DSA needs assessment on Monday

Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd

I'm very bad with strangers and too shy to mingle irl. Nothing personal, just the way I am :redface:

I'm hardly there anyway :smile:

No worries, I knew it was a strange thing to have asked... :tongue:

I have a feeling I will end up camping there, so come round to the art department if you feel like meeting a friendly face... gosh, I am making it sound like home already and yet it's still another 5 months to go...

Reply 241

Original post by lozzyhickers

I'm really going to take advantage of this! I'll be saving over £200 a year!

Yeah go on, it really helps if you are on long term meds.

Original post by snoogy

My room still looks like a bomb hit it. I've done two loads of washing today and now the rail in my wardrobe has collapsed. Eek. Maybe they'll just accept that I have a floordrobe?

My doctor cancelled my appointment for tomorrow and I really really needed it :frown:

Can't they just drop the stuff and go? Or maybe they will help tidy up your room for you since they need to space to install your stuff?

Reply 242

Original post by ExTraP

Yeah go on, it really helps if you are on long term meds.

Can't they just drop the stuff and go? Or maybe they will help tidy up your room for you since they need to space to install your stuff?

My stuff is coming in the morning and my installation is at 6 so I can clean tomorrow. Just really struggling with everything right now. I can barely even speak.

Reply 243

The_Lonely_Goatherd

Original post by ExTraP

No worries, I knew it was a strange thing to have asked... :tongue:

It's not a strange thing to ask at all. I'm just a completely different person on the Internet, that's all. I'm not usually as friendly to people in real life (not in a rude sense: just I don't converse easily) :nah:

Original post by snoogy

My stuff is coming in the morning and my installation is at 6 so I can clean tomorrow. Just really struggling with everything right now. I can barely even speak.

You're welcome to PM me if that would help at all :hugs:

Reply 244

diamonddust

Original post by snoogy

My stuff is coming in the morning and my installation is at 6 so I can clean tomorrow. Just really struggling with everything right now. I can barely even speak.

I'm sorry. :sad:

Really hope things get better soon.

I'm finding things really hard too. Exams in a week and a week and two days from tomorrow and my brain thinks it's a great time to make everything flare up. :rolleyes:

Reply 245

Naww, thanks guys. Feeling a little better today. Just a little overwhelmed by essays and exams and stuff. Brains have an awesome way of making bad things worse.

The doctors keep texting me to call them and my phone phobia is stopping me.

My stuff at some stage within the next 35 minutes though. That'll be a little better.

Reply 246

diamonddust

Original post by snoogy

Ain't that the truth! :sigh:

Glad you're feeling a little better now! :hugs:

Can you text the doctors back? I seriously think doctors should have some sort of email/text service.

Note to brain: Leave me alone. I have exams.

Reply 247

Woohoo, got a final go ahead from the DSA team allowing me to get all the items myself, I will be saving them about £150 after all the upgrades I want. If I stuck with the supplier, I'd have to pay over £300 for the upgrades I want. I think these suppliers need some maths lessons.

Reply 248

Yay for getting it sorted!

The delivery of my stuff was awful and I had to make a complaint - knocked once, left and aggressive note and essentially threw everything into my neighbours and she was putting her disabled son on his school bus. We were not amused.

Installation guy came - never felt so awkward in my life. I just sat there for 90 minutes. Gah! He didn't make it easy for me. He looked like he'd have a breakdown at any moment. My macbook is preeeeetty. My fancypants scanner doesn't work though. Something about drivers for mac (yeah, well done there suppliers!) so I have to *call* them tomorrow. Ugh.

Feeling a little dull around the edges today. Usually I'd be ecstatic over new technology but I'm just a bit blah - currently typing on my girlfriends old laptop instead :frown:

Doctor's text included an email address so I emailed them instead :smile:

Reply 249

Did you get the Plustek opticbook scanner? If so, you can go onto their website to get the beta software to make it work with your mac. They have only recently introduce it, these scanners never used to work with macs. If it doesn't then get ur supplier to switch to a canon or sth, I was recommended a Plustek but instead the suppliers quoted a canon because they all know Plustek doesn't get on we with mac until recently.

Hope it helps.

