Archive for June, 2008

BSc Adv. Sci., year 3, semester 1

admin June 27th, 2008

So it’s officially the holidays now for this poor old uni student… Let’s have a little recap of my whole semester.

Where to start? I guess at the uttermost beginning?

Well, it has been quite a tough semester for me (tension headaches, lack of appetite, lack of sleep, exhaustion), and I know I’m not the only one because my friends have been pretty stressed out themselves (2 threw up… stress-induced).

Ok, scratch tough, it was HELL! And that doesn’t even begin to describe it! No exaggeration. Usually I love studying, it has been hard but nowhere, nowhere, nowhere near this!!

Let’s see… let’s start with changes that occurred to the uni itself this semester:

  • 14 week semester has been reduced to 12 weeks
    Implication: same amount of work in less amount of time, which is crazy mad for us… we have at least something major due or a quiz/exam/test each week! The average for me was 3 assessments a week…
    I had to miss out on a Porcupine Tree concert to study for the mid-semester exams (I had 3 that following week)… and anyone that know me well will know how important this was for me, how little I go out regardless, and how badly I broke down because I couldn’t make it! Their first tour in Australia, and they’ve been around for 20 years! But I’ve been convinced they’ll be back, someday soon.
  • Cutback on our STUVAC (study vacation)
    Was initially about a week, now checking my student diary consisted of a Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday - barely enough time to go through 4 full third year subjects!
  • Winter sessions taken away
    Implications: overloading (below).
  • BSc (Adv) and BMedSci WAM (weighted average mark) increased from 65 to 70
    A few of my friends from Bsc (Adv) and BMedSci who has a WAM below 70 received warning emails, informing them if they don’t increase their average, they will get dropped down to BSc… Ever since knowing the possibility of dropping down to BSc, I had been feeling the pressure more than ever!
    A BMedSci friend later told me that they have been told that changes have only been applied to newcomers, which relieved me for a bit before she told me that it mightn’t be the same for BSc (Adv)!! (Thanks so much.. ><)
  • Examination changes
    Here’s an excerpt of the email we received. But to sum up, we are having:

    • Shorter exam period
    • 3 exams per day schedule
    • Exams on Saturday
  • Mid-semester break between week 2 and 3
    After 3 months of break, having a uni break after the 2nd week of uni is rather… y’know. So after that is a period continuous studying for 10 weeks.
    BUT, this didn’t concern me as I had to attend lab 9 to 5 daily for bacteria and disease laboratory work (which I really enjoyed, don’t get me wrong! In fact, I thought it was the best part of the course!)

So that was already giving me a hard time. Ranting on, these were the things I found personally stressful for me:

  • Overloading
    As if four full subjects wasn’t enough on my plate, I (stupidly) decided to overload, another half subject (3UOC general education) instead of trying to do it in the summer session in case it spots get filled up since winter session has been taken away
  • My final exam timetable (5 exams in 7 days)
    • 13/06 MICR3041 (Immunology)
    • 16/06 BIOC3111 (Molecular biology of proteins)
    • 18/06 BIOC3261 (Molecular biology of nucleic acids: theory)
    • 18/06 MICR3081 (Bacteria and Disease)
    • 19/06 BIOC3261 (Molecular biology of nucleic acids: practical)
  • Changes towards the end of the final exams
    Full story here - but basically, I was a victim of 2 exam rescheduling:

    • 18/06 MICR3081 moved to 19/06
    • 19/06 BIOC3261 moved to 21/06

So there you have it, a summary of what I had gone through in the past 13-14 weeks. Don’t be discouraged from third year science after reading this because rest assured, people do survive from things like this… (just barely in my case)…

Hope all students enjoy their hard earned, much needed holidays!

Changes in Exam Room Venues & Rescheduled Exam Timetable

admin June 19th, 2008

Sigh…

It just keeps getting better…

—

Dear students,

As many of you would be aware we have had two major incidents during this exam session which have caused considerable disruption for many of our students.

The first was a deliberately lit fire in the early hours of Wednesday 18 June 2008 which damaged the Kingsford Room in the Squarehouse Building. Due to limited time and the early hour of the fire, we were unable to consult examiners about alternative exam locations and hence cancelled a number of exams schedule for the Kingsford Room.

Notice of the cancelled exams was posted at the Squarehouse all students. Schools and Faculties were also advised by email and phone. Yesterday an email was sent to students scheduled to sit exams in the Kingsford Room from 19 June onwards for the duration of the exam period, advising of the new venue details.

The second incident involved the Pavilion at Randwick Racecourse (AJC), with acoustic roofing panels falling from the ceiling just prior to the commencement of exams.  Exam papers had not been distributed and by the time the AJC set up an alternative venue at Randwick, it was too late to restart the exams as they would not have finished before the afternoon exams were scheduled to start. As the incident happened during normal working hours we were able to contact examiners.

We are currently working on alternate dates and times for the cancelled exams and students will be advised as soon as these times have been set.  All consideration is being given to minimise the impact on students.

—

My final exam timetable, which I happily tell people about when trying to help them feel less pressured/stressed, are as follows:

  • 13/06 MICR3041 (Immunology)
  • 16/06 BIOC3111 (Molecular biology of proteins)
  • 18/06 BIOC3261 (Molecular biology of nucleic acids: theory paper)
  • 18/06 MICR3081 (Bacteria and Disease)
  • 19/06 BIOC3261 (Molecular biology of nucleic acids: practical paper)

And the 2 incidences described in the email…?

18/06 (Bacteria and Disease) just so happened to be in the Kingston Room, hence, was moved to the following day on the 19/06 after my scheduled exam.

Disruption?

After a distressing journey getting to the venue (that involves buses arriving at different stands at an unregulated fashion + many stressed out students trying to get to the racecourse) for my 8:45am exam today (19/06) and reaching the Pavillion with hardly any time to spare, we got organised, seated and everything.

I was looking forwards to this exam, ready to get it over and done with… When suddenly a roof panel collapsed from the roof. Some starting freaking out, others started laughing, and the remainder just sat quietly, waiting for the papers to be handed out.

And tumbles down another roof panel, directly onto a student’s table (Thank God she was okay), and the supervisors & co. decided to evacuate us out of the room. We waited until further notice, which was we later found out was to be rescheduled.

I was supposed to finish today… but it has been eventful I guess… 2 cancellations in 2 consecutive days, when the chances of them happening are slim to none.

Deliberately lighting up fire?

Someone was certainly angry… No further comment on that one…

Roof panels collapsing?

Shouldn’t've happened, end of story.
How? Don’t ask.
Why? No idea.
Who? No one is to blame for that. Just pure bad luck on my behalf, methinks, which has certainly been for me, even just randomly.

On top of all that,  I did really, realy, really badly in bacteria and disease (rescheduled from yesterday) due to lack of study time…

But whatever happen happens, right?

Right?

Anyone?

Sad sigh.