Damn you Exams office, DAMN YOU!

TheVan

It is now 2 postal days before my exams start (and only 1 until they actually start officially) and

I STILL DON'T KNOW WHERE MY CLASHING EXAM IS ON AND WHAT THE ARRANGEMENTS ARE!!!!!!!

This is incompetency on an unprecedented level

Cnuts

TheVan

Oh and I just sent this to Philip "Everything's Fine" Nolan and Sinead "Its not my fault exams are a mess" Critchley after they sent another e-mail about how they're great putting on a cloakroom in the RDS:

Mark wrote:

Dear Mr. Nolan and Ms. Critchley

Thanks for the e-mail.

Unfortunately I still haven't been told where my clashing exam is on and what the arrangements are for it.

And it is on on Tuesday.

Two working days away.

And no-one else has been told either.

I'm in finals....this kind of malarkey isn't conducive to actually doing well in an exam.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Mark

Garret

a cloakroom eh? good news

I haven't been told about my clash either, although mine is nowhere near as close as yours is....

Chakar

Apparently they're now called, The Assessments and Logistics Office. They seem to have neglected the logistics part.

Fruit N Fibre

There was a letter in the independent today slating them if you got to have a look... I'm doing commerce and the cock ups for our finals timetable were monumental this year. <snip - cop on - hullaballú>

TheVan

Update:

UCD seem to be doing a frantic ring-around. I got a call telling me the details of the exam.

And yes, logistics seem to have gone out the window. I was told that we would get letters / e-mails telling us the details but now that the sh!t has hit the fan, they're just calling people.


Jobs deserve to be lost. Anyone with any sympathy for them, even if one of your parents is one of them, needs to take a long pause and think

dajaffa

T3h Indo letter linky

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=53&si=1827201&issue_id=15607


Have to say all the shenanigans are making me happy that the exams office wouldn't schedule my practicals, school had to do them themselves so at least some of my exams aren't scheduled ridiculously...

Villaricos

just to warn you Van even if they tell what exam comes first its no guarantee for on the day. At christmas I had a clash and after hounding the exam office I was told the Friday evening Id be doing my History exam first the next Monday morning.

Monday morning rolls around and Im put in a room with people with my sociology class!! So before they give me the paper I tell them I was told I had history first. Turns out they were told Id have sociology first.

Just another headache to add to the general drone!:rolleyes:

drdre

let us know how you get on and if you get a reply from the exams board

Spectator#1

That letter is brilliant. The Van, good luck, I hope it works out for you. I know so many people in similar situations.

If I could make one suggestion, if any of you end up in the situation that Villaricos just described there, especially if you're in final year, don't do the exam, ring the police and ask them to come down, seriously. This is ****ing criminal.

UCD should be sued for this.

Breezer

Any chance someone could post the contents of the letter in the Indo? You need a subscription to read it with that link. Provided this is allowed of course, I've seen it in other parts of this forum

Red Alert

URL's the same regardless of who you are, but you do need to subscribe.

Blush_01

Subscription's free too.

rainbow kirby

www.bugmenot.com ftw

beanyb

I dont think much of that letter tbh. I agree that UCD is a joke lately, but most of the things he uses as examples are crap. I love the electronic device free zone! I know it's annoying having to look for a socket for laptops, but it's just as annoying when you're trying to study hearing people tapping away on their keyboard. I need that zone! Saying there's nowhere for people to study is a blatant lie. Sure the library is packed at the moment, but it's exam time - get over it.

Expensive food - yeah it's a problem. But telling people who work in town or anywhere arent going to have any sympathy for paying €6 for a sandwich, crisps and water. It's still cheaper than most places.

The letter would have been far more powerful if he'd made more of the disgrace that exams have been this year - both timetables and results. He almost only mentions it in passing, and it's a far bigger deal and is far more likely to elicit sympathy.

Spectator#1

I see what you're saying beanyb, there's way bigger ****ups in UCD this year than the price of sandwiches or the space to study, but he does have a point all the same, and it's only a presumption that he's trying to elicit sympathy. I'd say it's more like he's venting frustration, I'd say he wrote it and sent it in without thinking that much about it from the way it's worded!

