist attitude, and you could argue that if I'm not going to get a first I might as well just be happy with a 2:1. But at the moment if I don't feel I've done enough work and I get a 63, I feel disappointed because I could have done better, and if I feel I've done loads of work and then get a 63, I'm frustrated because I don't understand why I didn't do better. It's like a lose-lose situation!
Is there any other advice you could offer me? Writing essays over the summer sounds like a good idea, but how would I know whether they were improving or not?
From the comments on my essays it seems that one main criticism is that occasionally my essays can be slightly disjointed, and that I don't use critics particularly well. When my tutor asked me how I used criticism I thought about it and realised that I tend to flick through secondary sources for ideas, then plan my essays and work out exactly what I want to say, and then when I'm making a point I'll often just quote a critic who says what I want to say as a way of illustrating it. But I think part of this is due to a fear of plagiarism.
I think that generally speaking I do need to put more work in (consistently, for seminars and tutorials, not just for essays) and do more wider reading, but I think you're right - I need to change the way that I work, not just the amount I do.
Do you really think I could make a significant change over the summer?
Realistically I know I'm not going to get a first, since I've never had anything higher than a 67 and I would need to get firsts in absolutely everything next year to get one overall. But I don't want to say that because it's a bit of a defeatist attitude, and you could argue that if I'm not going to get a first I might as well just be happy with a 2:1. But at the moment if I don't feel I've done enough work and I get a 63, I feel disappointed because I could have done better, and if I feel I've done loads of work and then get a 63, I'm frustrated because I don't understand why I didn't do better. It's like a lose-lose situation!
Is there any other advice you could offer me? Writing essays over the summer sounds like a good idea, but how would I know whether they were improving or not?
For the "slightly disjointed" bit, how about trying to work on argument structure? You wouldn't necessarily need to write entire essays for that, just essay plans (by summing up each step of your argument in a sentence, for example and jotting them all down in order), and then ask somebody else to look over them and check whether b) follows from a) and whether it's a logically well-constructed argument.
i'm no expert at all so won't suggest too much. personally though, i find that reading other academics' essays is a good way to learn how to write and structure my own essays.
about the annoying fact that a 67 is in the same degree classification as a 60: i do believe that employers can see the marks for individual modules and will be aware of the differences between a low 2:1 and high 2:1. also, if you are getting 67s then it means (or should mean) that you are capable of going those few more marks into the first bracket. because i know that my essays are never perfect, i always see the marks i get for them as springboards so to speak. even upon getting a 70 for example, tutor's comments have always been about ways to improve and go further.
sorry about not suggesting a solution as such, but it really is onwards and upwards. structure is probably the main thing to improve on; not just because tutors like to see part A, part B then part C for aesthetic purposes, but making that you have such a structure makes the individual parts more meaningful and gives the entire essay a better sense of argument. i suppose that essays aren't meant to show that you're researched something and wish to report back facts and findings; they're more about providing your own individual set of thoughts on an issue and structure is one of the main aspects which shows and aids such individual thought and logic.
about the annoying fact that a 67 is in the same degree classification as a 60: i do believe that employers can see the marks for individual modules and will be aware of the differences between a low 2:1 and high 2:1. also, if you are getting 67s then it means (or should mean) that you are capable of going those few more marks into the first bracket. because i know that my essays are never perfect, i always see the marks i get for them as springboards so to speak. even upon getting a 70 for example, tutor's comments have always been about ways to improve and go further.
sorry about not suggesting a solution as such, but it really is onwards and upwards. structure is probably the main thing to improve on; not just because tutors like to see part A, part B then part C for aesthetic purposes, but making that you have such a structure makes the individual parts more meaningful and gives the entire essay a better sense of argument. i suppose that essays aren't meant to show that you're researched something and wish to report back facts and findings; they're more about providing your own individual set of thoughts on an issue and structure is one of the main aspects which shows and aids such individual thought and logic.
If the problem is that your essays are disjointed then I would say that before you start work out what the underlying thread is, and what each section is - and when writing use mini titles for each section to keep you on track. For example when writing an essay on Virginia Woolf and the city I had a section on the city as a surface that provokes sensations, but that in turn was divided up into the different types of sensations, e.g. sights, sounds. If you narrow down it's more likely to be organised. Don't throw in broad uncertain concepts such as 'time' or 'humanity' - pin down an aspect of those concepts that is more tangible, e.g. 'appointments' or 'clothes'.
