During the time in university we are constantly told that we need to get a good degree to be able to get anywhere in life. If we don't get good marks on our exams, we aren't dedicated enough. If we get stressed before an essay is due, we don't plan well enough and if we don't show up to a 9AM lecture we are lazy students that party all night and only care about getting drunk. This view on students is something I've got to hear for 2 years now and it is starting to bug me a bit to be honest, not because there aren't students like that but for the fact that not everyone are like that. We are all simply being put into the same group and judged by the fact that we are students. Our marks on exams, essays and us being tired in the morning depends on many other things than the ones I previously pointed out. To clear things out I am now going to share a students confession with you starting with the last point.
I am one of those students that actually shows up to most lectures, my attendance is alright and even though I might be tired in the morning I try to show up because that is what I am paying for after all. I am not tired because I was out the night before, to be honest I think I've only been out once this year. The fact is that I just struggle to sleep and most of the time when I'm tired in the morning it is because I couldn't sleep the night before and therefore tried to sort things out for either society work, internships, jobs or uni work. There are also times when us students just get slightly caught up with the things we are doing, I think most people can. There are evenings when we get caught up with talking to a friend we haven't managed to talk to for weeks or a family member or maybe even that cute guy you have a crush on. This doesn't mean we are lazy, this means we are doing what students are suppose to do: grow up, make friends and enjoy our time before the real life starts. I can't deny that there are students that don't show because they have been out the night before but it's not all of us and even if it was, shouldn't it be up to us? We are paying for uni and the lecturer will be paid even if only half of the course shows up. The only person punished by it is the person that chooses to lie in bed for a few more hours.
Another thing that makes me feel slightly uncomfortable is the pressure on us that we all need to get a 2:1 or a first for our degrees to be seen as good degree. Not everyone is good at writing essays or exams. That doesn't make them stupid and it doesn't mean they don't understand the subject. They might just have problems formulating their opinions on a piece of paper. I'm not saying this because I am trying to defend the exams and essays I've written that haven't been as good as I wanted them to be, I am saying this because I find exams being an extremely unfair way to solely judge knowledge. Luckily my course has a mix between essays and exams but it still often comes down to those 2 hours when you have your exam. Those 2 hours, that many people see as the worst hours each year where they need to sit in a room with creaking chairs and tense atmosphere and cram everything you know down on the paper even though your hand is cramping. This puts so much pressure on students and not everyone can handle that stress. It doesn't matter if you started revision 6 months or 6 minutes before, you will still sit there with a feeling that everything you know will vanish from your brain the second the person in the front says "you may start your exam". It might not be your day, you might have woken up with a terrible headache or had a big fight with someone the day before but you have to sit there and your result will affect your future.
Exams are one way to test knowledge and even though it is slightly strange to be put in that situation we all have to go through it but I believe there should be other ways to test the knowledge too. The discussions during lectures should go to your final mark and the exams should be divided with more chances to show your knowledge. That way it would also be a constant need to revise and students wouldn't only sit the last month of the year trying to absorb a whole years information only to forget it as soon as they walk out of the room. Even the most organised and dedicated student might get a mark on the exam that isn't as high as you would expect but that doesn't make the student stupid.
We need to stop judging people's achievements by what mark they get on their assessments. I do believe it can be a guideline to start off with but it is far from everything. To decide whether the person is lazy, stupid or not dedicated we need to look at what the person can achieve when he's not under the pressure of perform. A degree should be seen as a good degree because in the end the person that has received
a 3rd has still done all the assessments just like the one who graduates with a 1st. That student might just not be able to handle the pressure that well but everyone deserves a chance.
So next time you are planning on lecturing someone about how important it is to get a good degree from uni, think once more before you say it because that person in front of you might actually work really hard but still end up with a mark lower than a 2:1. That doesn't make that degree any less and it definitely doesn't make that person stupid. It simply makes that person someone who is suffering because of the lack of different examination methods in university.
I am one of those students that actually shows up to most lectures, my attendance is alright and even though I might be tired in the morning I try to show up because that is what I am paying for after all. I am not tired because I was out the night before, to be honest I think I've only been out once this year. The fact is that I just struggle to sleep and most of the time when I'm tired in the morning it is because I couldn't sleep the night before and therefore tried to sort things out for either society work, internships, jobs or uni work. There are also times when us students just get slightly caught up with the things we are doing, I think most people can. There are evenings when we get caught up with talking to a friend we haven't managed to talk to for weeks or a family member or maybe even that cute guy you have a crush on. This doesn't mean we are lazy, this means we are doing what students are suppose to do: grow up, make friends and enjoy our time before the real life starts. I can't deny that there are students that don't show because they have been out the night before but it's not all of us and even if it was, shouldn't it be up to us? We are paying for uni and the lecturer will be paid even if only half of the course shows up. The only person punished by it is the person that chooses to lie in bed for a few more hours.
Another thing that makes me feel slightly uncomfortable is the pressure on us that we all need to get a 2:1 or a first for our degrees to be seen as good degree. Not everyone is good at writing essays or exams. That doesn't make them stupid and it doesn't mean they don't understand the subject. They might just have problems formulating their opinions on a piece of paper. I'm not saying this because I am trying to defend the exams and essays I've written that haven't been as good as I wanted them to be, I am saying this because I find exams being an extremely unfair way to solely judge knowledge. Luckily my course has a mix between essays and exams but it still often comes down to those 2 hours when you have your exam. Those 2 hours, that many people see as the worst hours each year where they need to sit in a room with creaking chairs and tense atmosphere and cram everything you know down on the paper even though your hand is cramping. This puts so much pressure on students and not everyone can handle that stress. It doesn't matter if you started revision 6 months or 6 minutes before, you will still sit there with a feeling that everything you know will vanish from your brain the second the person in the front says "you may start your exam". It might not be your day, you might have woken up with a terrible headache or had a big fight with someone the day before but you have to sit there and your result will affect your future.
Exams are one way to test knowledge and even though it is slightly strange to be put in that situation we all have to go through it but I believe there should be other ways to test the knowledge too. The discussions during lectures should go to your final mark and the exams should be divided with more chances to show your knowledge. That way it would also be a constant need to revise and students wouldn't only sit the last month of the year trying to absorb a whole years information only to forget it as soon as they walk out of the room. Even the most organised and dedicated student might get a mark on the exam that isn't as high as you would expect but that doesn't make the student stupid.
We need to stop judging people's achievements by what mark they get on their assessments. I do believe it can be a guideline to start off with but it is far from everything. To decide whether the person is lazy, stupid or not dedicated we need to look at what the person can achieve when he's not under the pressure of perform. A degree should be seen as a good degree because in the end the person that has received
a 3rd has still done all the assessments just like the one who graduates with a 1st. That student might just not be able to handle the pressure that well but everyone deserves a chance.
So next time you are planning on lecturing someone about how important it is to get a good degree from uni, think once more before you say it because that person in front of you might actually work really hard but still end up with a mark lower than a 2:1. That doesn't make that degree any less and it definitely doesn't make that person stupid. It simply makes that person someone who is suffering because of the lack of different examination methods in university.
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