Cambridge 2011 Freshers Chat Thread

OP

Original post by Doughnuts!!

I think that you're one of my favourite CamChatters 'cos you're so helpful!

Now for my query: Everybody always goes on about how easy it is to fall behind when you're ill in Cambridge. What if you get ill really easily?

I'm one of those people that gets ill if I get too stressed/pressurised- maybe applying to Cambridge wasn't the best idea :p:

- and I'd hate for me to get ill and then fall behind just because of the heavy workload.

Aww, thank you :colondollar:

I'm just on my year abroad and therefore have loads more free time than most other Cambridge students! And I do a lot of access work for my college and think that being on here and answering questions is a kind of constant continuation of that :smile:

I am also one of those people. Really don't worry too much. Yes, you do get behind. But if you are like that you have to learn how to not only manage being ill (ie, learning how to cope with the symptoms and still be able to write essays) but also when to say stop. This is something I struggled with a lot, because you do feel like you have to do everything. The fact is that you don't. You need to learn to manage your time. If you have already worked a sixty hour week and your work is not finished then you just need to stop because they have given you too much. Nobody actually expects you to get everything done, and to be frank, the people who do are either super geniuses or tend to make sacrifices that I'm not willing to make (I have a very active social life, flying in the face of all the stereotypes about TSR users :p:

). The most difficult thing is adjusting your mindset from the school mode of having to do all your homework or you'll get into trouble to the university mode of realising that your degree is for YOU and that you need to go about it in a way that means that you are happy, healthy and enjoying it. Once you've got the hang of that you will find that not only does being behind not stress you out so much (largely because it's a permanent state of being and it's far too much effort to maintain that level of stress) but you are a much healthier person :smile:

Lots of sleep, regular meals and frequent contact with someone from the outside world for lashings of perspective are really important. Whenever it's getting too much for me I ring my mum, but other people call cousins or best friends from home, just anyone who can remind you that it's not the be all and end all! :smile:

Reply 1423

Jacke02

Original post by Zoedotdot

It's likely that there are people who have failed, but I personally don't know any vet meds who have. I think there is more talk of failure among medics (I don't know if this is true for vet med as well) because there are those exams that are externally controlled and therefore a certain percentage of people have to fail them every time. Usually failing those doesn't matter as long as you do well in Cambridge's own exams.

The person of the bbc program junior doctors failed her first year..... but medicine is pretty strenuous at cambridge.

Reply 1424

OP

Original post by Jacke02

The person of the bbc program junior doctors failed her first year..... but medicine is pretty strenuous at cambridge.

Just watched that - I'm almost certain that what she actually failed were the exams required by whatever official body it is that governs medicine (GMC or something?). I know this because she talked about having to work the whole summer for retakes, and Cambridge don't let you retake tripos unless you have very specific circumstances, whereas retaking those two exams is common practice because of the aforementioned quotas on pass/fail rates.

Any actual medics feel free to correct me on this! I have a couple of close medic friends and I know people who did retakes so I'm just going off what they've told me!

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 1425

Original post by Topaz_eyes

*cough* I'm procrastinating from revising and being helpful is useful... right?

I haven't been very ill in term yet, touchwood, but a couple of my friends have. You do fall behind, but supervisors and DoSes tend to be accommodating - one friend missed a couple of essays, so had to do them in the holidays instead, for example.

You can always get friends to pick up lecture notes for you, or you can copy their notes, and you should be okay if it's a week or so. If you get so ill you need to go home, you might have to stay longer in Cambridge... one of their rules is that you have to "keep term" AKA be in Camb for a certain number of days each term - I think you get 6 off or something?

ANYWAY; not the point... Everyone was slightly ill in Michaelmas, our lecture theatre was full of coughing and sneezing, most people just battle on anyway and collapse when they get home! You should be okay, obviously getting ill from stress isn't good, but find ways to stay relaxed and you'll be fine :smile:

Weird, I was going to ask you on Formspring! :biggrin:

Thanks for that!

