extenuating circumstances??

bedrock#1

Hi,

kind of feel unsure about posting this here but i've suffered from depression/anxiety for almost 15 years and have not been doing very well the last 3/4 months due to things from the past coming back and entering counseling a few weeks ago which is just making me feel worse.

i've been to f*ck all of my tutorials and all my essays have been late. As for the course work? I'm likely to fail any exam i attempt. This is obviously not helping anything.

What exactly is the story with extenuating circumstances in UCD? There's no information other that the usual vague description of circumstances like serious personal and emotional issues. how serious is serious?? can you sit the exams when the resits are being done?


Anything anybody knows would be great. I have a 3.60 GPA at the moment and it's driving me insane to think 4 months could f*ck it all up....

thanks

taz70

Sorry to hear about your situation. You should make an appointment with your student advisor immediately and talk through your options with them. If you're comfortable about discussing your personal issues with your Programme Director, you could also approach them about your options, but don't if you do not want to disclose your medical history. You're not obliged to tell them the details. You should probably also get some documentation from your counsellor, as you will need this for any extenuating circumstances application. And when you put your application in, be sure to specify what kind of allowances you want made (ie taking exams later with no penalty) etc.

But the first step should be your student advisor, who will be able to help you through the process.

bedrock#1

thanks for the reply

emailed the mature student adviser and hopefully can see him tomorrow. have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow to try get an extension for the last essay which has been a struggle ... ahhh head wreck

thanks again

Tchaikovsky

How did you get on OP?

I was in a similar position (well I submitted all assignments - not completed - and did the exam) and I was under incredible stress because of this particular subject; not sleeping, no appetite etc.

I was attending the campus counsellor last semester and spoke to the Student Adviser a good few times, who suggested that I submit an extenuating circumstances form so that my situation is taken into account, which I did.

Do the Exam Board/Lecturers usually help out in these situations?
This is my final year; I have no income and no job at the moment so the thought of having to come back next year makes me even more stressed.

El Siglo

Tchaikovsky wrote: »

How did you get on OP?

I was in a similar position (well I submitted all assignments - not completed - and did the exam) and I was under incredible stress because of this particular subject; not sleeping, no appetite etc.

I was attending the campus counsellor last semester and spoke to the Student Adviser a good few times, who suggested that I submit an extenuating circumstances form so that my situation is taken into account, which I did.

Do the Exam Board/Lecturers usually help out in these situations?
This is my final year; I have no income and no job at the moment so the thought of having to come back next year makes me even more stressed.

Yeh they take into account alright and usually they'll relate what you got previously to what you did then. When I did the extenuating circumstances they were pretty grand about, got a call from a lecturer asking me how I was etc... The kind of unwritten rule is that given your circumstances they'll probably give you more or less the grade you would have gotten. A lecturer correcting can tell a lot from reading a paper. Don't stress about it now because it'll only drive you mad.:)

Tchaikovsky

Thanks for that!
To be honest, I don't even care if it's an E(C) grade at this stage- I just want to be done with college, haha.
E(C) is 35% or so, right? I struggled alot with the assignments, which were 50% and the written exam was 50%, which I didn't leave any blanks on, so I'm hoping for the best.

El Siglo

Tchaikovsky wrote: »

Thanks for that!
To be honest, I don't even care if it's an E(C) grade at this stage- I just want to be done with college, haha.
E(C) is 35% or so, right? I struggled alot with the assignments, which were 50% and the written exam was 50%, which I didn't leave any blanks on, so I'm hoping for the best.

Definitely! I remember when I got the extenuating circumstances for my 2nd year summer exams (was doing a BA) and I managed to do better in them than in the Christmas (I had a GPA of 3.9 from Christmas and managed to get 3.96 in Summer!).