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Supervisions

coldfish

Oh, yeah. I find them useful and I enjoy them. I just hate it when a question is asked and everyone sits there as if they were stupid/dumb.

I don't get why people go if they aren't going to contribute. Admittedly, I'm one of those people who sit there as if I am stupid/dumb, but because of that I didn't sign up for them this year. They're optional, so I don't get why people would choose to go but then not say anything.

Even last year when they were supposedly compulsory I got away with not going to a few.

Reply 21

groovy_moose

1

our logic seminar thingies are a bit like this this year, but i'm not sure that that's not partly because we just don't have anything intersting to say about quantifiers, and perhpas don't feel qualified to comment on the incompleteness of arithmatic...

Reply 22

EscapeTheFate

8

sorry to sound stupid, but can you also please tell me the difference between seminars, supervisions and lectures?

i never realised there was so much i didn't know about this whole system before i applied.
hehe, better late than never....

Reply 23

coldfish

12

Speak from the perspective of an arts student:

Supervisions: An hour a long, one on one, based on an essay written by you in the preceding week.
Lectures: As you'd expect them to be.
Seminars: Best described as "small group", though some of the groups for mine are larger than the attendance at some lectures. Normally based on discussion of one or more specified paper(s), or sometimes Q&A sessions.

Reply 24

coldfish

12

Yes, sorry. I should really have said "For my subject".

Reply 25

davidt

I've found it depends so much on the supervisors you get. Some can be awesome, I had a particuarly amazing one for programming in ml where we basically stood at whiteboards and wrote code for two hours. He was really encouraging and often stretched us. On the other hand, supervisions can deteriorate into just going through questions you've already done rather than talking about the subject matter in general.

Reply 26

jcb914

11

Solemn Wanderer

To qualify that, it's not part of the definition of a supervision that it's one-on-one. It's an interaction between a supervisor and either one or a very small group of students. E.g., in Law it's typically 3 or 4, and in Maths, two. Nor does it have to be based around your written work - e.g., in Law, essays tend to be handed back but are not discussed or read out.

Ummm, we do tend to discuss our essays, actually.

Reply 27

Catsmeat

13

Solemn Wanderer

To qualify that, it's not part of the definition of a supervision that it's one-on-one. It's an interaction between a supervisor and either one or a very small group of students. E.g., in Law it's typically 3 or 4, and in Maths, two. Nor does it have to be based around your written work - e.g., in Law, essays tend to be handed back but are not discussed or read out.

Yes, that's quite right. My supervision group size changes, often as a result of DoS intervention (last term I had one-on-two supervisions, and now it is one-on-one).

Reply 28

Catsmeat

13

Solemn Wanderer

Fair beans, but that's contrary to what I've read in the official literature.

Are you sure? I'm certain that for what I've read (subject specific) it stipulates that the supervision is a time when the content of an essay is discussed and debated, and that certainly seems to be the main means by which the system operates as far as I can tell.

Reply 29

LaurelAsh

jcb914

Supervisions are wonderful if the supervisor is good, or awful if the supervisor is crap.

Some go in to huge amounts of effort preparing work, challenging you in the supervision, marking essays properly and efficiently, allowing you to ask questions and generally being a huge asset to your learning. Others, frankly, couldn't care less (from my exprience, this has been the Phd student I had).

Overall, I think the supervision system is good. However, there needs to be more consistency in quality.

Is it likely that the people who interview will be the people who supervise you...if so, then I'm quite lucky. I've been accepted for Caius for law 2008 - would you have any idea *hopes* if it'll be alright/if supervisions are any better/worse given the college?

Reply 30

epitome

11

My essays aren't always discussed in the supervisions -- we often use the time to hammer out other ideas or problems or interesting things. The supervision does have to include some feedback for any work set, but that can be written as much as verbal, and doesn't have to be openly discussed (particularly if there is someone else there). If there are any problems occurring with the written feedback, you can always ask for clarification at the time or later.

Conversely, some supervisions have been entirely about the essay. And they tend to be the most boring, from my perspective, because more often than not it's been with a supervisor who seemingly can't be bothered to think of anything else to talk about.

Reply 31

coldfish

12

Well, when I say "about the essay" I mean it quite loosely. Both about the actual essay you wrote, and about the essay you maybe should have written, and about the topic in general.

Reply 32

Jahmez23

LaurelAsh

Is it likely that the people who interview will be the people who supervise you...if so, then I'm quite lucky. I've been accepted for Caius for law 2008 - would you have any idea *hopes* if it'll be alright/if supervisions are any better/worse given the college?

There's no definite answer for this. Personally, I'd say it's entirely possible that one of your interviewers could be one of your supervisors, but that's by no means definite. Some interviewers won't be in your subject, such as admissions tutors etc, or general observers. Some may be in your subject, but perhaps not teaching 1st year, or if you have a choice of papers, the ones you pick (e.g. History is quite common for this) might not be taught by them. So therefore, can't really give you an answer, but it's often the case that they are.

