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98% is not enough 98% is a fail.
So as some of you may know I am doing a maths degree with the open university. due to anxiety my exam performance usually sucks academically. I have a consistent history of getting low 90s on coursework and been lucky to scrape 60s (2.1) for those that dont know in exams due to exam anxiety etc.
apart from the recent open uni exams where I thought I had done exceptionally well I thought I had got 100% of the marks on the paper.
So I am sure many can understand my mortified abject horror when I received a mark in the low 70s. I later found out their had been extreme standardization. my actual mark before standardization was in the high 80s. It turns out once doing the math that the only way to get the top grade a distinction was to score 99%+
this is absolutely ridiculous.
I will never get a first with the open uni I will just be stuck with a crappy 2.1 and this means no decent uni will take me for a masters degree and the whole thing may just get me a job as a shelf stacker at ASDA/Tescos/Sainsburys. I guess at least I could use the degree to answer that stupid retarded question I always fail.
apart from the recent open uni exams where I thought I had done exceptionally well I thought I had got 100% of the marks on the paper.
So I am sure many can understand my mortified abject horror when I received a mark in the low 70s. I later found out their had been extreme standardization. my actual mark before standardization was in the high 80s. It turns out once doing the math that the only way to get the top grade a distinction was to score 99%+
this is absolutely ridiculous.
I will never get a first with the open uni I will just be stuck with a crappy 2.1 and this means no decent uni will take me for a masters degree and the whole thing may just get me a job as a shelf stacker at ASDA/Tescos/Sainsburys. I guess at least I could use the degree to answer that stupid retarded question I always fail.
Comments
The fact that you're trying to achieve the impossible, when Deep down you can't, due to the Standardization Factor.
Obviously we would all Love to get the Top marks, but why do you need a Masters at this stage of your Life? I have seen this sort of thing ALL my Life, where there is so much pressure put on Students, to achieve the unachievable
I am a much more experienced person in Life, and hopefully the Community on here, who I know more about Mental Health and Anxiety, will help to train the Focus of your mind, to help you achieve acceptable Targets, an achievable Goals
The absolute best thing I can recommend for now...... Is to Forget a Masters Degree this year..... write out Some Life Goal Career Path, write out some Achievable Short Term goals and when you've achieved simple things, move on to the next target. You hopefully will Find this starts to build some confidence.
The other GREAT Maxim in Life and one you may not overly want to hear........
'In Life it's not what you know..... Its who you know' Won't always work but..... the more you try your Best to get on with people, and take an interest in them, and what they do...... the more that one Day the favour might be returned when they remember you for being a Nice. Genuine person.
GOO LUCK and enjoy your Life as much as you can
Once you have children...... nothing else matters
I felt someone needed to try and offer some help, and the Community on here is so good.
at the end of the day if i scrapped a third but got offered a £120,000 a year job I would be very happy where as if I got a first and then a masters from Oxford/Cambridge and ended up stacking shelves I would be unhappy.
Their is merit and pride and ego then their is the practicality of day to day life.
The Open university work completely different to other universities in that most universities will seek to bump you up grades. Many different schemes in place depending on the uni things such as rounding up 2.5% discounting your weakest module/two modules/ three modules.
mini exams/courseworks where it is easy to score 100% and thus have a safety cusion for like 15% of the module and even one case I witnessed where the exam was open book and the revision lecture was 15 minutes and it was literally the lecturer who set the exam told everyone exactly what questions were coming up in the exam ( not word for word but told it will be question on this and then given the page number and it open book!!!!!)
you can get in real trouble for throwing serious accusations around without evidence i Directly witnessed this one but have no evidence and dont want to open myself up to a lawsuit so I wont mention the course or university that one happened at but that was something else.
The open university work exactly the opposite you can only get a grade boundary by scoring two final year modules in the grade bracket above.
in order to get a first you need to average over 70% but get two final year modules in the 85% bracket (distinction bracket) in order to get a 2.1 you need to get 60% average but score two final year modules in the 70%+ bracket etc etc
where as normal universities would work on
70% for a first
60% for a 2.1
50% for a 2.2
40% for a 3rd
I dont think they fail you if you get every module in the third category and no final years in the 50% not sure on that one but I not going for a third.
Some universities know how harsh the Open university grading system is and there is an IVY league uni in America that actually accepts 2.1s from the Open uni. I do not know which one this is though but it is irrelevant because I could never afford American universities and even if I could I would likely struggle to make back that extortionate amount.
I think it is going to be near impossible to get a first, so my aim should be more realistically a 2.1
I think you need a masters to stand out their are five universities I would want to do a masters at all unrealistic
Oxford/Cambridge/Imperial college London/Warwick/Manchester.
I guess just go for the 2.1 and apply and see where I get?
Or, just try as hard as you can to get a first. If you get it then hallelujah. If you don't then all you can do is work with what you've got.
Alternatively, you can spout on and on about nothing that's worth spouting about until you finish the course.
There is a school of thought that says you only need to know your percentages, thus working out your margins.
Are you familiar with these folks with no degrees? I could in fact list hundreds.
Alan Sugar, Richard Branson,Mike Ashley,Simon Cowell, Bernie Ecclestone, Phillip Green.
