GOGSoc the Third

I do this to when marking. Same as Mr Alba it means either 'this is a 63 and is written pretty badly, but I can see you tried hard and I want to encourage you to keep it up' or 'this is such a stonking piece of work that I really don't care whether you wrote it in half an hour, and I want to make it clear that this is one of the finest things I've read'. Sadly usually the former.

Aye, I do it as well, so that makes at least three of us.

I also have a substantial kitty of ambiguous pseudo-praising adjectives which are in fact indicative of a problem. These include 'lively,' 'spirited,' 'enthusiastic,' 'opinionated,' and
'idiosyncratic.' They're useful because they encourage the student, but in the context of the rest of the feedback make clear that improvements need to be made.

Hmm, maybe this is why my mentor (French) found it incredibly hard to compliment me on anything during my trainee year. She actually told another observer not to congratulate me on anything in case I got a big head

Oh, it's a recognised and generalised practice from what I can tell. The aim is to "casser" the student/pupil/victim and it seems to be fairly generalised (though applied to varying extents) across the education system here. Or at least that's how it seems to be.

Hey gais. Haven't been around here in aaaages.

I am now a postgraduate and an undergraduate at the same time An undergraduate doing a postgraduate diploma anyhoo.

x

Was going to apply for a Harvard postdoc, but they charge $35 for the privilege. This, to me, is hilarious. Maybe all jobs should start charging applicants - that way the job can fund itself.

(Oh, and **** you, Harvard)

Hmmm... well if the problems continue you should just report her for bad conduct.
If she's not the lecturer in question who you can't follow, then perhaps go to the lecturer directly. Last week I went up to one of our methods lecturers and told him to drastically slow down. He was a bit grumpy but he listened and said he'd try to do things differently (he'd read large excerpts from complicated books out loud, without handouts or an overhead projection, at a ridiculous speed before launching onto another point at really high speed) At the second lecture his audience had halved, so perhaps he kind of got what I was trying to say.

Stay strong! Don't let people bully you. What she said was unacceptable! Gossip happens within departments but it was foolish of her to say that to ou and downright nasty. The fact she passed on the fact you have epilepsy without first consulting you is a breach of most universities confidentiality guidelines. You're only trying to help by being a course rep and if she isn't mature enough to take constructive criticism that will make her department better she's a bad colleague.

I'm considering going to the lecturer, but he's quite scary, and doesn't teach my seminar or anything - I have a sneaky suspicion that he is a really clever person and just doesn't know how to dumb it down to us lot! Coventry seems to have a policy of hiring people like that.

That may be, but if he doesn't realise that people are struggling with his style, he doesn't even have the option of trying to alter it for people. As long as you tell him in a polite and constructive way, he wont' be offended, and the worst case scenario is no change. With my lecturer I just gave him a few examples of teaching styles that had been more helpful and suggested that incorporating different styles into his lecturing might cater to more people in the audience, than those that learn well by listening to an hour of fast-forward speed monologue.

Stop being so damn smart. It's annoying