For the past three years, students within the BLS department have had to experience harsh timetables regarding exams. Whilst 1st year was dismissed and 2nd year was seen as necessary due to the need for 'dissertation lab-time', the majority of students expected their final year exams to be set out in a much friendlier manner.
After viewing the 2013 BLS exam timetable, the following issues have been raised by countless students;
1) Lack of revision time between exams; in some cases (such as Biol.334 and 314) there is less than 18 hours between the exam start times. This is inadequate time to return home from an exam and begin sufficient revision for the next. However, in this case there are 4 consecutive exams, so the stress of the situation is significantly increased.
2) Physical detriment; The vast majority of students have expressed symptoms of extreme exam stress over the last couple of years (nausea, rash development, insomnia etc). We feel that lack of recuperation time could exacerbate these problems and lead to reduced exam success.
3) Psychological detriment; It is well known that a bad exam experience can have negative effects on the following exams and in many cases at least one day is needed for rejuvenation and 'de-stressing'. A bad exam experience at the start of the 4-day period could massively impact the grades obtained in the other 3, which could highly affect degree classification.
4) Third year exams are significantly more important and contribute more highly to the overall part IIB grade than in previous years, with a 67% weighting. Due to this, most students feel it is 'unfair' to be at such a disadvantage regarding the most important aspect of their third year. Some students have claimed that their entire education has led to these exams and for them to be placed so closely together towards the end of our degree is, to some extent, careless.
It isn't a case of revising early. It's a case of maintaining a healthy state of mind throughout the exam period.
So what can be done to prevent all this stress and ensure third years gain the highest classification they are capable of?
Contact your Director of Studies and get your colleagues to also contact their Director of Studies so that he and others are aware of the extent of the problem.
These are the people you should contact:
For Biochemistry, Biological Sciences and Cell Biology: [email protected]
For Biomedicine: [email protected]
Updates
February 21, 2013
The BLS administration is still acting like these exams are acceptable despite the physical and psychological toll they are taking on us. I am drafting a formal letter to demand a review of these dates because their silence is a slap in the face to every stressed student in this department.
February 21, 2013
The sheer weight of this support shows the BLS department that we are done accepting their broken scheduling. They can no longer ignore the physical and mental toll they are forcing onto final year students.
6 Comments
last year was a nightmare and i have friends still having panic attacks over the schedule. please listen to us.
honestly so stressed about this. 18 hours is not enough time to sleep let alone prep for the next one.
This is actually ridiculous. How are we meant to revise for two massive modules back to back. Sort it out.
needed this change ages ago. its common sense to space them out so we can actually show what we know
They act like we are robots. Can we get at least one day break between these big papers???
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For the past three years, students within the BLS department have had to experience harsh timetables regarding exams. Whilst 1st year was dismissed and 2nd year was seen as necessary due to the need for 'dissertation lab-time', the majority of students expected their final year exams to be set out in a much friendlier manner.
After viewing the 2013 BLS exam timetable, the following issues have been raised by countless students;
1) Lack of revision time between exams; in some cases (such as Biol.334 and 314) there is less than 18 hours between the exam start times. This is inadequate time to return home from an exam and begin sufficient revision for the next. However, in this case there are 4 consecutive exams, so the stress of the situation is significantly increased.
2) Physical detriment; The vast majority of students have expressed symptoms of extreme exam stress over the last couple of years (nausea, rash development, insomnia etc). We feel that lack of recuperation time could exacerbate these problems and lead to reduced exam success.
3) Psychological detriment; It is well known that a bad exam experience can have negative effects on the following exams and in many cases at least one day is needed for rejuvenation and 'de-stressing'. A bad exam experience at the start of the 4-day period could massively impact the grades obtained in the other 3, which could highly affect degree classification.
4) Third year exams are significantly more important and contribute more highly to the overall part IIB grade than in previous years, with a 67% weighting. Due to this, most students feel it is 'unfair' to be at such a disadvantage regarding the most important aspect of their third year. Some students have claimed that their entire education has led to these exams and for them to be placed so closely together towards the end of our degree is, to some extent, careless.
It isn't a case of revising early. It's a case of maintaining a healthy state of mind throughout the exam period.
So what can be done to prevent all this stress and ensure third years gain the highest classification they are capable of?
Contact your Director of Studies and get your colleagues to also contact their Director of Studies so that he and others are aware of the extent of the problem.
These are the people you should contact:
For Biochemistry, Biological Sciences and Cell Biology: [email protected]
For Biomedicine: [email protected]
Updates
February 21, 2013
The BLS administration is still acting like these exams are acceptable despite the physical and psychological toll they are taking on us. I am drafting a formal letter to demand a review of these dates because their silence is a slap in the face to every stressed student in this department.
February 21, 2013
The sheer weight of this support shows the BLS department that we are done accepting their broken scheduling. They can no longer ignore the physical and mental toll they are forcing onto final year students.
6 Comments
completely unfair. it feels like they want us to fail at this point.
last year was a nightmare and i have friends still having panic attacks over the schedule. please listen to us.
honestly so stressed about this. 18 hours is not enough time to sleep let alone prep for the next one.
This is actually ridiculous. How are we meant to revise for two massive modules back to back. Sort it out.
needed this change ages ago. its common sense to space them out so we can actually show what we know
They act like we are robots. Can we get at least one day break between these big papers???
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completely unfair. it feels like they want us to fail at this point.