# annoying students



## Blagsta (Dec 5, 2011)

As some of you know, I'm in the first year of a mental health nursing diploma.  I'm finding most of my fellow students really frustrating.  We had a lecture today on the wider determinants of health and health inequalities.  Most of the reaction from students was either to attempt to justify the equalities that exist in things like life expectancy, access to health care etc or to not see it as relevant to nursing.

Hardly any of them ever think about shit, or seem to do any reading beyond the bare minimum for the course.  None seem interested or particularly clued up about anything that I find interesting about mental health, e.g. the impact of economic, cultural and social factors, the nature of "madness" and what that says about human nature etc.  I feel really alienated from most of them.

I don't want any advice btw, just needed to get it off my chest!


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## killer b (Dec 5, 2011)

are they mainly straight from college? when i went to uni i was a few years older than everyone else on my course, and i really noticed the difference.


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## Blagsta (Dec 5, 2011)

Some yes, but not all.  I'm one of the oldest, being 40, but quite a few are mid to late 20's and have worked as healthcare assistants before coming on the course


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## hegley (Dec 5, 2011)

Can sympathise. Am doing first year of an OU degree, and was expecting people to be much more engaged with the subject; lots of people saying "I didn't read that chapter because the notes said we didn't need to for the assignment ... ". Also frustrated with the amount of people that don't seem to be able to stand back and take a detached view (of what are admittedly, difficult topics - Bulger murder for e.g.) - lots of hand-wringing and Daily Mail-esque rantings instead.


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## Edie (Dec 5, 2011)

I REALLY hear you. I come from a really fuckin _drastically_ different background to the people on my course. I have _nothing_ in common with a lot of them and a lot of them are dicks. Saying that, many are quite sweet and just very young. On the whole I work next to them professionally and have fuck all to do with them at any other time.

I am however kicking their fucking ARSE at anything academic


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## Mr Smin (Dec 5, 2011)

Edie said:


> I am however kicking THEIR fucking ARSE at anything academic


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## Miss Caphat (Dec 5, 2011)

Yeah, that would really bug me too.
A similar experience I can think of was after years of really great art classes (and other classes) with motivated, passionate, intelligent classmates, I found myself at community college trying to do my degree there (I didn't stay for long!)
Anyway, in the drawing class, one of the first assignments was to stand at our easels, which were back to back with our classmate partners.
We were told to take turns drawing something and describing in great detail what we were drawing and where on the paper we were making the marks, etc. Our partners were supposed to try to duplicate our pictures without looking at them.

And people fucking cheated!!! lots of them, actually!! I was like !!!! Who the fuck _cheats_ on an _art assignment_???
It was at that moment I knew I needed to get out of there.


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## Edie (Dec 5, 2011)

Miss Caphat said:


> Yeah, that would really bug me too.
> A similar experience I can think of was after years of really great art classes (and other classes) with motivated, passionate, intelligent classmates, I found myself at community college trying to do my degree there (I didn't stay for long!)
> Anyway, in the drawing class, one of the first assignments was to stand at our easels, which were back to back with our classmate partners.
> We were told to take turns drawing something and describing in great detail what we were drawing and where on the paper we were making the marks, etc. Our partners were supposed to try to duplicate our pictures without looking at them.
> ...


 fair enough! I mean, I never done an art assignment in my life, but even I can see the futility of doing that


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## Blagsta (Dec 5, 2011)

Actually, one of 'em I'm friends with on Facebook is taking an interest in some of the anti-cuts stuff I've posted tonight, so that's an improvment.


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## discokermit (Dec 5, 2011)

don't hit any of them. you just end up getting slung off the course.


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## Blagsta (Dec 5, 2011)

discokermit said:


> don't hit any of them. you just end up getting slung off the course.



especially as its a nursing course, lol

I think it says something in the NMC student code about not hitting other students, lol


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## FridgeMagnet (Dec 5, 2011)

I hated lots of people in the first year when I was a student, but I have to say that the quality went up as the course went on, after people who didn't really want to think or do any work dropped out or changed. First year philosophy students ffs, utter self parody.

I don't know if this is the sort of thing that people might drop out of, though.


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## Edie (Dec 5, 2011)

Blags you on the wards now as you train? Cos I reckon once you get into a professional working environment then people really step up.


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## discokermit (Dec 5, 2011)

Blagsta said:


> especially as its a nursing course, lol
> 
> I think it says something in the NMC student code about not hitting other students, lol


don't even grab them round the throat. apparently that's "violent conduct".


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## Edie (Dec 5, 2011)

discokermit said:


> don't even grab them round the throat. apparently that's "violent conduct".


That's ridiculous


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## Blagsta (Dec 5, 2011)

Edie said:


> Blags you on the wards now as you train? Cos I reckon once you get into a professional working environment then people really step up.



