The Student Room Group

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Reply 1
There is a competitive thread to things here, especially if you really want to get involved in it, although it can feel forced on you at times. Like PBL sessions where people would pull up obscure papers on the subject and read them out with some crackpot alternative theory postulated in the eighties just to prove they could work Athens.

And the tinpot lecturing and cultural societies with no events and twelve committee jobs hack me off especially. But I try as much as possible to let it wash over me and bitch about them when I'm out of the room and into the Union. Usually with Renal and a pint.
can be i've had some horrendous examples. it isn't very widespread though. i hate to generalise but it tends to be our internationals and grads that we have problems with. one particular girl in my clinical group has been pure hell.

i've had things like sneaking onto wards, lying about meeting times to make you look late, stealing teaching when they know where you are and could easily come get you, procedure theft, general twattyness.

i've had friends giving me really good resources for things and when i ask them why they didn't share them in pbl they're like i want to know more than them so i look better. i think it's just plain pathetic.

i had a classic example that i've forgotton now. i'll try and think of it. people are just *****, i think the only response is chin up and try not to sink to it yourself. :frown:
Reply 3
I can tell that the competition is there, but mainly just in certain circles. There are some people who do nothing but work and it's not for their love of the module, it's to get top of the class. There's generally no 'lets all help each other' or 'we're all in this together' attitude, people will just help their friends.

But I dont directly come into contact with much competition here, all my friends do a lot of sports etc and understand there's more to life than grades. And everyone's pretty coy about their grades/marks too, so there's not much point trying to compare yourself. We just have the mean/medians for each exam, to work out how we're doing.
Reply 4
i've heard of all the things all of you bring up, and i've never had it personally affecting me until now.

i just feel so lost, cos atm, i'm doing my bsc and we just got results from our last lot of exams. i did a lot worse than i thought i would, and than a lot of my friends. or 'friends' because most of them didn't care really that i was feeling upset, and wanted to complain more about why they didn't get the same number of As as other people, whilst i'm nursing grades far lower and would be estatic with the grades they got. i just feel so isolated and i have no idea really what i'm doing wrong compared to them, and there's no point asking them, because i know i'll get a vague answer back. i've started to make appointments to see my lecturers, but they can't give me specific feedback on where i'm going wrong. grrrrr... :frown:
I'm only a first year, but I'd say there are some people who are very competitive, and some people who don't care how high they score as long as they pass. I've had a couple of "oh I did better than you" comments from one person in particular which is really quite annoying, but on the whole most of us just accept that a pass is a pass.
Reply 6
Sounds like a crappy one fairycakes, I have some sympathy. I do like having my small group of friends with a good range of grades who I can go through revision and problems with and still compete, within reason with. Without them, I'd feel a bit stranded myself. I can appreciate that being on a smaller BSc course means you might not have anyone else around like that, but can you not find your usual mates and just bitch about the whole thing. Its not like you can change the situation so you may as well lump it and laugh at the pathetic grade-centred losers when you can. This is turning into a H+R post....
Reply 7
hey, aeh, thanks. yeah i don't want to change the point of the thread, but it's been really getting me down, and making me question who my friends really are, because i guess it's times like this you can really tell, and i've never really been in this situation before. i've bitched enough, but it doesn't really solve the problem or make me feel better for long enough.

but thinking long term, i think it's only going to get worse going back into medical school, because lots of people are starting to become cv monkeys and thinking about their mtas form. siiiiiiiiiighhhhhh
oh, i've not noticed it so much with exam results as with clinical things, that said i really nailed my exams last year so i'm maybe not the person to pick on. there are some people who make it their business to know who got what and who failed this and so on. i tend not to have much to do with them :p:

it sounds pretty nasty. it is really hurtful when friends don't support you when you know you would them. do you have any friends that are willing to go over things with you? try and work out together where you're going wrong. it all sounds a bit *******s :frown:
Reply 9
Definitely is here. More so because our quartiles are based on this year alone. I've shown up late to teaching (people told me it was at a different time), missed teaching (people pretended they were in our group) and been shoved out of operating lists with my team because of some stupid cow...i could go on.

The vast majority aren't like that, and i have to say that i get on really well with most of the grads that have joined my year, maybe because i'm closer in age to them. It is disheartening though, and i really let it get to me at the beginning of the year. I reconcile myself with the fact that its better to come across as a decent person who isn't stupid that a clever person who is a complete prick.
Apparently RUMS is really intensely competitive - anyone else heard that?
Reply 11
Im not on a medical course yet but my friend is in her 4th year at Kings and is always complaining about the competition. People hiding library books and going out of there was to put her down. Sounds horrible but shes not like that so im sure its just a small minority.
Katie
Apparently RUMS is really intensely competitive - anyone else heard that?

I've not heard of anything happen over and above things that have already been said. Though I have zero tolerance and will happily tell someone off if they do anything underhanded.
Reply 13
lol at our college, after a simple mock exam, each of the 25 people knew exactly where each of the other 24 people came in the ranking order - within hours - and they didn't put the results up on noticeboard or something. There are some colleges where no one cares apparently (wonder why :P), like Kings - everyone's happy there lol
hahaha someone at my secondary school screwed up when submitting gcse pass names to our local paper and they gave them in rank order from best to worst.... that was really funny. i felt so sorry for the poor sod at the very bottom though.
Reply 15
lol yeah :P - and for the person who came top! *geek icon*
Reply 16
BL 4th year - I think we all pitch in and help each other... There are a handful of tossers out for themselves, but on the whole we're a team...
I must say that in my experience it's worse in the Oxbridge transfers.
Reply 18
Spencer Wells
I must say that in my experience it's worse in the Oxbridge transfers.

Curious - of those of us left here, I don't think the competition aspect is that bad. I've certainly never been victim of any sneaky plots. Sure, some people like to suck up in certain areas, some people live in the library etc, but at the end of the day we've all got to get through the exams and trying to cut other people down will just backfire in the long run. The ranking thing bothers me a bit, but I've got through exams so far ok, so as long as I get my act together I'm hoping to manage the same.
Reply 19
I can't think of a stupidly competative OxBridge transfer here (in my year) - most (if not all) are nice rounded individuals!

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