A joint message from the examinations office/admin

Mr_Roger_Bongos

You people complaining about UCD should be ashamed of yourself!! :mad:

UCD realises that it's an exam factory, and to stop you losing your mind, they like to throw random acts of what some might call 'ineptitude' into the mix.

Think you've got enough worries cramming for your taxation finals?
UCD DOESN'T - "That's why we here in the admin fortress have come up with an additional challenge for you students we love so much. You've been stuck in traffic, been frantic looking for a parking space, rushed over 1 years worth of notes in 6.5 mins and then run into your exam.

We thought that was too straightforward - UCD IS PROUD TO PRESENT multiple 'UNNAMED' noticeboards, where you have to find your seat number! UCD wishes you all the very best in rushing around each board, looking through a subject with 500 people to find your name. PSYCH!

Beaten the traffic? Found a space? Run the gauntlet to find your seat number and done your exam?

We here at UCD like to provide a more complete after exam service. Think you've done pretty well in your finals? You did. But now we've lost your paper!

The act of getting exam papers from the rds/blackrock to your respective faculties and lecturers proved tricky. The staff got confused and instead went to Dublin Port, where your papers were loaded onto a container ship bound for Belize. Thankfully someone corrected our mistake and the ship turned around mid-atlantic.

You'll have half of your results in March. The other half....you'll probably have to re-sit in Summer. OUR BAD! Now how would you like to pay for your re-sit?

hullaballoo

Well at least I lolled.

panda100

Arent all final year exams in Blackrock?
If not they should be.I always fail exams in RDS you just cant concentrate there!

hullaballoo

No, most of them are in the RDS. Why would it make a difference where they are? If you're fooked, you're fooked. End of.

Umaro

It's funny because it's true.

Actually it's not funny.. it's depressing

mloc

hullaballoo wrote:

If you're fooked, you're fooked.

Never a truer word said. All the same, if I really was fooked, I wouldn't mind sitting the exam in a pub.

cast_iron

It's funny to see how everything seems so much worse during exam time.

panda100

hullaballoo wrote:

No, most of them are in the RDS. Why would it make a difference where they are? If you're fooked, you're fooked. End of.

Being in Blackrock makes a huge difference
Firstly,you dont have the parking problem
Secondly,you dont have the seating number problem as theres only one list up as its a small hall
Thirdly,you have a restaurant and a library to study in between exams

all in all a more unstressful and better environment to sit exams.

Stabshauptmann

the advantages to blackrock are that less people sit their exams there. It wouldnt make any sense to move more exams to blackrock to avail of these advantages

hullaballoo

panda100 wrote:

Being in Blackrock makes a huge difference
Firstly,you dont have the parking problem
Secondly,you dont have the seating number problem as theres only one list up as its a small hall
Thirdly,you have a restaurant and a library to study in between exams

all in all a more unstressful and better environment to sit exams.

Precious much?

Chakar

Well I guess it would be a lot easier to do better when you're not thinking about your seat number.

If at all.

hullaballoo

Jesus. It's a number. It's never any longer than a 4-digit string. Just think about how many numbers you already know: there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and most people know many more. You can easily remember another one just for the sake of about three minutes while you go in and sit down.

There's no panic. There are plenty of boards up with your name and number written on them. If you get there in enough time, there'll never be a rush.

I honestly couldn't justify an argument whereunder the difference between doing well in an exam or not could come down to whether or not you have to check your seat number.

Just think about that. Name: John Smith, Number: 1758. Not terribly difficult considering the most complicated part of it is remembering your name.

If you can't handle that sort of thing, honestly, you shouldn't be in third level education; you should maybe think about carpentry...wait, no, you might not be able to remember the measurements...hair dressing...wait, no, 10% discount for students and OAPs, tough one...bus driver...no, you might forget your route...taxi driver! Yes! Taxi driver! Let's all go off and become taxi drivers! Seemingly, it's better if you don't know how much you should be charging, you don't know your route, and your name isn't important - I mean, when does a taxi driver ever get asked what his name is? They would only ever conceivably be asked is...


...wait, no...their badge number.

Tough break people.

beanyb

I have to agree with Hulla here. The seat numbers arent a big deal! Yeah it might take a couple of minutes to get to the board, but it's not exactly complicated.

I think it's a pointless exercise and just adding unnecessary bureaucracy, but that's for the people that sort out the seat numbers. It adds little or no stress to the students.

Apart from when some d*ckheads decide it's a good idea to rip down the sheets, obviously. But it's not the systems fault that people like that exist!

I do however slightly resent the fact that are exams are right beside the ice-skating. You can actually hear the people having fun while you're dreading going into an exam. Talk about rubbing it in!

seraphimvc

i just...never get the point...

1)our school is big enough...BUT...we went to BlackRock to have our midterm test,and tats at night...
time lose,money lose(extra dinner at school cause' u cant go home to have a 'free' one,bus fee,and maybe a nice supper after the exam,Mcdonalds...)

