The Cambridge Chat Thread

Pretty much perfect tbh - fantastically sunny weather, scenic (not terribly arduous) routes, a good team I can't believe I've finally completed DofE Gold though, I started it way back in 2005...

Grr, it's taken less than a week for my sleeping patterns to mess up

Give me some hours/give me a job to sort me out

Pretty much perfect tbh - fantastically sunny weather, scenic (not terribly arduous) routes, a good team I can't believe I've finally completed DofE Gold though, I started it way back in 2005...

I'm all graduated. The holding onto fingers and kneeling prayer-style in front of the master was rather odd.

The bio natsci results from my college are so different to what people were expecting. The two people who worked insanely, insanely, insanely hard didn't get 1sts. Two others who were not expecting them did. And this sounds reaaaaally bitter and please note that I don't mean for it to sound so (hopefully you get me) but people who were far, far more screwed than me did a lot better thatn I did.

people who were far, far more screwed than me did a lot better thatn I did.

OK but this is one of the things you have to get used to at Cambridge - working really really hard won't necessarily get you a first.

OK but this is one of the things you have to get used to at Cambridge - working really really hard won't necessarily get you a first. It's not the case that the more you work, the better you'll do (though working hard will usually help you do as well as you can). There will always be people with talent and good exam technique who do well even if they don't appear to have worked particularly hard (though beware, lots of people work harder than they say they do) and equally people who have worked really hard who end up with low grades because they just haven't got the knack of the subject and the exams. This is particularly true in first year when people are facing tripos for the first time and adapting from A level study.

Everything fumblewomble says. This was completely the case for me last year. I scraped a low 2.1 after working my socks off the entire year, and then people in my college who had breezed by with minimal work got firsts! Life's not fair

Yeah, tis interesting.

This Cambridge thing is a lark isn't it

Yeah, tis interesting.

This Cambridge thing is a lark isn't it

No offence, but what do you expect? A few thousand people who were practically all the best in their school and sailed through A-levels have been put together in the same town and pushed ten times as hard as anyone else in the country. A select few will still be the best, but the vast majority will at some point during the year do much, much worse than they expected - just because it's not what they're used to. Of course it takes a lot of getting used to, and a fair few people mess up their first year because of it. It's not the end of the world - you're not about to be kicked out, you've proven to your supervisors that you have the potential, you just needed a bit of time to get used to the system. Lesson learnt for next year, and hopefully you'll be on 2.is in no time. Don't worry about it.

I did fairly well this year, but I dropped a grade (which meant dropping at least 8-9%) and now my dos thinks I'm a retard, which might seriously hinder my plans to go onto a fourth year if I don't get my arse in gear soon. He'll get over it and I've learnt my lesson. I don't mean to compare the situations, but it's proof that it happens and it's really not just you.

Er yeah ok sorry I wasn't meaning to complain too much.

Er yeah ok sorry I wasn't meaning to complain too much.

I do wonder what the hell it is that makes everyone think I'm snapping at them when I'm actually trying to be nice to them, this seems to be a recurring theme...

Things should get better. If you ask your college they should provide some exam technique coaching which would put you in a better position for next year.

Dw you're not.

It's a question of writing style.