As for quality varying across colleges. Officially, it shouldn't do. In practise, I think most would agree to an extent it does. For instance, if you've got one of the top people in your subject is a fellow at your college, you've got a much higher chance of being supervised by them. In some cases, fellows don't teach (or only teach a few) outside their college. Overall, the quality will be good everywhere, but I think you may get a few variations, including specialisms - like one college might have a lot of chemistry fellows and hence give you better teaching in that area, or a DoS who's a physical geographer etc (you get the idea)

Reply 33

coldfish

12

Remember that most people get supervised by a large number of different people whilst they're here. The most supervisions I've had from one person is 10, out of a total of almost 50.

Reply 34

Craghyrax

17

You can't really try and pin a formula onto the concept of 'supervision', and I don't think you should.
Its a guarantee that you will interact with a supervisor who will aim to challenge you in some way. That's about it. It might be one on one, with two of you, three or maybe four. You might be supervised with fellow students in your college, or mixed with students from other colleges. You might have the same size of supervision and the same supervision partners throughout a term or you might not. The supervisor may address/discuss your essay or they may simply raise a discussion about the current topic instead.

Peterhouse Pt I SPS Supervisions

Politics: Our supervisor organised us into pairs of twos last term and threes this term. He mixes students from different colleges. This term I am with a guy from St Edmunds and a girl from Homerton. He usually asks us to summarise our arguments in our essays and then to challenge eachother about points the other has made. He wraps it up by supplementing our broad understanding of the theory or theorist with any additional ideas or facts we may have missed. His comments on our essays are usually discussed by email and scrawled down in notes on the actual essays. Our supervisor is a fellow at St Edmunds, so an expert as well as a fantastic teacher.

Sociology: A similar story with Sociology. Our supervisor is a PhD student, but she is very good, very to the point, and very challenging. She mixed Magdalene students with Peterhouse..so a supervision will either be one Magdelene and two Petrean, or the other way round. She similarly doesn't address individual essays so much as hold an open discussion on the topic and perhaps raise/extract individual points we might have raised in our essays to compliment the overall discussion. She sometimes arranges the odd individual supervision.

Psychology: I have either individual supervisions or form part of a pair. In individual supervisions we discuss both the essay and the topic. In a pair we just discuss the topic. Our supervisor (and DoS) is a Dr from Christs. She often gives us handouts to read and then asks us to criticise it. Recently we had a pair supervision but I wanted her to explain why she gave me a lower mark on one of my essays so she arranged to meet up with me individually to discuss essay style. Most of my supervisors have shown flexibility in that way. My Soc Anth supervisor also met with me promptly on request last term when I had a problem. When she arranges a pair supervision its always someone from another college (often Cauis). However I know that with the other Petrean SPSers she supervises them as a unit. I get special treatment because I asked :wink:

Social Anthropology: Almost always supervises us individually. Even so, he doesn't often discuss the essay itself but usually raises a discussion about the issue overall and tries to challenge ideas and notions. He's a PhD student, and supervises us in his home. He usually makes coffee for us and gives us cake or biscuits. Whenever he supervises me with somebody else, its another Petrean.

Reply 35

7589200

18

incredibly useful! esp at caius for med cos we have 20 of them

Reply 36

Catsmeat

13

epitome

My essays aren't always discussed in the supervisions -- we often use the time to hammer out other ideas or problems or interesting things. The supervision does have to include some feedback for any work set, but that can be written as much as verbal, and doesn't have to be openly discussed (particularly if there is someone else there). If there are any problems occurring with the written feedback, you can always ask for clarification at the time or later.

Conversely, some supervisions have been entirely about the essay. And they tend to be the most boring, from my perspective, because more often than not it's been with a supervisor who seemingly can't be bothered to think of anything else to talk about.

It's always a good 'springboard' into more interesting realms, especially those that you did not have time to focus on in your essay. For instance, my supervisor and I hammered out a new theory on Danish canoes in the Mesolithic -niche, I admit-, feeling very smug and then realising that we were perhaps the only people that would ever care.

Reply 37

Es*

1

Craghyrax

Politics: Our supervisor organised us into pairs of twos last term and threes this term. He mixes students from different colleges. This term I am with a guy from St Edmunds and a girl from Homerton. He usually asks us to summarise our arguments in our essays and then to challenge eachother about points the other has made. He wraps it up by supplementing our broad understanding of the theory or theorist with any additional ideas or facts we may have missed. His comments on our essays are usually discussed by email and scrawled down in notes on the actual essays. Our supervisor is a fellow at St Edmunds, so an expert as well as a fantastic teacher.

Is this Dr Wilkes?

Reply 38

Craghyrax

17

Es*

Is this Dr Wilkes?

The supervisor is Dr Wilkes. The 'guy from St Edmunds' is a student called Wayne.