Also, I can't speak for other universities, but at mine you don't have to include any critics to get a 1st. If you do include them it's better to argue with them and make your argument stronger, e.g. 'David Holbrook's attempt to 'diagnose' Plath as "schizoid" from the poem 'Elm' is severly flawed, as it assumes the speakers in the poem are multiple selves of Plath as a real person, as opposed to poetic constructs. This makes no distinction between the artist herself and the artistic choices she makes, etc'.
Have you seen a 1st lass essay? Maybe that would help you work out what it is that you're not doing
Also, I can't speak for other universities, but at mine you don't have to include any critics to get a 1st. If you do include them it's better to argue with them and make your argument stronger, e.g. 'David Holbrook's attempt to 'diagnose' Plath as "schizoid" from the poem 'Elm' is severly flawed, as it assumes the speakers in the poem are multiple selves of Plath as a real person, as opposed to poetic constructs. This makes no distinction between the artist herself and the artistic choices she makes, etc'.
Have you seen a 1st lass essay? Maybe that would help you work out what it is that you're not doing
dreamqueen made some fantastic points, and from what you've said it seems that the way you use critics is the main technique you need to work on. Like you, I was always petrified of being accused of plagiarism, and used to, for example, come up with an idea, write it down, read a critic and realise they'd said the same thing, and then cite them as my inspiration! Which is really bloody galling. Anyway, one of my tutors told me to stop thinking of the essay as a way to 'prove' how many secondary sources I'd absorbed, and instead to think of myself as a fully-fledged critic. Unlike dreamqueen, at my uni it's pretty essential to use critics, but as she pointed out, a far more interesting way is to dispute their points or to expand on them, rather than just stating their views to show you've read them.
It's also often more interesting and effective to use quotes from other literary texts, eg in an essay I wrote recently on lesbianism in Early Modern plays I needed to demonstrate the prevalence of a certain motif throughout history. Instead of trawling through essays on Jstor to find a quote (which I would have done a few months previously) I thought about what had truly caused the thought to come into my head, which was other works from Sappho, Donne and Colette, and quoted them instead.
It's also a good idea to go back to the roots of the literary theories that spawned the critics. So, for example, if you're looking at a psychoanalytic reading of Lear, as well as reading what Critic X has to say on the specific topic, you want to focus on Freud's ideas about father-daughter relationships, and apply them to the text yourself.
Sorry for being a bit long-winded, but I hope it helped a bit. FWIW, my results improved by an average of 12 marks after talking to my tutor, so I fully believe it's still possible for you to get a high 2.1 or even a first. Good luck!
ETA: paragraphs
It's also often more interesting and effective to use quotes from other literary texts, eg in an essay I wrote recently on lesbianism in Early Modern plays I needed to demonstrate the prevalence of a certain motif throughout history. Instead of trawling through essays on Jstor to find a quote (which I would have done a few months previously) I thought about what had truly caused the thought to come into my head, which was other works from Sappho, Donne and Colette, and quoted them instead.
It's also a good idea to go back to the roots of the literary theories that spawned the critics. So, for example, if you're looking at a psychoanalytic reading of Lear, as well as reading what Critic X has to say on the specific topic, you want to focus on Freud's ideas about father-daughter relationships, and apply them to the text yourself.
Sorry for being a bit long-winded, but I hope it helped a bit. FWIW, my results improved by an average of 12 marks after talking to my tutor, so I fully believe it's still possible for you to get a high 2.1 or even a first. Good luck!
ETA: paragraphs
Thanks Sara, that's really helpful.
I'm now at home for the summer, and although I need to get a job, I'm not going to work full-time like I did last year, so hopefully I'll be able to spend a decent amount of time really dissecting my essays and working out where I'm going wrong.
Unfortunately we don't have any opportunities to look at examples of other people's essays that got high marks, so I've never seen a first class essay, but I'm trying to get my department to introduce this. I think it would really help
An average improvement of 12 marks is amazing! Well done on that. If I could do something similar I would be so happy.
I'm now at home for the summer, and although I need to get a job, I'm not going to work full-time like I did last year, so hopefully I'll be able to spend a decent amount of time really dissecting my essays and working out where I'm going wrong.
Unfortunately we don't have any opportunities to look at examples of other people's essays that got high marks, so I've never seen a first class essay, but I'm trying to get my department to introduce this. I think it would really help
An average improvement of 12 marks is amazing! Well done on that. If I could do something similar I would be so happy.
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