Failed my assignment
I failed my essay in my first year which I got 35% on our last essay and I am really devastated about. I was quite surprised since I used our universities 1:1 resources where I spoke with a academic help who went through my essay with me and she said she was sure I would get great, for context I had 3 meetings with her over the span of 2-3 weeks where we talked about essay writing and went through my assignment together and yet I still failed. My university are not of great help to me and the lecturer who marked my work barely gave me any feedback I guess bc I failed but when I asked others in my course who passed if I could see their essay there’s was edited throughout with points on where they could improve whereas mine had none of that, mine only had a short paragraph he wrote on the good points of my essay and he barely wrote anything to even improve on. I booked a meeting with him and I thought it was going to be long but it lasted 10 minutes because he told me he needed to go eat his lunch. I’m really dissapointed and I don’t even know what to do since I can’t risk failing. I’ve asked him if I can book another meeting so far and I’ve also sent him parts of my edited essay which he says he will get back on Monday. Nowhere online even helps all I keep saying is use PEEL structure, which I do, I did English language and literature a levels and got A*AB and I know that a levels has nothing to do with university but I’m just saying that as a point of that I know what those structures are. I’m soo clueless about writing essays and I’m in my second year now I feel like everyone gives the same basic advice and no one is willing to sit there and dissect and go through the basics of essay writing. I get it’s a skill and somehow I’m not able to acquire it, it seems like people are born with it and I’m just here stupid and stuck and can’t figure out a essay and doomed. I’m considering booking tutoring sessions from a nurse that I saw (since I’m studying nursing) and others have said she’s helped them a lot, however it’s quite pricey and I don’t know if I should use some of these sessions on this essay because I don’t know if I need it and can pass this or I should save the tutoring sessions for my upcoming essays which will count to my final grades, the issue is I can’t afford to fail because it’s my last chance. Someone please help I’m so stressed out and stuck and I really don’t know what to do I feel like everything is crushing on top of me and no one’s going to help or save me😭😭😭
Reply 1
Original post
by fareeda234I failed my essay in my first year which I got 35% on our last essay and I am really devastated about. I was quite surprised since I used our universities 1:1 resources where I spoke with a academic help who went through my essay with me and she said she was sure I would get great, for context I had 3 meetings with her over the span of 2-3 weeks where we talked about essay writing and went through my assignment together and yet I still failed. My university are not of great help to me and the lecturer who marked my work barely gave me any feedback I guess bc I failed but when I asked others in my course who passed if I could see their essay there’s was edited throughout with points on where they could improve whereas mine had none of that, mine only had a short paragraph he wrote on the good points of my essay and he barely wrote anything to even improve on. I booked a meeting with him and I thought it was going to be long but it lasted 10 minutes because he told me he needed to go eat his lunch. I’m really dissapointed and I don’t even know what to do since I can’t risk failing. I’ve asked him if I can book another meeting so far and I’ve also sent him parts of my edited essay which he says he will get back on Monday. Nowhere online even helps all I keep saying is use PEEL structure, which I do, I did English language and literature a levels and got A*AB and I know that a levels has nothing to do with university but I’m just saying that as a point of that I know what those structures are. I’m soo clueless about writing essays and I’m in my second year now I feel like everyone gives the same basic advice and no one is willing to sit there and dissect and go through the basics of essay writing. I get it’s a skill and somehow I’m not able to acquire it, it seems like people are born with it and I’m just here stupid and stuck and can’t figure out a essay and doomed. I’m considering booking tutoring sessions from a nurse that I saw (since I’m studying nursing) and others have said she’s helped them a lot, however it’s quite pricey and I don’t know if I should use some of these sessions on this essay because I don’t know if I need it and can pass this or I should save the tutoring sessions for my upcoming essays which will count to my final grades, the issue is I can’t afford to fail because it’s my last chance. Someone please help I’m so stressed out and stuck and I really don’t know what to do I feel like everything is crushing on top of me and no one’s going to help or save me😭😭😭
what uni are you going to? ( just 4 further context )
Reply 2
Do you mind if I ask what the essay was on by any chance? Also, it might be possible if you ask your lecturers if they have any example essays you could use to identify a template and see how said template was used?
I have an essay which I wrote a couple of years ago (it was on Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) I did for my Masters (23-24 academic year) in Biomedical Science (Clinical Biochemistry specialism) which I can share the breakdown for if you’d like which I broke down below (I achieved 70% in it).
Introduction
Pathophysiology
Diagnosis
Monitoring
Conclusion
Overall, the word count limit for this was approximately 2k words (I think in the end overall word count was literally 1999 or something). Always aim to get within 10% of your word count limit but NEVER go over as that will dock you marks (I remember when doing my Masters, on one piece I went over by like 30 words as I condensed it down by as much as possible but to have it still make sense but was still docked them…). So that’s a big one too!
I have an essay which I wrote a couple of years ago (it was on Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) I did for my Masters (23-24 academic year) in Biomedical Science (Clinical Biochemistry specialism) which I can share the breakdown for if you’d like which I broke down below (I achieved 70% in it).
Introduction
Pathophysiology
Diagnosis
Monitoring
Conclusion
Overall, the word count limit for this was approximately 2k words (I think in the end overall word count was literally 1999 or something). Always aim to get within 10% of your word count limit but NEVER go over as that will dock you marks (I remember when doing my Masters, on one piece I went over by like 30 words as I condensed it down by as much as possible but to have it still make sense but was still docked them…). So that’s a big one too!