2)go to RDS for end semester test...IMAO....this time it is worse...no even a proper place for us to do some study before the test...sit in the hall..ppl chatting...noisy...

i never in perfect condition when i enter those exam in the above 2 situations...

it is tiring...exhausting(u spend time to get to those place,and if it is at night,IMAO,a long day in school already consume all your energy)...distracting(you cant do any proper revision in the hall before the exam)...

p/s:for the seat number problem...IMAO...just get a pen and write the number on your hand!!you never need to remember them!and,why dont they let you know your seat number through email before the exam (on the day)?tat may makes things easier...

panda100

hullaballoo wrote:

If you can't handle that sort of thing, honestly, you shouldn't be in third level education; you should maybe think about carpentry...wait, no, you might not be able to remember the measurements...hair dressing...wait, no, 10% discount for students and OAPs, tough one...bus driver...no, you might forget your route...taxi driver! Yes! Taxi driver! Let's all go off and become taxi drivers! Seemingly, it's better if you don't know how much you should be charging, you don't know your route, and your name isn't important - I mean, when does a taxi driver ever get asked what his name is? They would only ever conceivably be asked is...


...wait, no...their badge number.

Tough break people.

Precious much?

hullaballoo

panda100 wrote:

Precious much?

I couldn't have said it better myself!

Gordon

Take a hires photograph of the layout noticeboard and use OCR technology to convert the names/numbers into text and then find digitally.

Sheesh, you students should get out into the real world, that's where you learn all the important stuff..

/ahem

TheVan

Panda100 wrote:

Being in Blackrock makes a huge difference
Firstly,you dont have the parking problem
Secondly,you dont have the seating number problem as theres only one list up as its a small hall
Thirdly,you have a restaurant and a library to study in between exams

all in all a more unstressful and better environment to sit exams.

Jebus do you want a pillow and a personal pants hot water bottle as well?

cast_iron

TheVan wrote:

Jebus do you want a pillow and a personal pants hot water bottle as well?

Throw in nappy changing facilities and a playpen, then you might just satisfy some of those around here.

hullaballoo

Gordo wrote:

Sheesh, you students should get out into the real world, that's where you learn all the important stuff..

We're still banging etchings into wax with rocks and stylii, Gordo.

breadmonkey

This forum is full of whingers.

Sangre

breadmonkey wrote:

This forum is full of whingers.

The ironing is delicious.

breadmonkey

?

Stabshauptmann

This is a true story of one poor students encounter with the admin building. All I want to know is how much repeating an exam will cost me.

So I ask my programme officer who can tell me everything about repeating bar costs which is an admin issue. Fair enough.

I emailed my programme officer who sent me to www.ucd.ie/fees
I used the email address on that page: studentdesk@ucd.ie
The student desk forwarded my query to my programme officer.

The programme officer told me to specifically email fees@ucd.ie
I did this only to get a reply directing me once again to my programme officer.

The fees desk dont know what fees Ive to pay to repeat. Pretty ****ing stupid if you ask me.

The complication about my question is that Im a final year and since theres no autumn repeats Im just wondering if Ive to repeat a May exam in December 07 have I to pay registration fees. If there were autumn repeats I wouldnt and since im not attending any lectures I dont think it would be particularly fair. Mind you, tis all totally hypothetical still

panda100

TheVan wrote:

Jebus do you want a pillow and a personal pants hot water bottle as well?

Oh yes plese!I never knew pants hot water bottle existed before!

Ah no personally I dont mind wether I sit my exams in blackrock,rds or the moon but Im just glad medicine exams are generally in Blackrock!

rainbow kirby

I want a pants hot water bottle. Sounds cosy

humbert

The din in the RDA yesterday was very irritating. constant corrections to papers, does someone not have a cursory glance over these things before printing out several hundred and handing them out. Took me a while to concentrate and ye can bitch and whine like the big manly men I'm sure ye are about how we should just get down to the exam at hand but if you're trying to answer questions on quantum mechanics that determine your degree it's not a whole lot to ask for a bit of peace and quite.

Stepherunie

Got driven mad today by the girl next to me - first she was constantly giving out to the invigilators which was annoying enough then she decided to start writing and shake her hand, which had about 30 metal bangles on it, repeatedly throughout the full hour I was there. Thank god I'd thought of my earplugs. Pity the girl behind me who hadn't.

Why don't people ever think of others.

funky penguin

I had a squeekeh table.

Good times.

Stepherunie

Giggidy giggidy......

Why don't they think of the children???

Actually speaking of children some lecturer brought her kid into the exam on friday.

cast_iron

humbert wrote:

does someone not have a cursory glance over these things before printing out several hundred and handing them out.

Even proofreading may not prevent printing errors. The actual printing process itself can jumble up some letters/figures which leads to errors on the page.

humbert

cast_iron wrote:

Even proofreading may not prevent printing errors. The actual printing process itself can jumble up some letters/figures which leads to errors on the page.