Reply 250

Original post by ExTraP

Yeah, it's the optibook. I'll have a look now! Thanks :biggrin:

Reply 251

diamonddust

Just got my draft report. I actually can't believe all the things they're helping me with. I'm so grateful for the help and glad I applied as I'll have so much support in place. The assessor even thought of the mini fridge issue I didn't think about until days after!

I need to tell them it's fine to send off but I'm a bit confused about the upgrading issue. I just got my draft report and it said the audio notetaker software wouldn't work. Does boot camp allow you to run windows programs on the mac OS or do you have to run window programs on the windows partition of boot camp? I was planning on getting a MacBook pro this summer (with my own money) but if I have to pay a silly amount of money just to always have to use Windows... well, it's not worth it. And how exactly do you go about upgrading? I already have the option to upgrade to a windows laptop from a desktop in my report but it doesn't say how. I guess I ask for a laptop when I order my equipment? I don't want to order anything or sort anything out until I know for sure that I've got in! And they put quotes at the bottom of the email and am I meant to tell them
I want to upgrade to a laptop now or later? This stuff is so confusing for a numeracy challenged stresshead like me!

Reply 252

^ wait until your funding is approved by SFE, because they might or might not approve all the recommanded items, althought they usually just nod their heads with everything that's bee recommanded. SFE will choose a supplier from your report, usually there are 3 suppliers included, you then decide whether or not to go for the supplier SFE choose, if you do then give them a ring to tell them what kind of upgrades you want, and they will give you a totally ridiculous quote of the upgrades, then you either agree or disagee. If yo agree then you pay a lot of money for something that might be cheap as chips, or you disagee and go with exactly what's been recommanded. Or you can do what I am going to do, which is send a nice email to the DSA team to inform them you would like to purchase part of all of the items yourself, they will then tell you that you are entitled to do so with bla bla bla... It's fiddly, but it's worth it. Like I have mentioned, with all the upgrades I want, I am still going to save them around £150 for buying things myself, whereas if I were to stick with the agreed supplier, I would have had to pay about £300 for the exact upgrades I want.

Boot camp comes native with all Mac OSX as standard now, as title suggest, you would have to boot your computer into the window mode, which menas you are either running Mac or Windows. If you want to be running both at the same time, you would have to purchase a software called Parallels, which allows you to run windows within the Mac OSX, so to speak. Whichever option you choose, you would have to purchase a copy of windows too, which isn't too expensive for a student, I think it's arounfd £50 or so.

Hope it helps.

Reply 253

When the equipment is delivered and ther person come to set it up, do they do it when your uni accomodation or do they come to your house?

Reply 254

Original post by lozzyhickers

When the equipment is delivered and ther person come to set it up, do they do it when your uni accomodation or do they come to your house?

I think it'd be where you spend your time studying as the equipment is for your study needs.

Reply 255

Original post by ExTraP

I think it'd be where you spend your time studying as the equipment is for your study needs.

Ok, that makes sense! So do you think they'll delay delivery till i'm actually at uni?

Reply 256

oh are you not at uni yet? Well then I don't know, I suppose it's up to you when you want the stuff to be delivered. Like althought I can order my stuff now, but I doubt I'll have the time and energy to deal with it unitl June. Bare in mind though if you decide not to take up your place at uni for whatever reasons, they might ask you to repay the cost of the items. So I'd say if you don't need them now, wait until you know where you are going to be for uni then get the stuff ordered. But then, are you getting a laptop or desktop? Coz it might not be that hard to move them with your other stuff to uni.

Reply 257

Original post by ExTraP

No (see sig), But i've got two conditionals in the same place in which i'm predicted 90 points higher than I need to get. I;ve got an assessment on June the 1st and I don't know what to do about where to get it delivered, as i'll need it pretty sharpish when I get to uni so I don't know whether to wait that long.

Reply 258

you don't have to tell them where you'd want your items to be delivered during your assessment anyhow. I think you might be thinking just a step ahead. Go for your assessment, then wait for SFE to apporve your funding, by then it'd be July I think, then you don't have to order the items right away, perhaps wait until your A-level result then decide where to have it delivered. You would have your items before you start uni, it's on May after all.

Reply 259