Exams

I've been using the AIT library in Athlone as I am from there. It re-opened on Tuesday, went out and got a few hours of good study done but it closed at 5pm. Then yesterday it didn't open at all and today it closed for an hour and a half for lunch and then shut up shop at 4pm due to the weather. In all fairness though there is about 5 students in the place as they have not even started back yet after xmas. And I'm only posing as an AIT student so can't really complain

Still though I can totally understand why people are pissed off about the library closing in DCU, if I were up there I would be too. Yeah technically you might be able to study 'anywhere' but I think most people can get way more done in the library than most other places! Quiet study environment, tonnes of books available, great facilities etc.

Compare that with the kitchen table at home and the fcuking dog jumping up on ya and its an easy choice! Also, not everybody is lucky enough to be able to study just anywhere. Studying is a skill after all and lots of people need a very good studying environment to be able to concentrate and take in stuff. We are not all naturals!

Probably just wishful thinking but by any chance might the exams be postponed a few days or so if the weather is this bad when they start up?

I see all primary and secondary schools have been closed until next Thursday now, I presume campus won't go down a similar route no?

Although from the looks of it this new snowstorm on Sunday and Monday is going to be huge. If you think this week has been bad just wait until then!

Daysha wrote: »

I see all primary and secondary schools have been closed until next Thursday now, I presume campus won't go down a similar route no?

They sort of have been - they've been closing the university early for health and safety reasons at around 7pm over recent days. They are also running out of gritting salt so it's gonna become interesting in the days ahead.

aDeener wrote: »

yeah i hear the exams could be put back til february

This is pure rumor and speculation.
None of the third level college's have canceled any exams except in some cases for Monday 11th.

I don't expect DCU to be any different. There should not be any changes to the exam timetable. There is no reason for it.

phantom_lord wrote: »

is the library gonna be open today?

Only way to find out is to go there or just ring them, if there are people in the library already I'm sure they're hard at work and not on boards

DeadMoney wrote: »

If Dublin bus are not running during them, then I guess they would sort of have to.

But Dublin Bus has only outright stopped all services once right? And that was only for a few hours. They then stopped after 8pm once too, both of which were due to heavy snowfall on the day.

Other than that they've been running most of their routes with curtailments in place, so it's not impossible to travel on Dublin Bus.

I dont think the exams will be cancelled, far more likely is they'll accomodate people who cant travel or are delayed due to the bad weather. Possibly let them do their exam later in the day/week during another examination...but tbh people should be planning ahead for bad weather now. Travel earlier, get the bus early, arrange a lift on the day etc. If it buckets down snow and the buses are cancelled, I think they'll understand... has the su said anything on this matter yet? If not concerned students should get in touch with them.

But yeah the bottom line is that the schools will be opened by then (some are already open at the moment, disregarding the blanket closure by the government) so why would the universities close at that stage?

monument wrote: »

No, Dublin Bus was not out of service just for "a few hours" it was for most of a day.

It stopped around 1pm and then services started to resume about 5-6pm, so yes it was actually only a few hours considering it was running from the early hours of the morning and ran for the rest of the night. It was a fraction of their daily services and their only full cancellation of services thus far. Saying it was "most of a day" is a gross exaggeration.

monument wrote: »

You also have to take into account of national bus routes have been curtailed or out of service on some days to many locations.

The only location that matters in the context of people sitting exams in DCU is Dublin and from the looks of it operators such as Bus Eireann have been operating as many Dublin routes as possible. So for people returning to Dublin it's a non-issue, they have a week to get back in time to sit exams. For people who commute long distance it could be an issue, but then again I don't think that's a strong enough reason to cancel exams for thousands of other students.

monument wrote: »

Met Eireann expect better weather next weekend but won't make predictions beyond next weekend. They've already got it wrong once or twice in the last few weeks.

Well at the moment the prediction is a thaw for the end of next week so hopefully that should pan out and our exams run as smoothly as possible. The predictions also point to wintry showers all but gone by next Thursday, these showers were the conditions that most severely affected travel and public transport such as the blanket cancellation of Dublin Bus services.

But basically unless there are issues affecting facilities in DCU from operating, the only excuse is for postponing or cancelling exams is difficulty of travel which is a weak excuse all the same imo. Workers have been travelling into work all week, I've been doing so myself by bus and luas, it's tough but not impossible. People just need to plan for longer journey times.

I can see why schools are closed as that's an issue which involves a lot of dependants who cant travel alone and would end up being a traffic nightmare if people had to make school runs in this weather. (still that was a stupid government decision that would have been best left to the discretion of individual schools depending on their situation) Students on the other hand are adults and can travel like the rest of the adults in this country have been doing all week.

Of course it will all depend on the weather on the day, heavy snowfall and we'll be looking at cancellations for most bus operators... but this isnt much of an excuse for DCU to cancel or postpone exams ahead of time. It is however cause for them to offer some sort of alternate arrangement for people who get delayed.

snow's a meltin.......not a pick off it left in the area of glasnevin, dcu, santry

aDeener wrote: »

i was only going by what i overheard 2 members of staff saying outside spar

Confirmed so, no exams! Whooo whoooo!

monument wrote: »

robby^5... You accused me of "a gross exaggeration", any chance of a reply to my last post?

Does it really have any relevance to anything?