Little things that bring a smile to your face

[prinnysquad]

Getting home and finding a big envelope on the doormat, addressed to EDF Headquarters, full of Impact/Jade Screen magazines and a copy of Choy Lee Fut.

A lovely surprise courtesy of QualityChimp!

[QualityChimp]

No probs mate. Just wanted to make sure you keep them ticks off my back when the Insect Armageddon begins!

You've been really generous in the past and this board is full of lovely people who are really thoughtful. Soundwave has sent me DVDs for free, Shinobi has ripped hard-to-find kung-fu flicks and Skull Commander has thrown in extra goodies when buying from him.

I also look forward to Secret Santa each year too!

[prinnysquad]

If I ever joined the Secret Santa, it would have me in a cold sweat for weeks. I'm no good at buying surprises.

My unlucky victim would probably get a set of 30 dvdrs of obscure, rare martial arts films, that they'd never want nor need. My new go-to gift.

[toythatkills]

A letter from university went to my Peterborough address instead of my London one, and my step-dad just brought it round for me. My mum had sent him with carrier bags full of food, so I can eat nice things for a few weeks for a change! Mums are awesome

And the letter gave me my uni results for my second year, which were 75/70/70/70/70/70/65/64. The best seven modules from the second year make up 20% of the final classification for my degree, so at the moment I'm on 70, which'd get me a first if next year goes well I think. I'm not expecting that, but a 2:1 seems really achievable

(The 64 was for poetry, you may or may not remember the funny poetry feedback I posted a few months back!)

[Friction]

A letter from university went to my Peterborough address instead of my London one, and my step-dad just brought it round for me. My mum had sent him with carrier bags full of food, so I can eat nice things for a few weeks for a change! Mums are awesome

And the letter gave me my uni results for my second year, which were 75/70/70/70/70/70/65/64. The best seven modules from the second year make up 20% of the final classification for my degree, so at the moment I'm on 70, which'd get me a first if next year goes well I think. I'm not expecting that, but a 2:1 seems really achievable

(The 64 was for poetry, you may or may not remember the funny poetry feedback I posted a few months back!)

That's an awesome set of results right there!

I just finished Uni myself and results came through - 2:1 GET for me! And I didn't think I'd get that at some points. Thing is, what I didn't know until only a few months ago that (with my Uni at least - though I'm sure it's the same across the board - why wouldn't it be?!) there are actually three ways they work out your final mark.

1) Being the way you said - though thinking about it, it might be a 30%/70% split with us
2) Taking the average of 3rd year modules on their own - so average a 70 in 3rd year and you're laughing.
3) Lastly they did a way where if in your 3rd year modules you get 3 of one grade, and 3 of the next grade down you get the higher mark - that is if you got 3 70%'s and 3 60%'s they would give you a 70% overall and thus a first!

Worth checking out if you are worried or want a bit less pressure Perhaps the system does vary between Uni's, but they often have an 'Honours Calculator' somewhere on their websites for you to play about with and explain the rules!

[toythatkills]

Yeah, I did check! If I'd started the degree a year earlier it would have been different, something like getting 70 in half the modules in the final year and you get a first, regardless of how rubbish everything else is. I like that system better

Still, It's nice that I've come out with exactly 70 as an average, it makes next year pretty simple to work out, if I want a first I just have to average 70 in the best seven modules!

[Friction]

Ahh I just noticed you did 8 modules last year - Crikey! I thought doing 6 was enough! I though all Uni's used the same system and what not, guess not!

[toythatkills]

What? There are unis that don't do eight?! Were your modules worth 20 credits each?

I thought 8x15 credits was just how it worked everywhere

EDIT: Maybe you had a couple of 30 credit modules, dissertations and stuff are worth 30.

[Friction]

Nope 6 was the norm! 20 credits a pop, 120 credits per year (6 modules) and so for the 3 years 320 credits! That's 18 modules, and my dissertation was 20 credits and took the place of one module. Works out the same though in terms of values I guess - 8x15 is 120, where 6x20 is also 120.

I was told too, if we didn't do a dissertation we'd get our degree as a BA, if we did do a dissertation (which I did) you get a BA with honours. Not sure how true that is mind you!

I really thought that was the norm across all Uni's!

[koopatroopa90]

My 1st year was 8 modules - 4 were 10 credits, 4 were 20 credits. The 4 10 credit modules were really 2 20 credit ones split in half. Apparently the next two years will either be the same or 6 modules worth 20 credits each. Thats if I get into next year - gotta retake a maths exam in late August

[toythatkills]

Good luck with the retake

I feel like I'm being overworked now. My 12 hour weeks could have been 9 hour weeks!

[Friction]

Good luck with the exam Koopa!

Heh I used to do around 9 hours at best when I was at Uni, generally 3 hours per module, though I'm sure there was an extra hour of each in the first year - really can't remember now!

[Decider-VT]

What sort of crazy degree has eight modules in the first year? I had four for my first and the same again for my second.

[Flabio]

Every single university does it differently because there isn't any kind of central exam board for them. They have to meet certain standards to keep their charter, but they can run whatever term length, course structure and exam structure they like. It's why having an A-Level in Maths means the same wherever you study it, but a Comp Sci degree from, say, York or Warwick carries more weight than one from Bristol or Surrey.

My degree was split 10%/20%/70% contribution to th final score over the three years (with 20% of that final year being on the solo dissertation).

First year had something like 6 compulsory modules, and then you had to do 2 out of 6 other optionals. Similar structure in the second year, and the third year had any 8 modules from a list of 20.

[toythatkills]

What sort of crazy degree has eight modules in the first year? I had four for my first and the same again for my second.

I'm doing eight each year for three years!

I feel like I should have known all this before signing up