I just liked the ending, a nice rhetorical flourish! Surprised the Indo printed it to be honest, there seems to be some kind of media blackout on the ****ups this year in favour of wiping Brady's hole with the nationals.

humbert

It's not a brilliant letter but it is better than nothing. This fiasco shouldn't go by unnoticed because if it does the admin will be less inclined to make sure it never happens again. I think the post spectator wrote in the LC forum was much better but it was removed.

The food situation in UCD is utterly inexcusable, college takes highest bid and passes expense onto students.


Nice one RK btw, that's been bookmarked.

Blush_01

Or if he'd made reference to the mess that's been made of extensions to reside for medical students (and other students) by the higher powers in the residences, and the fact that the people working in the residences themselves warned them last year that these problems would arise, but they were ignored...

Spectator#1

humbert wrote:

I think the post spectator wrote in the LC forum was much better but it was removed.

That was funny actually, the guy who moved it and locked it said something along the lines of 'I'm not sure there isn't some hidden agenda behind this thread', what a moron! Hidden agenda? It was originally called "Don't Go To UCD" for ****s sake! Unless he thought I was Hugh Brady trying to use reverse psychology on all the CAO heads this year!

Thanks though, maybe I'll send it in to the Independent, think they'd give me the whole letter page?

humbert

Spectator#1 wrote:

That was funny actually, the guy who moved it and locked it said something along the lines of 'I'm not sure there isn't some hidden agenda behind this thread', what a moron! Hidden agenda? It was originally called "Don't Go To UCD" for ****s sake! Unless he thought I was Hugh Brady trying to use reverse psychology on all the CAO heads this year!

Thanks though, maybe I'll send it in to the Independent, think they'd give me the whole letter page?

I think you might have missed your window He also said he hadn't and wouldn't read through the thread. Oh well, hope he reads the indo!

Spectator#1

Oh well, hope he reads the indo!

Ah come on humbert, he was an ass, but you couldn't wish that on anyone!

princess-sprkle

sometimes i despair at the college, i really do. i feel like i have fun/ learn stuff in spite of UCD rather than because of anything they've done. I like the idea of the papers knowing how badly exams have been handled - it would have made a far bigger impact if he'd left out the more minor grumbles and stuck to the disaster of the exam dept though!

Red Alert

the letter writer should have probably stuck to one topic. either the overpriced food / corruption situation or the exams situation. would have made him seem a lot more reasonable.

i wonder will the college retaliate against him somehow?

hullaballoo

Red Alert wrote:

the letter writer should have probably stuck to one topic. either the overpriced food / corruption situation or the exams situation. would have made him seem a lot more reasonable.

i wonder will the college retaliate against him somehow?

I can't see how they might do it legitimately, but of course they can always find a way to make your life even worse.

padser

Red Alert wrote:

the letter writer should have probably stuck to one topic. either the overpriced food / corruption situation or the exams situation. would have made him seem a lot more reasonable.

Yup the exam situation is by far and away the biggest disgrace at the moment and it was only mentioned in passing.

Also the part about the lecturers lazily and reluctantly putting up 'dummy' papers made it look like they did it - and we are still complaining.

As Hull said - it wouldn't be legitimate but publically sticking your head above the parapit like that could certainly attract unwanted consequences.

Stepherunie

I long for the day that UCD cops on and faces up to it's harshest critics and deals with the problems head on rather than allowing this depressing situation to continue.

UCD is meant to be about students, right now it's about bureaucracy, petty nonsense, ineptitude, a disgraceful lack of organisation and care and consideration for anyone.

In many ways UCD reminds me of the HSE, overly loaded down with administration, not enough time dealing with people. It astounds me that one of the big reasons that Hugh Brady touted for introducing modularisation was that it would decrease the number of administration staff that were in UCD, however in my own course our administration staff numbers went from 2 to 3....

Thing is, I've heard many reports that Hugh Brady introduced modularisation because he could get a presidency in more 'prestigious' universities until he had been presided over a modularised university. However with the state of it here I think his chances are severely curtailed until he manages to get the thing actually running. Rumour it may be but could make sense.