BUT (of course there had to be a but :p:

) what if trying to do all the work set makes me sick? I can't exactly not do the reading or stuff during term time.

EDIT: Dont' worry, the ever-helpful Zoedotdot answered it!

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 1426

OP

Original post by Doughnuts!!

EDIT: Dont' worry, the ever-helpful Zoedotdot answered it!

Reply 1427

Bumbl

With all this worrying about failing:
Are there any studies whether the percentage of students taking Methylphenidate is significantly higher at Oxbridge than the UK average?

Reply 1428

gethsemane342

11

Original post by Doughnuts!!

I think that you're one of my favourite CamChatters 'cos you're so helpful!

Now for my query: Everybody always goes on about how easy it is to fall behind when you're ill in Cambridge. What if you get ill really easily?

I'm one of those people that gets ill if I get too stressed/pressurised- maybe applying to Cambridge wasn't the best idea :p:

- and I'd hate for me to get ill and then fall behind just because of the heavy workload.

Just to add to what Zoe said about needing to stop - this is *definitely* true for law. Unless you are my crazy friend who is an absolute genius, you are *not* going to make it to the end of the reading list and they don't expect you to (and my crazy friend only gets to the end so that he doesn't have too much work to do in exam term. i don't recommend his approach: I got so worried about how ill and exhausted he looked that another lawyer had to stop me from calling an intervention on him!). It's extremely common for people in supervisions to just say "Sorry, i haven't read that case". They will expect you to have read the major cases and the textbook (though i've gotten away with not doing that a few times :tongue:

) and will be very annoyed if you haven't. Other cases and articles, unless you were specifically told to read them, you will not be told off for not having read.

Also, if you are ill, you can tell the supervisors and they will be very sympathetic. A mate of mine is regularly ill and fell seriously behind with work as a result. Her supervisors started getting angry. She explained that she was ill and, immediately, the supervisor offered to give her an extension and any help she wanted.

Heck, even falling ill in exams isn't the end of the world. Take it from me - i spent the week of our exams checking on another lawyer who contracted some stomach sickness, and the college was very sympathetic to her.

Reply 1429

Rezarjk

Original post by Zoedotdot

Just watched that - I'm almost certain that what she actually failed were the exams required by whatever official body it is that governs medicine (GMC or something?). I know this because she talked about having to work the whole summer for retakes, and Cambridge don't let you retake tripos unless you have very specific circumstances, whereas retaking those two exams is common practice because of the aforementioned quotas on pass/fail rates.

Any actual medics feel free to correct me on this! I have a couple of close medic friends and I know people who did retakes so I'm just going off what they've told me!

I dunno about this junior doctor person but you're basically right. Med/Vet Tripos comprises 50% essays and 50% other exams. 50% essays don't count towards 2nd MB which is simply pass/fail BUT you get a retake (possibly 2 if you're really lucky but you're not meant to). Quite a lot of people fail one or more of the 2nd MB subjects (last year probably around 15 to 20%) as they often have higher passmarks. For example anatomy is a 70% pass mark whereas tripos (which takes into account the 2nd MB exams AND the essays) has a 40% passmark but no retakes.

(2nd year medic)

EDIT: almost everyone passes the retakes though!

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 1430

Original post by gethsemane342

Just to add to what Zoe said about needing to stop - this is *definitely* true for law. Unless you are my crazy friend who is an absolute genius, you are *not* going to make it to the end of the reading list and they don't expect you to (and my crazy friend only gets to the end so that he doesn't have too much work to do in exam term. i don't recommend his approach: I got so worried about how ill and exhausted he looked that another lawyer had to stop me from calling an intervention on him!). It's extremely common for people in supervisions to just say "Sorry, i haven't read that case". They will expect you to have read the major cases and the textbook (though i've gotten away with not doing that a few times :tongue:

) and will be very annoyed if you haven't. Other cases and articles, unless you were specifically told to read them, you will not be told off for not having read.

