The Student Room Group

Collections

What's the deal with collections? Are they really that important?

I'm a PPE student and am getting a little worried about them. I haven't done any work so far these holidays, and have a huge amount of other stuff to do before the end of the holidays (job, extracurricular stuff) as well as the work set for next term. All this means I doubt I will really get any revision done for my collections until week 0.

I'm not overly worried about the course as I've got through the first term much more comfortably than I've ever imagined, but I'm in no position to answer past exam questions as I won't remember all the technical details for economics or the rules etc for logic.

Everyone else from my college has already started revising/consolidating and
they have nothing else to do but continue revising until termtime which is getting me down a little bit. I can take doing worse than other people in the collections, but I don't want to do terribly and give off a bad impression to my tutors. Especially since my work in the first term and my reports were really good.

Basically, how much does it matter if I don't do so well? Also, is it true that they will just be last years paper?
Reply 1
goldstandard

Basically, how much does it matter if I don't do so well? Also, is it true that they will just be last years paper?


as with so many oxford-y things.. "it depends on your college" to an extent, then within college, probably the specific tutor for the topic. :wink:

subject mum/dad might be the best person to ask..?

edit - & if the job time commitment is because you need to rather than just liking the extra cash - might be worth looking into hardship funds etc? some of my friends have been given money by the college so they didn't have to get jobs over christmas/easter which are "vacations" rather than "holidays" i.e. they expect academic studying to be done! booo..
Reply 2
Ummm it varies
I assume if you're asking then your collections aren't penal, in which case unless you fail them then the worst you're likely to get is academic probation or getting pulled up against the Dean
2nd years might be able to help more than me"
Obviously I don't know about your college, but at mine collections aren't aken very seriously. I once got 15% and the tutor didn't really care that much. However, its not advisable to do this! Last term I did quite well in one of them and the tutor was really pleased, he was a new tutor so I didn't want to look too stupid in front of him!
Don't panic too much, a bit of consolidation every so often when you get spare time will help on the collections front. Since these are your first, and you have no experience of Oxford exams, I'm sure the tutors won't be expecting miracles from you. This is a chance to get used to the oxford style of exam question, which can be very different from A-level.
Reply 4
dancingqueen
This is a chance to get used to the oxford style of exam question, which can be very different from A-level.


Very good point. I remember in my first ever collections I thought I'd worked really hard over the vac and revised my topics thoroughly...then came collections and I got 44% (my tutor wasn't particularly annoyed, but was disappointed) and it dawned on me that my methods of revision and my whole expectation of exam questions were completely wrong. The bad mark shook me up (especially after getting 80%+ at school!) and made me work more effectively that term, but especially over the easter vac and hence I did better in my collections. So it was probably good that my first ones went so badly...the only downside being that for the rest of the year I remained terrified, certain that I was going to fail my prelims and that I really didn't deserve to be in Oxford. Thankfully, some of my view has since changed (although I still doubt the admisssions tutors that let me in!).
Reply 5
my management tutor has already told me he won't even be looking at my collection mark.. can't complain really. yer, varies from college to college..
Please don't ever worry about collections. By all means work for them, if you're inclined to do so, but they definitely do not warrant stress or anxiety, as bad consequences are very unlikely to stem from them, especially if you've been doing well during term. Your tutors are interested in ongoing performance, not any one mark.