And apologies if this is all a bit badly written, there's a party in my head and I'm not invited.

Sangre

I can't believe you used the word 'malarky' in a letter. You've clearly been middle aged since you were 15 TheVan.

Anyway best of luck everyone in the exams, hope this exams nightmare isn't too much stress for you.

themole

TheVan wrote:

It is now 2 postal days before my exams start (and only 1 until they actually start officially) and

I STILL DON'T KNOW WHERE MY CLASHING EXAM IS ON AND WHAT THE ARRANGEMENTS ARE!!!!!!!

This is incompetency on an unprecedented level

Cnuts

Just to let you know, that afaik most if not all of the clash exams are going to be on in the Quinn School of Business.

What usually happens is that if you have two exams which are meant to be on at the same time you would sit both exams in the Quinn School.

Make sure you check the latest timetable to make sure you still have a clash. If you do still have a clash submit a clash form to the exams office.

If i were you i would go into the help desk in the admin building.

drdre

have the personalised timetables been realeased yet.Like they had for christmas

TheVan

themole wrote:

Make sure you check the latest timetable to make sure you still have a clash. If you do still have a clash submit a clash form to the exams office.

Ah did that ages ago.

They rang around last night and gave the details, sent an e-mail this morning. At least I know what the story is now...

They're still jerks

griffdaddy

Stepherunie wrote:

Thing is, I've heard many reports that Hugh Brady introduced modularisation because he could get a presidency in more 'prestigious' universities until he had been presided over a modularised university. However with the state of it here I think his chances are severely curtailed until he manages to get the thing actually running. Rumour it may be but could make sense.

No, he introduced modularisation because it's the way every university in Europe is going. If you want something to blame for modularisation, blame globalisation or the EU. The whole idea is that modules taken can be compared like-for-like around different universities and it can then be established what level you are on on a bigger framework. There is also an initiative in place to have at least 30% of students participate in Erasmus exchanges over the next (i think) 5 years. (I'm not sure if it applied to you..) but didn't you notice that when applying for an Erasmus or foreign placement it's a lot easier to say 'I have x amount of ECTS spread over x amount of modules' rather than trying to say 'Well i did x course, which covered a bit of this and some of that, and y course that involved a bit this.' I kinda like the idea of a big Europe wide system to be honest, seems to be a good idea in the long run. Unfortunately some people are experiencing horrible side effects, side effects which are inexcusable in any context.

tribulus

I just sent an abusive email and got a very apologetic person explaining everything to me, times, the room to be at etc. I don't care anymore, I'm not being polite to these people.

Anyway I'm all sorted now my two clashing exams are on in the Quinn School as I imagine most clashing exams are.

dajaffa

griffdaddy wrote:

No, he introduced modularisation because it's the way every university in Europe is going. If you want something to blame for modularisation, blame globalisation or the EU. The whole idea is that modules taken can be compared like-for-like around different universities and it can then be established what level you are on on a bigger framework. There is also an initiative in place to have at least 30% of students participate in Erasmus exchanges over the next (i think) 5 years. (I'm not sure if it applied to you..) but didn't you notice that when applying for an Erasmus or foreign placement it's a lot easier to say 'I have x amount of ECTS spread over x amount of modules' rather than trying to say 'Well i did x course, which covered a bit of this and some of that, and y course that involved a bit this.' I kinda like the idea of a big Europe wide system to be honest, seems to be a good idea in the long run. Unfortunately some people are experiencing horrible side effects, side effects which are inexcusable in any context.

I don't think anyone has a problem with modularisation in principle, when it was originally brought in there were loads of promises made, like not modularising the current Arts final years, which they subsequently tried to do. The fact is it seems that for *some reason* Hugh decided one day to speed up the process and get us fully modular a lot faster than originally planned, which has caused most of the problems people are experiencing, essentially sacrificing the educations of 2/3 years of UCD students, so that 3 years or so from now it'll all be great, only the ones in college now are getting screwed.