Reply 3
Hi, no, people are not "born with it" its not pure luck, there is a process to writing good essays so dont give up.
You mentioned that you are studying nursing. I found THIS module outline from the 2nd year of the nursing course at the university of Edinburgh as an example. The secret sauce is to work backwords from the 'learning outcomes' - these are things your lecturer will be looking for for any essay. You need to demonstrate these learning outcomes in your essay to get a top mark.
Have no fear, AI is here. Dont use AI to write your essay for you (you will fail) but use AI as your invisible tutor. My uni buys the license for all students to access Co-pilot (and use it responsibly) - hoping your uni is as open-minded. Use the recognised AI for your uni. When you get the assessment, plug it into the AI software together with the core textbook(s) titles and ask AI to suggest a structure for your essay. Be as granular as you can. Thus if you were recommended to read chapters 2, 5 and 7 from the core textbook, input this into your AI and ask them for a suggested outline using material from these specific chapters.
Once you have the suggested essay structure, write your essay and follow the structure. Then check that your essay meets all the learning outcomes. Thus using the Edinburgh uni module, where in your essay have you "Demonstrated knowledge of the connection between social, historical and policy context and the experience of people with a diagnosed mental health problem"? Can you point to the section in your essay where you "Demonstrated an understanding of the nature of therapeutic relationships, interpersonal and communication skills" etc etc. You will get a good grade if you follow this formula. All the lecturer of any module is seeking when setting the assessment is proof that you have learned the critical concepts and ideas for that module.
Hope this helps
You mentioned that you are studying nursing. I found THIS module outline from the 2nd year of the nursing course at the university of Edinburgh as an example. The secret sauce is to work backwords from the 'learning outcomes' - these are things your lecturer will be looking for for any essay. You need to demonstrate these learning outcomes in your essay to get a top mark.
Have no fear, AI is here. Dont use AI to write your essay for you (you will fail) but use AI as your invisible tutor. My uni buys the license for all students to access Co-pilot (and use it responsibly) - hoping your uni is as open-minded. Use the recognised AI for your uni. When you get the assessment, plug it into the AI software together with the core textbook(s) titles and ask AI to suggest a structure for your essay. Be as granular as you can. Thus if you were recommended to read chapters 2, 5 and 7 from the core textbook, input this into your AI and ask them for a suggested outline using material from these specific chapters.
Once you have the suggested essay structure, write your essay and follow the structure. Then check that your essay meets all the learning outcomes. Thus using the Edinburgh uni module, where in your essay have you "Demonstrated knowledge of the connection between social, historical and policy context and the experience of people with a diagnosed mental health problem"? Can you point to the section in your essay where you "Demonstrated an understanding of the nature of therapeutic relationships, interpersonal and communication skills" etc etc. You will get a good grade if you follow this formula. All the lecturer of any module is seeking when setting the assessment is proof that you have learned the critical concepts and ideas for that module.
Hope this helps
(edited 1 month ago)
Reply 4
Original post
by fareeda234I failed my essay in my first year which I got 35% on our last essay and I am really devastated about. I was quite surprised since I used our universities 1:1 resources where I spoke with a academic help who went through my essay with me and she said she was sure I would get great, for context I had 3 meetings with her over the span of 2-3 weeks where we talked about essay writing and went through my assignment together and yet I still failed. My university are not of great help to me and the lecturer who marked my work barely gave me any feedback I guess bc I failed but when I asked others in my course who passed if I could see their essay there’s was edited throughout with points on where they could improve whereas mine had none of that, mine only had a short paragraph he wrote on the good points of my essay and he barely wrote anything to even improve on. I booked a meeting with him and I thought it was going to be long but it lasted 10 minutes because he told me he needed to go eat his lunch. I’m really dissapointed and I don’t even know what to do since I can’t risk failing. I’ve asked him if I can book another meeting so far and I’ve also sent him parts of my edited essay which he says he will get back on Monday. Nowhere online even helps all I keep saying is use PEEL structure, which I do, I did English language and literature a levels and got A*AB and I know that a levels has nothing to do with university but I’m just saying that as a point of that I know what those structures are. I’m soo clueless about writing essays and I’m in my second year now I feel like everyone gives the same basic advice and no one is willing to sit there and dissect and go through the basics of essay writing. I get it’s a skill and somehow I’m not able to acquire it, it seems like people are born with it and I’m just here stupid and stuck and can’t figure out a essay and doomed. I’m considering booking tutoring sessions from a nurse that I saw (since I’m studying nursing) and others have said she’s helped them a lot, however it’s quite pricey and I don’t know if I should use some of these sessions on this essay because I don’t know if I need it and can pass this or I should save the tutoring sessions for my upcoming essays which will count to my final grades, the issue is I can’t afford to fail because it’s my last chance. Someone please help I’m so stressed out and stuck and I really don’t know what to do I feel like everything is crushing on top of me and no one’s going to help or save me😭😭😭
Hi
Please don’t feel anxious, you can definitely pass the essay if you use the right resources. If you’re doing nursing, I recommend that you link your essay points to the NMC code and also background search your topic on Journal of Clinical Nursing and British Journal of Nursing. Universities also love the use of contemporary evidence in your essays so I recommend that you use research papers within the past 10 years and include more than 15 references (could be more depending on the word count).
Wish you the best😊
-Sarah (Kingston Rep)
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