Hedgecutter Posted December 16, 2023 Share Posted December 16, 2023 Funny, as lecturers seem to have a raging hard-on for cutting down on words whenever it comes to papers. In my experience anyway. "I could have written that a third shorter" Good for you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suspect Device Posted December 16, 2023 Share Posted December 16, 2023 1 hour ago, johnnydun said: I have emailed my Tutor apologising for my poor standard of work. I left it too late in the day to start my TMA, I gave myself 3 nights for the essay. It's my own fault. I will not be submitting garbage like that again. Im guessing you're early on in your course. Word count is not as important as content. Ok you'll get penalised a bit but from what I've been told, it's not worth stressing over. You'll get a pass no problem. 40% is a pass and marks don't matter in the first 2 years. Just learn from it and don't make the same mistake again. Good luck. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnydun Posted December 16, 2023 Share Posted December 16, 2023 4 minutes ago, Suspect Device said: Im guessing you're early on in your course. Word count is not as important as content. Ok you'll get penalised a bit but from what I've been told, it's not worth stressing over. You'll get a pass no problem. 40% is a pass and marks don't matter in the first 2 years. Just learn from it and don't make the same mistake again. Good luck. Yeah, it's my first TMA in my 3rd year of OU. I usually get about 60-70, with the odd exception each way. I just know that it's the worst I've produced so far. Thank you. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Central Belt Caley Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 I had varying experiences in my time at uni with marking. I had one lecturer who was the strictest marker in the department, me and a pal got the highest marks on her course and got 63 and 61 respectively. Another one of my lecturers I reckon I could’ve submitted a steaming pile of dug shite and she’d have managed to grade it at least a C. She was that generous 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanius Mullarkey Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 1 hour ago, Hedgecutter said: Funny, as lecturers seem to have a raging hard-on for cutting down on words whenever it comes to papers. In my experience anyway. "I could have written that a third shorter" Good for you. Thats why there’s a word count. To cut back on the bullshit. It’s not a minimum. If anything, Johnny has probably hit the right word count. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DA Baracus Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 11 hours ago, johnnydun said: Bump. Think I have made a c**t of my first TMA of the year. The essay was meant to be 1500 words, I knew it was 1500 words when I started. When I finished, for some reason I thought it was 1200 words. My essay is 1150. Tit. I think I have also made an arse of the content of the essay, even though I fully understand and enjoy the course! Dick. What do the guidelines state in terms of over/under the word count? Also, what do they say in terms of marking in relation to the submission? Finally, is there a mitigating circumstances process for submissions? If so I may be able to help (I do admin for such things in my job, which includes sitting on the meetings, and I've done this for many years). If you need to then give me a shout (PM) and I'd be happy to give any advice on stuff. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Florentine_Pogen Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 34 minutes ago, DA Baracus said: What do the guidelines state in terms of over/under the word count? Also, what do they say in terms of marking in relation to the submission? Finally, is there a mitigating circumstances process for submissions? If so I may be able to help (I do admin for such things in my job, which includes sitting on the meetings, and I've done this for many years). If you need to then give me a shout (PM) and I'd be happy to give any advice on stuff. You need to help @scottsdad as the admin at his gaff are worse than useless. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DA Baracus Posted December 17, 2023 Share Posted December 17, 2023 2 minutes ago, Florentine_Pogen said: You need to help @scottsdad as the admin at his gaff are worse than useless. Haha I don't think we work at the same university, let alone the same school or department! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 Changing my assessment for next year. Exams are torture to write and stressful for the students. So moving to coursework. Exactly what that will be, I haven't decided yet. Not essays - sick to death of them. Might try something new - a poster, a video, something like that. Scott did a poster in his course and seemed to enjoy it. In have time to decide as I don't start teaching until September. Anyway, back to my exam papers. 189 of them to be marked by January 15th... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Florentine_Pogen Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 2 minutes ago, scottsdad said: Changing my assessment for next year. Exams are torture to write and stressful for the students. So moving to coursework. Exactly what that will be, I haven't decided yet. Not essays - sick to death of them. Might try something new - a poster, a video, something like that. Scott did a poster in his course and seemed to enjoy it. In have time to decide as I don't start teaching until September. Anyway, back to my exam papers. 