Also, if you are ill, you can tell the supervisors and they will be very sympathetic. A mate of mine is regularly ill and fell seriously behind with work as a result. Her supervisors started getting angry. She explained that she was ill and, immediately, the supervisor offered to give her an extension and any help she wanted.

Heck, even falling ill in exams isn't the end of the world. Take it from me - i spent the week of our exams checking on another lawyer who contracted some stomach sickness, and the college was very sympathetic to her.

Original post by Zoedotdot

Aww, thank you :colondollar:

I'm just on my year abroad and therefore have loads more free time than most other Cambridge students! And I do a lot of access work for my college and think that being on here and answering questions is a kind of constant continuation of that :smile:

I am also one of those people. Really don't worry too much. Yes, you do get behind. But if you are like that you have to learn how to not only manage being ill (ie, learning how to cope with the symptoms and still be able to write essays) but also when to say stop. This is something I struggled with a lot, because you do feel like you have to do everything. The fact is that you don't. You need to learn to manage your time. If you have already worked a sixty hour week and your work is not finished then you just need to stop because they have given you too much. Nobody actually expects you to get everything done, and to be frank, the people who do are either super geniuses or tend to make sacrifices that I'm not willing to make (I have a very active social life, flying in the face of all the stereotypes about TSR users :p:

). The most difficult thing is adjusting your mindset from the school mode of having to do all your homework or you'll get into trouble to the university mode of realising that your degree is for YOU and that you need to go about it in a way that means that you are happy, healthy and enjoying it. Once you've got the hang of that you will find that not only does being behind not stress you out so much (largely because it's a permanent state of being and it's far too much effort to maintain that level of stress) but you are a much healthier person :smile:

Lots of sleep, regular meals and frequent contact with someone from the outside world for lashings of perspective are really important. Whenever it's getting too much for me I ring my mum, but other people call cousins or best friends from home, just anyone who can remind you that it's not the be all and end all! :smile:

THANK YOU BOTH SO MUCH!

You're both so helpful and I feel so reassured now. Would rep if I could but it looks like I've repped you guys recently :hugs:

And Geth, thanks for the law specific advice. Now I know not to try and read absolutely everything. :wink:

Reply 1431

darkestskies

Original post by Doughnuts!!

THANK YOU BOTH SO MUCH!

You're both so helpful and I feel so reassured now. Would rep if I could but it looks like I've repped you guys recently :hugs:

I second this!

And thank you for asking it; it's not something I'd have ever thought to ask, and it's really applicable to me. :tongue:

I get ill really easily when I'm stressed out, and also just generally in the winter. Fun. :cool:

Reply 1432

Original post by darkestskies

I second this!

And thank you for asking it; it's not something I'd have ever thought to ask, and it's really applicable to me. :tongue:

I get ill really easily when I'm stressed out, and also just generally in the winter. Fun. :cool:

I genuinely thought that I was the only one that this happened to! When I was preparing for my Cam interview, I had to finish the final draft of my English coursework whilst ~~starting to read~~ reading the books that I ~~said I read~~ read in my PS. The massive amount of stress had me feeling like complete crap for 2 weeks and my teachers became concerned by my declining standards of work. Add to that I started to randomly fall asleep and you realise that it was not a good place for me to be in.

Ended up getting 100% in English coursework and feeling comfortable talking about my opinions of the books in the Cam interview. :confused:

Not quite sure what the moral of that story was; I seem to be work better when stressed and feeling terrible? :dontknow:

Reply 1433

OP

Original post by Doughnuts!!

Not quite sure what the moral of that story was; I seem to be work better when stressed and feeling terrible? :dontknow:

Join the club :wink:

Or rather, don't, quit it, you won't be able to sustain it at Cambridge!

Reply 1434