Appeals

Noodledoodle

Hi my daughter has failed term 2 of 1st Architecture ...GPA term 1 of 2.48 & term 2 of 1.68. Very unhappy as she had thought design stuff was going well from the regular reviews but failed by 4 or 5% ...none of lecturers told her she was heading for fail or anything...surely they shud give an idea of progress?!! Also failed en exam she thought she'd done ok in ...knew she had failed another exam as she just freaked in exam & couldnt think of anything blanked big time!!...bummer cos she knew it!!

Anyway am wondering about appealing as her Dad has been quite ill since Feb ...caused us a lot of stress & worry for a while ...he is recovering nowT.G.

Don't know how she'll feel about the idea ...though I did hear her talk about appealing the marks .. just not sure she'll like idea of bringing her Dad's sickness into it.

Does anyone know the chances of an appeal working either way ...would it be advised? or does she have to accept that she'll have to repeat ..I know she did work and deserved to do ok ....not brilliantly but ok.

Stepherunie

IT would be an idea for her to go and speak to her student advisor.

Extenuating circumstances forms take into account a parent being sick and the stress it causes - but generally you need to have them in before exams. However a student advisor would be best placed to talk to her about that and her options.

Her year head may also be able to offer some guidance.


Colleen Blaney is the Architecture Student Advisor, her contact details can be found here: http://www.ucd.ie/advisers/advisers_blaney.html

White-Teeth

There is an appeals officer, Paddy O'Flynn. Basically, you can appeal on the grounds that "there were circumstances of which the exam board was not aware when it took its decision":

http://www.ucd.ie/appeals/

However, the appeals board can't advise you on your particular situation, so get your daughter to talk to her student adviser first. That's very important. For architecture it's: http://www.ucd.ie/advisers/advisers_blaney.html

The fee is 60 euro per subject appealed, but you get it back if you're successful. I would strongly suggest that your daughter includes a letter with her appeals form, just to state her case. Also include med certs, things like that.

Noodledoodle

Think that some of it is made up of different parts of the design stuff plus 2 exams and an elective ... she got 2 Fs 2 Es 1 C 1D ... 35 credits ... got full credits 60 for 1st term.
She is devastated ... unfortunately she is in the US at the moment so all our discussions have been by phone I haven't mentioned going the extenuating circumstances route yet althought I see from previous reply that she might have needed to mention it before results ... but I know she has talked about appealing the marks .... don't know whether that would be a good idea or not and saw on UCD site that to do that she needs to get in touch with the dept ASAP ....have sent that information to her. Think I might try to talk to the advisor you have both mentioned ... thanks.
Does anyone know if Stage X applies to Arch students or if she repeats could she repeat exams in terms 1 then repeat the design stuff in term 2 ... from what I understand she is only a couple of marks off the pass for her design work.

Thanks for any help.

pirelli

Architecture students failing is not an unknown phenomena. I have seen Architecture students fail in great numbers. I dont understand why its always Architecture, there must be something unexpected. It isn't just UCD , it's also in other colleges. Usually second year has a dozens of fails. The grades you have listed dont look that great but these are pit falls and are part of that course which always spells disaster for students, in particular second years, and she will probably kill you for posting them.

If as you say there is a difference of only 4 % and the student is serious about doing the course then I would get in touch with the student and get the forms filled out immediately as such a small difference is attainable.

I would encourage her to repeat and improve the grades. She will regret this in the long run. You could post her books over to her in America.

Failing in Architecture seems to be quite common and she should try find out why she failed, as many other students do also. It's just a hard course that requires soem sunday school. It's that same in most other colleges with this subject. She might well be throwing the towel for nothing.

Noodledoodle

Thanks for all your comments really appreciated!... Hope she doesn't get too mad with me ... am bit concerned to hear that there are high fail rates in 2nd year ... hope this doesn't bode badly for her when she eventually gets there ... after poor 1st year

From what I'm hearing & seeing on other threads think her only hope if it is even that would be to appeal on exten circumstances grounds if she'll consider it.... might be too late tho.

Does anyone have experience of appealing or know the chances of it working?

She is thinking of coming home to try to talk things over with the Arch dept ... probably a good idea.

Oh and does anyone know ... if she does repeat can she do so in term 1 or cos it is term 2 stuff does she repeat term 2 .... could she resit exams even in term 1?

All advice or info very welcome

stereoroid

Though I'm not doing an Architecture degree, I took the 1st year theory classes, "History & Theory of the Designed Environment" I and II in 2007-8. I found them pretty tough: not technically difficult, but with a huge amount of material that we were expected to regurgitate on demand, and the exams were 100% of the assessment.

In both cases I had to guess at which were the most likely topics that would be offered in the exam, and I think I was lucky to get B+ and C+, because there was no way I could memorize it all to the expected standard. I think these courses need some kind of continuous assessment /project aspect, because there's no skill in bulk regurgitation, just an unfair advantage to those with photographic memories. :rolleyes:

Noodledoodle

Woner if there were many Arch fails this year? Does anyone know how likely an appeal would be to work?