189 of them to be marked by January 15th... You're missing a trick here by not asking for input from the Pn'B massive. You might just end up with one of the wildest courses imagineable. -1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 9 minutes ago, Florentine_Pogen said: You're missing a trick here by not asking for input from the Pn'B massive. You might just end up with one of the wildest courses imagineable. Happy to hear from current/past students and academics on here what worked and what didn't! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathematics Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 9 minutes ago, scottsdad said: Happy to hear from current/past students and academics on here what worked and what didn't! Exams work. Presentations work. Everything else is just a vehicle for cheating wee fucks. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Florentine_Pogen Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 6 minutes ago, scottsdad said: Happy to hear from current/past students and academics on here what worked and what didn't! Och, c'mon..........you'll need to give us a bit more info than that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 3 minutes ago, mathematics said: Exams work. Presentations work. Everything else is just a vehicle for cheating wee fucks. Essays are where cheating wee fucks live. I'm just bored of the same old stuff. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathematics Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 Just now, scottsdad said: Essays are where cheating wee fucks live. I'm just bored of the same old stuff. As are courseworks: upload the question to a “homework helper” and get your answer*. Spoiler *which may not actually be correct 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suspect Device Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 38 minutes ago, scottsdad said: Changing my assessment for next year. Exams are torture to write and stressful for the students. So moving to coursework. Exactly what that will be, I haven't decided yet. Not essays - sick to death of them. Might try something new - a poster, a video, something like that. Scott did a poster in his course and seemed to enjoy it. In have time to decide as I don't start teaching until September. Anyway, back to my exam papers. 189 of them to be marked by January 15th... I did a video essay (and a 1,000 word reflective essay to go along with it) for my Film course and really enjoyed that. Takes some amount of time though so a lot of the students preferred a 2,000 word essay. You had the choice of either. Must have done OK because I got 73%. Happy enough with that. When I started I had delusions of getting an honours degree but I think I need to lower my expectations. Or get considerably better structuring my essays. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikingTON Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 On 16/12/2023 at 21:22, DA Baracus said: From what I recall, word counts are usually +/- 10% either side. You'll still be out, but not by much, so won't be penalised too much. Would definitely recommend emailing the tutor to tell them and ask them if you can resubmit. I imagine they'll be fine with that. On 17/12/2023 at 00:20, Melanius Mullarkay said: Thats why there’s a word count. To cut back on the bullshit. It’s not a minimum. If anything, Johnny has probably hit the right word count. Minimum word counts, generally speaking, are not set as some arbitrary benchmark that you get a set penalty for not meeting. It establishes the depth and detail of analysis/evaluation that is expected for the response. A concise writer could achieve a high standard of work while being 20% under the word count. For most people though, that's 300 words where an alternative perspective, evidence/examples, or development of an idea could have been provided to enhance the quality of the response. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 1 hour ago, scottsdad said: Happy to hear from current/past students and academics on here what worked and what didn't! Trial by combat has mixed results. Worked quite well for me twenty years ago but, as an auld duffer with a dodgy knee and stiff back, I have mysteriously revised my opinion. What does shagging the lecturer get you these days? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Central Belt Caley Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 2 hours ago, scottsdad said: Happy to hear from current/past students and academics on here what worked and what didn't! I had to make a poster on my dissertation as my last ever bit of coursework and very much enjoyed it. Dunno if that’s a common thing for every uni. Broke up the monotony after having to write essay after essay for years For the benefit of your future students, please avoid anything group related 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 7 minutes ago, Central Belt Caley said: I had to make a poster on my dissertation as my last ever bit of coursework and very much enjoyed it. Dunno if that’s a common thing for every uni. Broke up the monotony after having to write essay after essay for years For the benefit of your future students, please avoid anything group related Part of my course is based around calcuations and my feeling is that this has to be individual (not groups). Separately I'm replacing our postgraduate dissertation...with a big groupwork piece . Students may hate it but reduces the marking by four fifths. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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