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Thinking of repeating third year

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
edited March 27 in Work & Study
I'm contemplating repeating third year of my four year course. The past year I've just kind of not taken it as seriously as I should have. I've basically carried my lifestyle on from the first two years (if not got worse). Thing is I could get away with it back then.

I'm not proud of it, and I've been pretty stupid. As many of the drugs board people know I live a pretty hedonistic life style and it doesn't tie in well with Monday - Wednesday classes, and my sleeping patterns have been totally fucked from fucking with the serotonin levels in my brain (it regulates sleep).

I basically want to majorly kick stimulants in the head and start again in September. If I'm going to do this course I want to learn from it, and I don't want to attempt fourth year having bluffed through third year (if I could even manage to). This year counts 50% by the way so I need a good mark too. I'm just worried about what my parents will think. They've helped me out with money and they expect great things from me as I was good at school, and seemingly glided through my first two years.

Don't really know how to tell them. We're not really close so I can't tell them stuff easily. They know nothing of my lifestyle either. How would other people manage the situation? Has anyone been in a similar situation before, and how did you handle it?
Post edited by JustV on

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Have you spoken to your tutor about repeating your third year yet?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I know a few people (friends and other people I've overheard) that have repeated a year or changed degree/uni and so I can tell you that it not really the end of the world.

    But it’s not usually your choice to repeat a year, especially the last one, but get clarification from admin staff/reception in your department.

    At my last uni, it was up to the stuff to decide if could repeat, and only if you failed. They will not let you repeat if you just get a low pass (a 3rd or something). I also remember something about not being able to repeat any final year modules. I knew of one person who failed their final year, and was told by the uni that only if he took a year out could he re take his final year. Oh and a final thing, I’ve always been told that usually if you fail, you do a 2nd sit of that course, which means the marks are usually capped at 40% or something. What you really want is to do a 1st sit again if they will let you.

    Like I said you really need to speak to/email your admin staff and get a clear cut idea of what you will do IF you fail some modules.

    I almost flunked out of my degree and it was a pretty low point in my life, but somehow I made it through. If you need to talk to your parents, there's no need to tell them you think you are going to fail the course, maybe just tell them that you did badly on a module or two. Don’t over exaggerate your failings, dress them up.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've emailed course organiser and my tutor. Tutor hasn't replied yet but course organiser says that if I repeat I can't get the honours degree in Psychology which basically means I can't get British Psychological Society Accreditation but I don't need this anyway, as I don't want a career in psychology, and if I do feel I need it, I can do a conversion course at the end.

    What's bothering me is just don't really know how important honours is? :confused: What's the main differences and is honours a good advantage when looking for a job or is degree classification (e.g. 1st, 2,1 etc) much more important? Apparently you can only repeat honours if you pull out for personal/medical reasons...


    ETA: I'm in Scotland doing a 4 year course and it's the 3rd and 4th year which are weighted equally towards the degree (50% each), and it's the third year I want to repeat.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I repeated my third year. I hated uni, I was pressured into doing the wrong degree and I ended up leaving with just an ordinary degree. But not once has any potential employer asked about my degree classification. It's just been accepted as 'a degree'. That's just my experience though. I know that the main banks in Edinburgh want 2:1 degrees for their graduate programs though. Ditto IBM.

    I had to tell my parents because I couldn't afford to pay the fees to resit by myself. I'd be totally honest with them.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Infinite wrote:
    I repeated my third year. I hated uni, I was pressured into doing the wrong degree and I ended up leaving with just an ordinary degree. But not once has any potential employer asked about my degree classification. It's just been accepted as 'a degree'. That's just my experience though. I know that the main banks in Edinburgh want 2:1 degrees for their graduate programs though. Ditto IBM.

    I had to tell my parents because I couldn't afford to pay the fees to resit by myself. I'd be totally honest with them.

    Yea I was researching from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor%27s_degree and apparently...

    "At the Scottish Ancients (St Andrews, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee), undergraduate degrees are differentiated as either General Degrees or Honours Degrees."

    it goes on to say that...

    "A Scottish General degree is different from an English Pass degree even though both may be denoted BSc."

    I still want to do the honours option though, apparently students only retake honours if they cite personal/medical problems and had to pull out (usually before exams). I had sleep problems and problems with depression from very heavy drug use earlier in the year, and went to the doctors, which may help me get back on the honours course but I'm not sure. My tutor is very good and knows about my problems, and she hopefully can help me out. I've sent her an email and tried calling her (answer machine) so nothing back yet but hopefully it will be a bit clearer soon.

    From what you say Infinite, I suppose it's not the end of the world if I can't do honours but we'll see what happens.

    I am just going to have to be honest with my parents. I won't tell them about the drugs obviously but I should probably tell them about the depression etc because they don't know about any of it. I'm the prodigal son. :rolleyes:
  • littlemissylittlemissy Posts: 9,972 Supreme Poster
    If you just get an ordinary degree from a Scottish uni you don't get a classification - it is simply pass or fail.

    As if you resit your third year you don't get honours, what about just continuing with the course and going into 4th year? How poor are your results? Have you passed the year? Even if you just scrape a pass you could still get a good overall mark by working your socks off next year.

    Just something else to think about.
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