Missed 2 months of lectures

dwasol

My daughter started her ba course in sept/oct but after a month I found out that she was missing classes. This eventually came to a head in December when she said she was struggling with stress & it had all gotten too much for her. She said she only needed to do 12 hrs a week & never studied at home. I brought her to a dr & told her if she could find a job she could drop out but obviously with nothing out there for someone her age with no experience she agreed to refocus & return in January. Unfortunately she doesn't know how to catch up, who to speak to about resitting exams , she only did 2 of the 4 exams she was supposed to do. Can anyone point me in the direction of a year head that I could get her to call? Thank you.

deRanged

Contact the students union, they'll be in the best position to help her. details here. Start with the welfare officer.


Your daughter should have a course coordinator, and possibly a peer support mentor. This should be in the documentation she received at the start of the year, if you can find that. They would be another good person to talk to.

bucketybuck

dwasol wrote: »

My daughter started her ba course in sept/oct but after a month I found out that she was missing classes. This eventually came to a head in December when she said she was struggling with stress & it had all gotten too much for her. She said she only needed to do 12 hrs a week & never studied at home. I brought her to a dr & told her if she could find a job she could drop out but obviously with nothing out there for someone her age with no experience she agreed to refocus & return in January. Unfortunately she doesn't know how to catch up, who to speak to about resitting exams , she only did 2 of the 4 exams she was supposed to do. Can anyone point me in the direction of a year head that I could get her to call? Thank you.

Does she even have the option of going back?

dwasol

bucketybuck wrote: »

Does she even have the option of going back?

She probably does but I don't know who to talk to there

maughantourig

bucketybuck wrote: »

Does she even have the option of going back?

I'm assuming she'll be able to sit those exams in August

bucketybuck

maughantourig wrote: »

I'm assuming she'll be able to sit those exams in August

Maybe, but is there not a big difference between simply failing an exam and not bothering to do it in the first place?

When I was in first year I skipped a load of classes and didn't do one assignment, and so was kicked out at the end of the first semester. (I managed to appeal my way back in, but was officially gone first)

jungleman

bucketybuck wrote: »

Maybe, but is there not a big difference between simply failing an exam and not bothering to do it in the first place?

When I was in first year I skipped a load of classes and didn't do one assignment, and so was kicked out at the end of the first semester. (I managed to appeal my way back in, but was officially gone first)

Nah she should have the option of repeating them, it's rare for a university to kick out a student for those reasons now. I was in the exact same boat as your daughter a few years ago. The more classes I missed, the more scared I was of actually going to them. The end result was that I missed about two months of lectures myself and failed miserably.

I didn't tell anyone about it. Not my parents or friends from home, I kept it all to myself. At least you KNOW what's going on with her, and that's the key to helping her pass. She is probably scared of going back, and needs a good support network around her. She'll realise that the more lectures she attends, the easier it is to pass. So hopefully with your support and the support of the university she can get herself sorted.

Contact the students union and they will support you. It can't just be all you though, make sure she speaks to them herself. I have a feeling they will put her mind at ease and help reintegrate her to university life. hope it works out.

PLL

Considering you took jer to a doctor, explain this to the college. I'm assuming she is young, it is not as rare as you may think. There is usually a counselor in college, maybe she could talk to them about dealing with stress.

maughantourig

I suppose it depends on how much she missed. There is a big difference between skipping a couple of lectures a week and missing all of them. If the stress was causing her to feel unwell or ill, then she may have had a legitimate excuse for struggling to meet her timetable's expectations.

With a bit of explaining, she should hopefully be able to sit the two exams.Bear in mind those exams tend to be capped at 40%. Even disregarding the missed lectures, she probably won't walk away with a high grade this year. Luckily, exams in first year usually aren't counted towards her final degree score.

It might be worth impressing on her that courses that involve lower contact hours, ("She said she only needed to do 12 hrs a week"), generally require the student to reserve more time for personal study.

EDIT: PLL got there first about the doctor :pac:

tracert

Maybe contact Nóirín Deady, the First Year Experience Coordinator. She deals with problems first years have engaging with the workload, etc.

021 490 2780 or n.deady@ucc.ie

Repeats are capped at 40% but if your daughter does end up going to a councellor/doctor and the reason for missing the initial exams becomes certified then that shouldn't be the case.

norwegianwood

Talk to the Exam Records Office, I've had to go to them a good few times over the years with mental health issues and missing exams. They were always really helpful, and if you give a valid explanation as to why exams were missed and a medical cert there's usually no problem with resitting exams and waiving the 40% cap. To get the cap waived you have to fill out a mitigation form, I'd say talk to the Exam Records Office first, then hand it into them.

http://www.ucc.ie/en/media/support/recordsandexaminations/documents/MitigationApplicationFormGCR.pdf