Fair point, there was a symbol mixed up on our paper that could well have been caused at the time of printing. The lecturer pointed it out, no problem. But one of the announcements was that on one of the MCQs that was going on there was no correct answer to one of the questions an that they should mark one of the wrong ones correct and they would get the marks.

cast_iron

I've seen that kind of error before myself. A dimension was left out on a diagram and the lecturer that set the paper was uncontactable till 15 mins before the end of the exam. Another time, the lecturer wasn't contactable at all.

Breezer

It's UCD admin, what do you expect? These are the same people that brought us multiple timetables that contradict each other and compulsory core electives that you can't register for because they're full.

Not to mention a box saying "Student Number" where you in fact mark your seat number but only when it's a Christmas exam, for midterms it's your student number. This is, of course, all clearly explained on the green sheet which they don't circulate to half the people in the hall.

Then there's the MCQ sheets with a box for "unanswered" - no, of course it's not sufficient to simply not answer, you stupid student!

And of course there's the opposite to the OP's situation - one noticeboard serving the entire RDS main hall, resulting in a ruck forming around said noticeboard culminating in it falling over and the exam being delayed by 20 minutes.

I just think it's funny

breadmonkey

Breezer wrote:

It's UCD admin, what do you expect? These are the same people that brought us multiple timetables that contradict each other and compulsory core electives that you can't register for because they're full.

They aren't full if you don't wait around.

Not to mention a box saying "Student Number" where you in fact mark your seat number but only when it's a Christmas exam, for midterms it's your student number. This is, of course, all clearly explained on the green sheet which they don't circulate to half the people in the hall.

It says seat/examination number.

Then there's the MCQ sheets with a box for "unanswered" - no, of course it's not sufficient to simply not answer, you stupid student!

I would imagine that the MCQs are autocorrected by feeding them into a machine. The 'unanswered' box is there so it can read the question as such.

And of course there's the opposite to the OP's situation - one noticeboard serving the entire RDS main hall, resulting in a ruck forming around said noticeboard culminating in it falling over and the exam being delayed by 20 minutes.

The fact that there was one notice board was the colleges fault. The resulting 'ruck' was the students' fault.

HappyCrackHead

Wow, Breadmonkey

You should apply to the exams office with all your solutions to problems.

And i hear the NSDAP has openings too...

They're all yellow pack in both cases though

TheVan

No, Breadmonkey actually makes extremely good points and is right on every point except one....

Breadmonkey wrote:

And of course there's the opposite to the OP's situation - one noticeboard serving the entire RDS main hall, resulting in a ruck forming around said noticeboard culminating in it falling over and the exam being delayed by 20 minutes.

The fact that there was one notice board was the colleges fault. The resulting 'ruck' was the students' fault.

There are actually about 3 noticeboards serving the entire RDS main hall and to be honest, get there a little early and there'll be no problems.

I'm not saying the college is doing everything right but go find some real problems children.

Stabshauptmann

go find some real problems children.

Ive spots on meh willey!!!1!![0/n]

TheVan

a) that is certainly a real problem

b) god love ya! :eek:

The_Minister

Kaptain Redeye wrote:

Ive spots on meh willey!!!1!![0/n]

Pick at them. If they ooze green pus then you win a prize!

breadmonkey

TheVan wrote:

No, Breadmonkey actually makes extremely good points and is right on every point except one....



There are actually about 3 noticeboards serving the entire RDS main hall and to be honest, get there a little early and there'll be no problems.

I'm not saying the college is doing everything right but go find some real problems children.

I think what happened was that there was only one notice board on the very first day of exams.

cast_iron

TheVan wrote:

I'm not saying the college is doing everything right but go find some real problems children.

Couldn't agree more. Grow up ye whinging kids.

If people were to read this from the outside, I'm not sure if they'd laugh or cry.

Breezer

breadmonkey wrote:

They aren't full if you don't wait around.

It's not a question of waiting around, you're automatically signed up for the core modules but a lot of my class received emails a few days later saying they were full, please register for something else. These are the modules they have to sit or they fail their course. Admittedly I said "core electives" the first time which is a contradiction in terms and probably caused some confusion. Even still, with regards the elective modules they abandoned the "first come, first served" principle this year in favour of a random lottery which is just plain stupid.

breadmonkey wrote:

It says seat/examination number.

No, you're thinking of the written answer booklet. The MCQ sheet (at least the true/false one we're given) says 'Student Number' but you're expected to put your seat number.

breadmonkey wrote:

I would imagine that the MCQs are autocorrected by feeding them into a machine. The 'unanswered' box is there so it can read the question as such.

Surely it could also read a blank and award no mark? The ones they had last year on the 'select the right option A-E' type sheets managed fine. Not that it's really UCD's fault I guess, nor that big a deal, I was just having a laugh at the pointlessness of it.

breadmonkey wrote:

The fact that there was one notice board was the colleges fault. The resulting 'ruck' was the students' fault.

Perhaps, although logic would dictate that when a large crowd is envisaged you take every precaution to prevent stuff like that happening. That's why they have crowd control systems in place at football matches and the like.

Anyway, it's Christmas so it doesn't matter anymore!

breadmonkey

Yeah sorry I was thinking of the booklet thingys.