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Is the first year of Uni always such a drag?

So I got back all the coursework, and I can't get say I'm happy.

I passed it all, but I'm REALLY disappointed with my grades, especially when I spent 3-4 months and 8 hours a day working my ass off.

I even got my mum, who has a PhD, to go over it to let me know what she thought.

Are the lecturers/tutors always so damn strict with the work??

I don't feel like I'm struggling ... I enjoy the lecturers, I enjoy the seminars and interact in the them whenever I can ... I just don't know what's going wrong. I'm really stressing out, and my bed time has taken a significant smack.

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What you studying and where at?
Reply 2
Avatar for Dodgypirate
Dodgypirate
OP
6
Original post by callum_law
What you studying and where at?


Criminology @ Keele
That's kinda what happens when you do a humanities course which is presumably what you are doing.

If you had done the same amount of work on a STEM subject, the payoff would have been undeniably much greater.

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Reply 4
Avatar for Dodgypirate
Dodgypirate
OP
6
Original post by Xin Xang
That's kinda what happens when you do a humanities course which is presumably what you are doing.

If you had done the same amount of work on a STEM subject, the payoff would have been undeniably much greater.

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Indeed I am, I'm doing Criminology.

So are they simply 'stricter' with Humanities students?

It's just such a heartbreak to see my grades so low after so much effort :frown:
Original post by Dodgypirate
Indeed I am, I'm doing Criminology.

So are they simply 'stricter' with Humanities students?

It's just such a heartbreak to see my grades so low after so much effort :frown:


I think its more a question of the subjectivity of the marking criteria by which you are assessed. For STEM subjects if you know your stuff, you are guaranteed to do well.

For humanities its much less clear. I suggest you talk to your professor to see what sort of things you need to do to get top marks. That's the only way you'll know what you need to do to achieve good grades.

Goodluck.

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Reply 6
Avatar for Dodgypirate
Dodgypirate
OP
6
Original post by Xin Xang
I think its more a question of the subjectivity of the marking criteria by which you are assessed. For STEM subjects if you know your stuff, you are guaranteed to do well.

For humanities its much less clear. I suggest you talk to your professor to see what sort of things you need to do to get top marks. That's the only way you'll know what you need to do to achieve good grades.

Goodluck.

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I followed every speck of criteria for the courseworks ... unbelievable.
Original post by Dodgypirate
I followed every speck of criteria for the courseworks ... unbelievable.


That may be the case, but at the end of the day, the only criteria that matters is the professors, and you may be slightly be fearful of approaching them, but just keep in mind how much you are paying for the course and the amount of time you put in. He MUST tell you where you went wrong and what precisely you need to do to improve.
Reply 8
Avatar for Dodgypirate
Dodgypirate
OP
6
Original post by Xin Xang
That may be the case, but at the end of the day, the only criteria that matters is the professors, and you may be slightly be fearful of approaching them, but just keep in mind how much you are paying for the course and the amount of time you put in. He MUST tell you where you went wrong and what precisely you need to do to improve.


There isn't much I can ask them ... everything that's asked for the coursework is written in BlackBoard. They've said it at the beginning: "If you want the top marks you better follow what's on the coursework criteria in the document on BlackBoard" ...

When you speak to them, that's all they say. Two of my lecturers are absolute asses, they never help, they never listen and when they do, they speak to you like some kid or imbecile.
Original post by Dodgypirate
Criminology @ Keele


Ahh nice. Very interesting. I assume you are looking at a lot of journal articles? Original research, understood with depth.
Original post by callum_law
Ahh nice. Very interesting. I assume you are looking at a lot of journal articles? Original research, understood with depth.


Yup, yup and yup ... My brain literally exploded with research, and I've managed to get Carpal Tunnel syndrome now :/ It's just such a pain in the arse.
[h="1"]
Original post by Dodgypirate
Yup, yup and yup ... My brain literally exploded with research, and I've managed to get Carpal Tunnel syndrome now :/ It's just such a pain in the arse.