Now on the topic of some reason, there is a school of thought that a high figure in UCD wants to return to a high achieving US college and wants to be in charge of a fully modular + high ranking UCD when a certain job prospect arises.

As for Steph's Erasmus, I'm pretty sure modularisation didn't really matter cause it was done in the style of a merry-go-round of a variety of European radiography schools so it wouldn't necessarily matter as it's a professional degree. However the great thing for professional degrees in UCD is that we still have to essentially do all the work of the old system, with an added 30 credits worth of work of electives. Hurray!!

AllStar

From Independent!!

"All part of being a Belfield student

It is now ten days until I start my third year exams in UCD. At least that's when I think they are starting because, as yet, the examination timetables have not been finalised.
This year, UCD decided to begin a process of academic restructuring which, to be frank, has proven to be a joke. Unfortunately, not many of the 20,000 or so students are laughing.
Being a student in Belfield is bad enough. We have to put up with huge classes, impersonal relationships with professors and lecturers and overpriced food on campus.
But that's part and parcel of being an undergraduate in the biggest university in the country.
The restaurants and shops seem to have been flogged off to the highest bidders who do their best to turn a profit by churning out over-priced, substandard food and products. For example, my lunch on campus, a terrible club sandwich, a packet of crisps and small bottle of water which came to the grand total of six euro and seventy cents.
In the last two days I have been moved seven times while studying.
Once in the library I was asked to move from the only area which had a electric socket because it was an electronic free zone.
So I went down to the business school, but there is no designated study area there until after six o'clock. The college simply has nowhere for students to study, which as you can imagine, is an important part of being a student. As a result of semesterisation, it is impossible to find past exam papers and lecturers seem lazily reluctant to post dummy papers which are a huge help while studying for exams.
I have to say, I really hate UCD. I regret it every day I actually bother to come in.
Many of us are disillusioned with the way the college is run and coming up to exams this is really something which we could do without.
For example, a commerce subject which was scheduled for May 30 has been brought forward two weeks giving students even less time to prepare for an exam which is worth double credits.
UCD is somewhere where slick marketing and shrewd PR have overtaken actual academic credibility and, quite frankly, I would say to any school leaver who has filled in their CAO to keep their change of mind very close at hand. The new slogan for UCD asks "How far do you want to go?" To be honest, as far from Belfield as i can get.
RONAN J GRACE,
TRALEE, CO KERRY ""

drdre

AllStar wrote:

From Independent!!

"All part of being a Belfield student

It is now ten days until I start my third year exams in UCD. At least that's when I think they are starting because, as yet, the examination timetables have not been finalised.
This year, UCD decided to begin a process of academic restructuring which, to be frank, has proven to be a joke. Unfortunately, not many of the 20,000 or so students are laughing.
Being a student in Belfield is bad enough. We have to put up with huge classes, impersonal relationships with professors and lecturers and overpriced food on campus.
But that's part and parcel of being an undergraduate in the biggest university in the country.
The restaurants and shops seem to have been flogged off to the highest bidders who do their best to turn a profit by churning out over-priced, substandard food and products. For example, my lunch on campus, a terrible club sandwich, a packet of crisps and small bottle of water which came to the grand total of six euro and seventy cents.
In the last two days I have been moved seven times while studying.
Once in the library I was asked to move from the only area which had a electric socket because it was an electronic free zone.
So I went down to the business school, but there is no designated study area there until after six o'clock. The college simply has nowhere for students to study, which as you can imagine, is an important part of being a student. As a result of semesterisation, it is impossible to find past exam papers and lecturers seem lazily reluctant to post dummy papers which are a huge help while studying for exams.
I have to say, I really hate UCD. I regret it every day I actually bother to come in.
Many of us are disillusioned with the way the college is run and coming up to exams this is really something which we could do without.
For example, a commerce subject which was scheduled for May 30 has been brought forward two weeks giving students even less time to prepare for an exam which is worth double credits.
UCD is somewhere where slick marketing and shrewd PR have overtaken actual academic credibility and, quite frankly, I would say to any school leaver who has filled in their CAO to keep their change of mind very close at hand. The new slogan for UCD asks "How far do you want to go?" To be honest, as far from Belfield as i can get.
RONAN J GRACE,
TRALEE, CO KERRY ""

Thats excellent. Now UCD should bloody cop on and stop acting the collox

Stepherunie

dajaffa wrote:

As for Steph's Erasmus, I'm pretty sure modularisation didn't really matter cause it was done in the style of a merry-go-round of a variety of European radiography schools so it wouldn't necessarily matter as it's a professional degree.

