GOGSoc Episode VI: The GoG, the Bad and the Ugly

Reply 5980

10

Impact factors depend to a significant extent on the size of the field because the number of citations is an important part of it. So a big field has lots of people writing lots of papers, all citing each other and leading to higher impact factors. A small, specialist field doesn't.

Reply 5981

Piggsil

16

Seems like many GOGs are knackered atm.

I'm going to the docs on Monday to get results of blood tests she did. Hope there's nothing actually wrong and I'm just exhausted.

Reply 5982

Kitty Pimms

17

Original post

by Piggsil

Seems like many GOGs are knackered atm.

I'm going to the docs on Monday to get results of blood tests she did. Hope there's nothing actually wrong and I'm just exhausted.

Big hugs to you. It sucks when you're that burnt out. Hope a rest does you good :smile:

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Reply 5983

apotoftea

OP

19

Original post

by Piggsil

Seems like many GOGs are knackered atm.

I'm going to the docs on Monday to get results of blood tests she did. Hope there's nothing actually wrong and I'm just exhausted.

Fingers crossed it's nothing sinister not that being exhausted is any better!

GOG holiday anyone?

Reply 5984

Craghyrax

17

Original post

by apotoftea

GOG holiday anyone?

Lets go join Becca in Norway :awesome:

Reply 5985

Anatheme

18

Original post

by Craghyrax

Lets go join Becca in Norway :awesome:

I was gonna offer to go see Kitty :teeth:

GOGs Scandi-tour 2013?

(also, I feel just like that hamster on your FB page…)

Reply 5986

Craghyrax

17

Yeh, for people who don't have me on facebook, a friend just posted this on my status about being burnt out.
Sounds like we're all here right now:
[video="youtube;1EXcMGqFeK8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EXcMGqFeK8[/video]

Reply 5987

Interrobang

20

Original post

by Craghyrax

Yeh, for people who don't have me on facebook, a friend just posted this on my status about being burnt out.
Sounds like we're all here right now:
[video="youtube;1EXcMGqFeK8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EXcMGqFeK8[/video]

How cute! I don't think I'm there yet, but I am in denial about my NEXT assignment due in...

Reply 5988

sj27

14

So that essay I thought was either really good or really bad turned out to be very middle-of-the-road grades-wise...constructive feedback and encouraging comments though - seems I just need to order (a) my thoughts and consequently (b) the essay structure better. Feeling a bit rusty after a few years out of academia :sigh:

Reply 5989

The_Lonely_Goatherd

20

Original post

by sj27

So that essay I thought was either really good or really bad turned out to be very middle-of-the-road grades-wise...constructive feedback and encouraging comments though - seems I just need to order (a) my thoughts and consequently (b) the essay structure better. Feeling a bit rusty after a few years out of academia :sigh:

Don't worry, first essays are always a bit rusty and not reflective of ability. Or at least my first pieces of work for Oxford and Goldsmiths were like that :ninja:

Chin up!

Reply 5990

Craghyrax

17

Not anything that new, but I found the cross national comparisons useful:http://alexandreafonso.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/how-academia-resembles-a-drug-gang/?utm_content=buffer66791&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=Buffer Its nice to know I'm actually in the right country for less awful early career stuff. This comes as a surprise, as I thought we were rubbish for that. Not as rubbish as we could be, it seems.

Reply 5991

Magnum Opus

18

Is a 73 good for your first postgraduate essay? Is that promising if you're thinking of pursuing a PhD?

Reply 5992

Craghyrax

17

Original post

by Magnum Opus

Is a 73 good for your first postgraduate essay?

I'm sure you know the answer to that already. I hope you're not asking your course mates :s-smilie:

Is that promising if you're thinking of pursuing a PhD?

That's a massively oversimplistic way of looking at it. Writing good essays are an entirely different thing to writing good theses. I would strongly discourage thinking about it in those terms. There are people with strong grades who don't do well on a PhD and vice versa.

If you want to do a PhD and know that you have the discipline and motivation to do one, then that is what matters. Getting good grades are important for securing funding, but not sufficient to guarantee it. Luck, match with supervisor, strategic value of research idea are all just as important.
Finally, only do a PhD if you have a very good reason for wanting one. DO NOT do one if its just because you're not sure what else to do.

Reply 5993

Feefifofum

16

Original post

by Magnum Opus

Is a 73 good for your first postgraduate essay? Is that promising if you're thinking of pursuing a PhD?

It's a distinction, so it's good! I think I got a 72 for my first MA essay and am just finishing my PhD now, so take from that what you will...

Reply 5994

Magnum Opus

18

Original post

by Feefifofum

It's a distinction, so it's good! I think I got a 72 for my first MA essay and am just finishing my PhD now, so take from that what you will...

I'm just a little unclear whether the 'standard' changes between undergraduate and postgraduate, if that makes sense? As in, if getting a 70 at undergraduate, would you be expected to get an 80 at postgraduate, or is a PG 70 'harder' than an UG 70?

I'm sure you know the answer to that already. I hope you're not asking your course mates

I think it's a pretty reasonable query for someone new to PG, especially when there are two higher 'tiers' on the marking scheme than what I got. So I'm really not sure why you're saying this, but I apologise if I've offended. Thank you for your advice about the PhD, but I have actually dropped my career to pursue this so the warning hopefully doesn't apply to me! (I say dropped, but my career is the same field as my studies, so I am logically pursuing this...)