Literally exploded? Oh dear. That's not good.

Perhaps you are forcing it too much and overthinking?
Original post by callum_law
Literally exploded? Oh dear. That's not good.

Perhaps you are forcing it too much and overthinking?


Forcing what too much?

I have to work! My social life has gone haywire at the moment because of these courseworks, and now I'm depressed because they've turned out to be ****e.
You're doing too much, I expect trying to cram everything you've read into the essay and leaving no room for analysis. Read core books, construct a simple working argument then go get about 8 promising looking books from the library and try to use them plus whatever crap you can dredge up from Google to support and refine your argument. To find the ideal number of sources divide your word count by 100.
Original post by scrotgrot
You're doing too much, I expect trying to cram everything you've read into the essay and leaving no room for analysis. Read core books, construct a simple working argument then go get about 8 promising looking books from the library and try to use them plus whatever crap you can dredge up from Google to support and refine your argument. To find the ideal number of sources divide your word count by 100.


Again, I've followed every criteria.

I don't think I'm doing too much at all. My essays are very structured. I'd gladly post parts of it on here if you wanted.

Even most people on my course are complaining about how essays are being marked.
Well it gives me a great chance to get into the career I want, policing.

It's pretty hard, yeah, but nothing I can't handle - until I see the grades that is. I've been doing great with every other part of it.

I'm not going to walk out of the course, why would I do such a thing?? That'd be idiotic.
(edited 9 years ago)
I'm so glad someone isn't looking down at me from their nose.

This is a section of my most recent coursework. It's on hate crime.


‘The police recorded 42,236 hate crime offences in 2012/13, around one per cent of all recorded crime. Comparing this with estimates from the CSEW [Crime Survey for England and Wales] implies that far fewer hate crime offences came to the attention of the police than the 40 per cent indicated by the survey.’ (Home Office, Office for National Statistics and Ministry of Justice, 2013, p.6).
Drawing on this overview and with reference to the topics discussed on the module, describe and discuss the nature, extent and distribution of hate crime in England and Wales.

A hate offence is one which is perceived by the victim, or any other person to be motivated, by a hostility or prejudice based on a person’s actual or perceived race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or gender. A hate crime is a hate offence which has been successfully prosecuted. Central to this question that there are many more offences as reported directly and subjectively from victim experience, than there are convictions and invites exploration of the attrition and particularly under-reporting to the police.
The concept of hate offending emerged in the 1960’s, initially in the context of the Civil Rights movement. The categories included have evolved. The recognition of racial hate crime was within the Race Relations Act 1965. The background to religious hate crime emerged from the anti-terrorist crime and security laws of 2001 and 2006 following the 1990’s “decade of hate” culminating in 9/11. Sexual orientation, as a target group, was recognised in 2008, and specific inclusion in terms of disability and transgender remains underway (Law Commission 2014). So the potential victims of hate crime are those who are also described as having the five protected characteristics in other areas of law, such as employment and who are covered by Discrimination and Equality legislation. For the purposes of crime reporting these are identified the five centrally monitored strands. As well as the step-wise addition of categories there has also been a step-wise inclusion of the involved institutional areas, from social movements in the 1970’s, through legislators, then Courts and Statuary interpretation to Law enforcement from Law enforcement from the millennium.
Get usd to the fact that, unless you're doing a maths based topic where you can actually get answers right, you will probably never each over 80%. 60-80% is fine, any lower and you should be worrying.
Original post by hothedgehog
Get usd to the fact that, unless you're doing a maths based topic where you can actually get answers right, you will probably never each over 80%. 60-80% is fine, any lower and you should be worrying.


Greaaaaat. Well that's just lovely.

I did a foundation year last year, and I got 70% and above in my courseworks. Now, doing the same work, I get lower, much lower.
I don't wanna sound like a total dick, but I think you are far too discursive. You are saying too many things and not really exploring what they mean. What has the feedback been like?

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