However the great thing for professional degrees in UCD is that we still have to essentially do all the work of the old system, with an added 30 credits worth of work of electives. Hurray!!

Yeah as Dajaffa said my Erasmus was different. All the radiography schools set a number of clinical hours to be completed (200) and then everyone does a different speciality. It's not so much about credits as it is about learning something and having a slightly different degree training to others.

And on Dajaffas second point, again in my course that's not necessarily true. I know speaking to lecturers they've found it advantageous in that they were finally able to bring in changes they've been trying to make for years to various courses. A lot of the time the different departments teaching various courses would refuse to make the changes that our school wanted to make.

Modularisation managed to get rid of the gross inequality radiography students experienced in terms of the amount of in course assessments they had to do for the exact same percentage of their end of year grade (try doing 30 physiology seminars to get 7.5% and where physios prepared a mere 10 to get the same 7.5%). It also resulted in the absolutely horrible 50% MCQ with negative marking being removed from Pathology. That was an exam that one person at least failed every year and it resulted in them only receiving a pass degree.

And GriffDaddy I agree that in essence modularisation is a good thing, it's caused atrocious side effects but I can still see it's positives, even if it means that I end up taking courses with people in the year below me next year. What I dislike was the implementation of it whereby UCD decided to not listen to the advice they were given and implemented the system in less than half the time they were told it would take to implement it effectively.

It seems thought and consideration are no longer priorities in administration anymore.

Garret

AllStar wrote:

Being a student in Belfield is bad enough. We have to put up with huge classes, impersonal relationships with professors and lecturers and overpriced food on campus.

depends on your course. on black friday a load of us from our class were drinking with our one of our lecturers and one of our tutors

The restaurants and shops seem to have been flogged off to the highest bidders who do their best to turn a profit by churning out over-priced, substandard food and products. For example, my lunch on campus, a terrible club sandwich, a packet of crisps and small bottle of water which came to the grand total of six euro and seventy cents.

Okay i know prices are high, but I don't know anywhere that charges that much. Certainly not the centra (who do decent roll/sandwiches) or 911 (which is okay before 5).

In the last two days I have been moved seven times while studying.
Once in the library I was asked to move from the only area which had a electric socket because it was an electronic free zone.

Well I'm sure there are signs to that effect, I know I've seen them. And there's a good reason too. People can be noisy hammering on their keyboards and the whirring of the fans can irritate some.

The library does need more laptop areas though, and does need to craic down on the number of spaces taken up by laptops and a book, but no student to be seen for hours

So I went down to the business school, but there is no designated study area there until after six o'clock.

Just go into a vacant room, there's usually at least one.

[/devil's advocate]

gubbie

Does depend on the course. I've been drinking many times with professors and demonstrators (loving the scandel I get from the demonstrators!) Sure Red_Alert was/prays everyday that he will be again, my demonstrator

On the food... its a joke. In the restaurant EVERYTHING tastes the same and its just not value for money. It costs twice as much like for milk then it does in the shops (in UCC its free!... its the little things...) and I thought it was subsidised... It also sells the most expensive sambos on campus. No actually bar the Arts Cafe. €4 for a sambo!
My problem with the food is that maybe €4 isn't a lot if all your spending is €4, but when you're around from 9-7 like poor me you have to get something then also. Thats where the expense goes. The others don't. Ah boo like

The study area is driving me mad. During the year there's loads of places in engineering to study but now every professor seems to have booked these rooms for some meetings of some sort. I've taken to using vacent rooms but during the winter there's no heating in them so they're pretty cold

dajaffa

Stepherunie wrote:

And on Dajaffas second point, again in my course that's not necessarily true. I know speaking to lecturers they've found it advantageous in that they were finally able to bring in changes they've been trying to make for years to various courses. A lot of the time the different departments teaching various courses would refuse to make the changes that our school wanted to make.