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 5995

Craghyrax

17

Original post

by Feefifofum

It's a distinction, so it's good! I think I got a 72 for my first MA essay and am just finishing my PhD now, so take from that what you will...

At Cambridge it would be a high pass. Distinction starts at 75. They said they were changing it to make it more universally standardized :lolwut:

Reply 5996

Craghyrax

17

Original post

by Magnum Opus

I think it's a pretty reasonable query for someone new to PG, especially when there are two higher 'tiers' on the marking scheme than what I got. So I'm really not sure why you're saying this, but I apologise if I've offended. Thank you for your advice about the PhD, but I have actually dropped my career to pursue this so the warning hopefully doesn't apply to me!

Anything over 70 is good in arts and humanities, irrespective of the level you're at. My point was just that if you asked that to other post grad students in your peer group they would most likely assume that you were using the question as an excuse to show off your accomplishment.

The point I'm trying to make is that grades are one part of a very complex issue, and it would be a bad idea to treat them as an indicator. I think that applicants would like some kind of indication of whether they 'stand a chance' or are 'good PhD material', but in reality nobody can tell them this, and the only choice they have is to just take a risk and find out by actually trying to get there. In terms of getting funding, the vast majority of successful candidates have above 70 for their Masters and undergraduate degrees. But there are still notable cases where people with poorer grades are chosen over people with stellar grades due to all the other factors that are important.
The other thing is that actually securing funding and getting onto a PhD is completely separate to your likely success once you're actually doing one. I think that supervisors and departments have a hugely difficult task in allocating funding and PhD places, because its much harder to tell if someone is a safe bet when it comes to a PhD than it is for an undergraduate or Masters place.
So I guess the bottom line of what I'm trying to say is that good grades are definitely helpful and can make a big difference in getting you funding. But they're not a guarantee of anything, least of all success when on a PhD. So try not to rely on them too much.

Reply 5997

Magnum Opus

18

Original post

by Craghyrax

Anything over 70 is good in arts and humanities, irrespective of the level you're at. My point was just that if you asked that to other post grad students in your peer group they would most likely assume that you were using the question as an excuse to show off your accomplishment.

The point I'm trying to make is that grades are one part of a very complex issue, and it would be a bad idea to treat them as an indicator. I think that applicants would like some kind of indication of whether they 'stand a chance' or are 'good PhD material', but in reality nobody can tell them this, and the only choice they have is to just take a risk and find out by actually trying to get there. In terms of getting funding, the vast majority of successful candidates have above 70 for their Masters and undergraduate degrees. But there are still notable cases where people with poorer grades are chosen over people with stellar grades due to all the other factors that are important.
The other thing is that actually securing funding and getting onto a PhD is completely separate to your likely success once you're actually doing one. I think that supervisors and departments have a hugely difficult task in allocating funding and PhD places, because its much harder to tell if someone is a safe bet when it comes to a PhD than it is for an undergraduate or Masters place.
So I guess the bottom line of what I'm trying to say is that good grades are definitely helpful and can make a big difference in getting you funding. But they're not a guarantee of anything, least of all success when on a PhD. So try not to rely on them too much.

Oh I won't rely upon them, but we only received feedback today, hence the question. I am going to, hopefully, have a tutorial sometime next week with my PT where I can discuss other factors with him, as you are rightfully pointing out. Right now, I'm just trying to gather discussion points for that meeting including, but not limited to, any 'potential' perceived from my essay. Does that make more sense?

The topic I was looking at in this essay is something I've actually become quite interested in now, and have started to compile and read articles around that specific topic. In this sense, I'm trying to determine whether the mark is indicative of potential to pursue the topic from a more thorough 'research' approach - in the text feedback it says the 'essay's value consists in the fact that you develop an original thesis'.

By the way, even if I spoke to my peer group about my mark.. they wouldn't understand what it means, partially why I ask here... If anything, I've had them asking me what their marks and feedback meant. So it's not a matter of showing off. :smile:

Reply 5998

Feefifofum

16

Original post

by Craghyrax

At Cambridge it would be a high pass. Distinction starts at 75. They said they were changing it to make it more universally standardized :lolwut:

Ok, well Cambridge is the exception then. 70 is the usual distinction grade boundary.

Original post

by Magnum Opus

I'm just a little unclear whether the 'standard' changes between undergraduate and postgraduate, if that makes sense? As in, if getting a 70 at undergraduate, would you be expected to get an 80 at postgraduate, or is a PG 70 'harder' than an UG 70?

I think it's a pretty reasonable query for someone new to PG, especially when there are two higher 'tiers' on the marking scheme than what I got. So I'm really not sure why you're saying this, but I apologise if I've offended. Thank you for your advice about the PhD, but I have actually dropped my career to pursue this so the warning hopefully doesn't apply to me! (I say dropped, but my career is the same field as my studies, so I am logically pursuing this...)

I think the latter option is closer to it - it's harder to get a 70 at postgrad than it is at undergrad. And don't worry - I thought it was a reasonable query too. Our essays weren't graded at undergrad so it took me a while to get the hang of it too.

Reply 5999

Ethereal

19

Original post

by Feefifofum

Our essays weren't graded at undergrad so it took me a while to get the hang of it too.

That's odd

GOGSoc Episode VI: The GoG, the Bad and the Ugly

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