The Higher Education Megathread

Pretty damn good. Even though I only submitted my last assignment last week and I'm starting work as a research assistant today :lol:

No rest for the wicked.

I had one of those strawberry floating "going to fail and miss my deadline" dreams the other night, 3 years after getting a first class for my fmp that I planned months in advance (although I did get an extension anyway). Running around some strawberry floated up cavernous dream world representation of my mazey uni campus trying to find my tutor to beg for an extension minutes before finishing a conceptual art installation (that I didn't do) made up of random tables, chairs, a laptop and some speakers. I think even throughout the whole time I was sleeping I was thinking "better start my project, oh gooseberry fool I'll need an extension" over and over again. Horrible. It's happened a few times before as well.

School is messed up.

Corazon de Leon

That was probably triggered by talking about it in the other thread. Sorry about that. :slol:

Anyway, has anybody ever went on an academic moratorium or suspension? Or know what it is and how to sort it out? I'm meeting my supervisor on Friday to show him part of the chapter I've been writing and I'm strongly considering if there's any way I can ask him to take a year out at the start of September to recharge the academic batteries, so to speak. I've already had one though, to acquire funds to pay for tuition fees, so I doubt I'd be allowed to take another one.

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **That** » Mon May 25, 2015 8:12 pm

I can't speak for your University, but at mine you are welcome to take a year's break at any point if your studies are affecting your mental health. It sounded to me like you might have a strong case based on your post in the Depression Thread. So you may wish to approach it from that angle.

Corazon de Leon

Cheers for that Karl. I dunno if I want to go down the mental health route to be honest though. I'll have a chat with my supervisor on Friday and see what he says about the whole thing.

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **That** » Mon May 25, 2015 9:38 pm

Sure. I understand it isn't ideal to 'label' yourself. I hope you manage to get it sorted out; reading your post in t'other thread really made me feel for you!

All the best of luck, pal.

Corazon de Leon

Ah thanks man. :wub:

I have to say, at the risk of derailing the thread, that throwing myself into the writing process of the thesis has actually helped to focus me a bit over the past week or so - the first chapter I was expecting to clock in at 8,000 words just hit 9,000 and I reckon I could easily source in a few thousand more(which is a good thing) with plenty of primary sourcing, which I was surprised about. The litmus test will be whether my supervisor thinks it's good work. That'll probably be the deciding factor in what I do from here, if I'm honest.

I have just recieved some amazing news. I have just been accepted to a PhD program... that I was rejected from before :lol:

I guess either someone else pulled out or the supervisor decided they could take on another student.

Either way, I feel amazing!

:toot:

Come September I will starting a PhD in Education. It's like having a PhD in studying! But seriously I am very happy, and I think it is a field that will always be in demand, especially since my focus is to look at it from a geographic/environmental perspective rather than the traditional sociological/psychological focus.

I have to write a Qualifying Research Paper, but assuming I don't screw that up I will be in!

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **Igor** » Thu May 28, 2015 8:41 am

I've got my favourite kind of exam at 1pm.. Answer two of four possible essay questions - a not so subtle hint from the lecturer that, through careful consideration of past papers, you can get away with only knowing less than half of the subject material.

For example; over the last five years, the aetiology, symptoms and treatment for schizophrenia has come up as a question in three papers but not in the last two. So I'd put cold, hard cash on it coming up today. Same goes for migraines and Parkinson's. That right there is less than a third of the module. Compare that to Multiple Choice Questionnaires which on the surface seem quite simple, but cover the entire module.

I dunno why this is interesting.

Rightey wrote:I have just recieved some amazing news. I have just been accepted to a PhD program... that I was rejected from before

I guess either someone else pulled out or the supervisor decided they could take on another student.

Either way, I feel amazing!

Come September I will starting a PhD in Education. It's like having a PhD in studying! But seriously I am very happy, and I think it is a field that will always be in demand, especially since my focus is to look at it from a geographic/environmental perspective rather than the traditional sociological/psychological focus.

I have to write a Qualifying Research Paper, but assuming I don't screw that up I will be in!

Congratulations man!

Igor wrote:I've got my favourite kind of exam at 1pm.. Answer two of four possible essay questions - a not so subtle hint from the lecturer that, through careful consideration of past papers, you can get away with only knowing less than half of the subject material.

For example; over the last five years, the aetiology, symptoms and treatment for schizophrenia has come up as a question in three papers but not in the last two. So I'd put cold, hard cash on it coming up today. Same goes for migraines and Parkinson's. That right there is less than a third of the module. Compare that to Multiple Choice Questionnaires which on the surface seem quite simple, but cover the entire module.

I dunno why this is interesting.

Hah, I had a similar experience with my Atypical Language Development exam in January. "Answer 1 of 4 essay questions", no explicit guidance but a strong nudge from the lecturer that "there are four questions, and we've covered four topics, so..." combined with the limited scope of potential questions for dyslexia/reading comprehension disorder meant that I managed to get the grade I needed on the exam by revising what was essentially one lecture's worth of material :lol:

I got the fully funded 3 year PhD!!!! I'm going to be a Dr of physiology :mrgreen:

Corazon de Leon

Mini E wrote:I got the fully funded 3 year PhD!!!! I'm going to be a Dr of physiology

Well done, you bastard. Love, a self funded PhD student.

But seriously, well done. Hope you enjoy it. :wub:

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **That** » Mon Jun 01, 2015 5:53 pm

Congratulations Mini E!

Thank you guys!

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **Moggy** » Mon Jun 01, 2015 6:42 pm

Congrats Mini E! :wub:

I have an exam tomorrow and am pretty sure I am going to fail horribly. And I have one Friday that I feel the same about. I can't wait until Friday night and am never ever doing another module with an exam! :lol:

Bloody hell Mini E, that's amazing! Congratulations mate. :mrgreen:

Cheers brah

Mini E wrote:I got the fully funded 3 year PhD!!!! I'm going to be a Dr of physiology

Congrats! We should form a secret GR PhD handshake.

Oh also I got my masters thesis accepted as a qualifying research paper, so they are starting to get the paper work for me organized.

I still can't help thinking it will all go wrong some how and at the last second I will be told I'm not really accepted.

PostRe: The Higher Education Megathread by **That** » Tue Jun 02, 2015 12:45 am

Well done Rightey!

If my M.Sc. thesis goes well I'm hoping to use it to qualify for a Ph.D. with the same research group (I've identified this as the most likely route into a funded Ph.D. :slol:

) so fingers crossed I'll be able join you guys in a couple months!

The Higher Education Megathread

Who is online

Affiliates