I’d be interested to know what your vision is for using a degree.
These are strange times, and it’s likely that there will be many with degrees out of work.
If all else fails, pick up 2 or 3 fish and chip shops. Easy money, and lots of it.
Btw, those shelf stackers stop you from starving.
I have no degree and earn a very good amount.... more than a doctor which is wrong and all I do is find people work.
I know people who earn more than me with no degree and I work with people who have degree's who don't use them at all.
There is also no shame in stocking shelves I have stocked shelves when I was young, I have become a qualified Bricklayer which I used for less than a year but ultimately I found my path and followed it and became the best that I can be at it.
Find something you love doing and be the best you can be at it... that is success not a certificate on the wall or a high test score.
I can assure you there is nothing that quantifies success more than waking up for work and being happy to go there.
I went to university a long time ago (35+ years ago) and on my course there was an equal split between 2.1s and 2.2s with a few 3rds and fails, There wasn't a single first class degree awarded that year in my subject, not one, and that was by no means unusual. Most of us suffered from exam anxiety back then too, although it wasn't a diagnosed condition.
I remember one of the first lectures I went to where the lecturer told us that the final exam of his unit would be seven essay questions and that he would cover a maximum of two of those questions in his lectures, the others we would hopefully cover in our own background research.
I have hardly had to use any of the knowledge I gained when studying for my degree since that time and my career is completely unrelated. BUT I am always using the skills that I had to learn in order to graduate - concentration, planning, methodical thinking, striving for excellence etc. I did however learn more about dealing with people from the first real job I had (working at an off licence) than I ever learned at university.
I would hope that employers will look further than just whether you got a first or a 'crappy' 2.1. If not why not start your own business? The most successful and highest earners often don't work for someone else.
+1
Great posts, help and advice Danny @Itsover4u , @chilling @tai-gar and Ben @kapowblamz and I hope you can see from these guys experiences @Doubleme, that you don't have to be too concerned if you 'only' achieve a 2.1. It's a degree and a better start in life than most. As Chill says, some of the most successful people work for themselves, as I have all my life.A little story from my Past on what you can achieve with drive and determination. I met my wife Daveena in 1997, who had a couple of young children, 3-y-o Taylor, and 1-y-o Lissy. I eventually moved in with her the following Year, and started to live a 'Family Life', though we did have problems with Taylor who almost certainly resented me being there. His Dad used to have the kids for Saturday afternoon, and Daveena's Mum used to have Taylor Sunday. But he had problems at school, and in Year5 at 10 years old, he was told by his Headmaster that he would never achieve anything in life!
I got a job in Pembroke in South West Wales in 2003, and we moved down there, but Taylor was adamant that he wanted to stay in Sheffield, and live with his Nan and Grandad. So we let him, thinking that when he visited every School holiday, he would love it as much as we did, and want to come and live with us. But he didn't, enjoying the attention and freedom he had, and being doted on by his Nan in particular, (the son she never had) but something Daveena slightly regrets to this day.
From moving up to Senior School, Taylor's work improved markedly, and he left school at 16 after working extremely hard and focused, with 14 GCSE's, mainly A*, A's and B's.
He then got four A-Levels at College, and went to Sheffield Hallam Uni. to study Law.
During his time there, he became a Community Leader, and finished by getting a 2.1.
He also got a Special Award at his Graduation for having the highest mark in his Employment Law module.
Sadly his Nan died when he was 19, so never got to see how well he did at Uni., but at least had 9 years bringing him up, as I always point out to Daveena, and explaining how different his life would have been if we had forced him to move to Wales. (The local Secondary School had a terrible Drug problem)
After Uni. he got a job at Irwin Mitchell Solicitor's in Sheffield, has moved up the ladder at a couple of different firms, and now lives in Leeds where he has become a fully qualified Solicitor, specializing in Employment Law and this Summer got his Master's Degree in Law.
We are so proud of him, and what he's achieved with hard work, grit and determination, and I hope you will continue on a similar path @Doubleme .
AS I mentioned before..... It's not What you know, but who you know....... so always try and make a lot of friends, or at least take an interest in people, listen and pick up as much knowledge as you can, especially from people with a lot of experience because most people actually always do want to help...........
GOOD LUCK
Edit: I'd love to go back to his old Junior School, or bump into his old Headmaster, and tell him just what Taylor has achieved. At least he gave him 'the finger' on his last day there
My eldest cousin had zero qualifications and to be honest not many social skills and yet turned out to the most successful member of the family with a job that paid well over six figures a huge house complete with all the trimmings and spent 4 to 5 months a year in China helping them to develop business.
Now you can use him as inspiration to never accept anything short of your ambitions and goals or you can look beyond the materialistc things and see a man who having just retired, has no social life, no friends, no hobbies, and apart from his daughter and son in law very little connection with family and by his own admission is unhappy.
A dream job with a big salary is great and by all means go for it but remember the important things.
When I was 19 I got cut from the RAF Officer Training Programme at Biggin Hill and I thought my life was over and my dreams shattered. My life has followed a very different course to the one I wanted and you know what my friend?.
I wouldn't swap it for the world.
Stay positive and be well.
Mark