Eh partly true, the main point is that it simply wasn't possible to reduce the core workload by a sixth. Often a similar workload is merely crammed into less time, + overall horizons just results in a sixth more work. So far I've done 20 credits of work on top of my core physio, same with all of my class, + its just a case of extra workload, and the year behind us seem to have it even worse as we were kinda the experimental year so the marking was more lenient than it is now.

Spectator#1

Does anyone know if UCD could be taken to a civil court over duty of care negligence? That would be ****ing amazing, it would **** their whole 'Horizons'/Rebranding thing right up the swanny in terms of PR and new image. The SU don't have the balls to do it either. I bet they'd listen if you got the law involved, I want to see that idiot go down with the college, I want him selling charity bank giro's on Talbot St. for the rest of his life!

aequinoctium

yes, damn them; i still have 3 in one day!

Stepherunie

dajaffa wrote:

Eh partly true, the main point is that it simply wasn't possible to reduce the core workload by a sixth. Often a similar workload is merely crammed into less time, + overall horizons just results in a sixth more work. So far I've done 20 credits of work on top of my core physio, same with all of my class, + its just a case of extra workload, and the year behind us seem to have it even worse as we were kinda the experimental year so the marking was more lenient than it is now.

Yeah see what you mean, kinda different with us though because *I think* that our technology has a bit of mad throughput, we've digitised in a space of like 10 years so a lot of the stuff that I would have learnt (now feeling particularly old) is now completely out of date and not taught anymore. Though I do feel bad for them in that they no longer get to learn how to print photos. Best part of second year I tells ya!

Chakar

I saw an advertisement in the paper for senior positions available in UCD. Incredibly enough, there is a position available as Deputy Director of Assessment!

rain on

Chakar wrote:

I saw an advertisement in the paper for senior positions available in UCD. Incredibly enough, there is a position available as Deputy Director of Assessment!

i.e. Person Responsible For Cleaning Up All The Mess Made By Poor Decisions On The Part Of Upper Administration.
worst job ever.

Chakar

rain on wrote:

i.e. Person Responsible For Cleaning Up All The Mess Made By Poor Decisions On The Part Of Upper Administration.
worst job ever.

It's well paid anyhow. The salary range is between 54,000 to 85,000 euros per annum.

drdre

Chakar wrote:

I saw an advertisement in the paper for senior positions available in UCD. Incredibly enough, there is a position available as Deputy Director of Assessment!

ahhah, some people have got the sack already :cool:

pretty*monster

There's an unsubstantiated rumour doing the rounds that a lot of people in logistics quit over the last two years or so because the of management/new systems being totally unworkable and the timetable sucked because the people doing it were new and inexperienced.

Stabshauptmann

gubbie wrote:

It also sells the most expensive sambos on campus. No actually bar the Arts Cafe. €4 for a sambo!

Thats not the most expensive on campus

Stabshauptmann

Spectator#1 wrote:

Does anyone know if UCD could be taken to a civil court over duty of care negligence? That would be ****ing amazing, it would **** their whole 'Horizons'/Rebranding thing right up the swanny in terms of PR and new image. The SU don't have the balls to do it either. I bet they'd listen if you got the law involved, I want to see that idiot go down with the college, I want him selling charity bank giro's on Talbot St. for the rest of his life!

What are you talking about? What duty of care have they broken?

drdre

Spectator#1 wrote:

Does anyone know if UCD could be taken to a civil court over duty of care negligence? That would be ****ing amazing, it would **** their whole 'Horizons'/Rebranding thing right up the swanny in terms of PR and new image. The SU don't have the balls to do it either. I bet they'd listen if you got the law involved, I want to see that idiot go down with the college, I want him selling charity bank giro's on Talbot St. for the rest of his life!

Stop talking crap