It's 50/50, currently at university, start my second placement in Jan.  My first placement over the summer was an excellent experience.  My mentor, although much younger than me, was really knowledgable and interested in the wider issues, we had some great discussions.


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## FridgeMagnet (Dec 5, 2011)

Edie said:


> That's ridiculous


PC gone mad!


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## Blagsta (Dec 5, 2011)

FridgeMagnet said:


> I hated lots of people in the first year when I was a student, but I have to say that the quality went up as the course went on, after people who didn't really want to think or do any work dropped out or changed. First year philosophy students ffs, utter self parody.
> 
> I don't know if this is the sort of thing that people might drop out of, though.



Yeah, I'm hoping that people will become more engaged in the 2nd year.


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## Edie (Dec 5, 2011)

Blagsta said:


> It's 50/50, currently at university, start my second placement in Jan. My first placement over the summer was an excellent experience. My mentor, although much younger than me, was really knowledgable and interested in the wider issues, we had some great discussions.


Cool. I bet you find that. Once you are away from the Uni bubble actually with patients then it feels totally different.


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## discokermit (Dec 5, 2011)

FridgeMagnet said:


> PC gone mad!


fucking nanny state.


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## Blagsta (Dec 5, 2011)

Edie said:


> Cool. I bet you find that. Once you are away from the Uni bubble actually with patients then it feels totally different.



Yeah, it was.  Thing is, I like the academic side, I'd love to have some debates about the social issues around nursing, but no one else does, or if they do, its like a sixth form discussion.


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## Edie (Dec 5, 2011)

Blagsta said:


> Yeah, it was. Thing is, I like the academic side, I'd love to have some debates about the social issues around nursing, but no one else does, or if they do, its like a sixth form discussion.


It's fucking painful innit


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## discokermit (Dec 5, 2011)

don't sell them any drugs, either. if you do, don't do it on college premises. if you do have to sell them on college  premises, don't sell them to a weird little prick named steve who wears one of those shitty little hats with elephants embroidered all around it. he will grass you up, causing you to grab him by the throat and threaten to break his jaw in the corridor.


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## Blagsta (Dec 5, 2011)

Sounds like the voice of experience, lol


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## Edie (Dec 5, 2011)

Blagsta said:


> Sounds like the voice of experience, lol


Yer I think the detail about the embroidered elephants gave it away


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## discokermit (Dec 5, 2011)

Blagsta said:


> Sounds like the voice of experience, lol


i got off with the dealing (a petition pleading my innocence! the whole course signed, including the bloke who grassed me up!), got a two week suspension for the "violence", then got kicked off the course for not doing any work.


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## discokermit (Dec 5, 2011)

i'm too cool for school.


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## weepiper (Dec 5, 2011)

discokermit yesterday


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## discokermit (Dec 5, 2011)

weepiper said:


> discokermit yesterday


everyday.


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## Jon-of-arc (Dec 5, 2011)

discokermit said:


> don't sell them any drugs, either. if you do, don't do it on college premises. if you do have to sell them on college premises, don't sell them to a weird little prick named steve who wears one of those shitty little hats with elephants embroidered all around it. he will grass you up, causing you to grab him by the throat and threaten to break his jaw in the corridor.



How did you know he grassed you up?


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## discokermit (Dec 5, 2011)

Jon-of-arc said:


> How did you know he grassed you up?


one of the lecturers told me, before i had even been accused. he just happened to be in a meeting with the head of department when the little twat went in and grassed me. he came straight to me when he came out.


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## Jon-of-arc (Dec 5, 2011)

discokermit said:


> one of the lecturers told me, before i had even been accused. he just happened to be in a meeting with the head of department when the little twat went in and grassed me. he came straight to me when he came out.



Fair enough.  What sort of knob buys drugs off you and then grasses you up?


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## discokermit (Dec 5, 2011)

Jon-of-arc said:


> Fair enough. What sort of knob buys drugs off you and then grasses you up?


what triggered it was when he walked into college _wearing_ his crash helmet. i laughed and said, "did you wear that on the bus? on the top deck, at the front? vroomvroom!" at which, everybody laughed. he freaked out and grassed me up in the heat of the moment.


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## twentythreedom (Dec 5, 2011)

Bone them


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## sihhi (Dec 5, 2011)

Blagsta said:


> As some of you know, I'm in the first year of a mental health nursing diploma. I'm finding most of my fellow students really frustrating. We had a lecture today on the wider determinants of health and health inequalities. Most of the reaction from students was either to attempt to justify the equalities that exist in things like life expectancy, access to health care etc or to not see it as relevant to nursing.
> 
> Hardly any of them ever think about shit, or seem to do any reading beyond the bare minimum for the course. None seem interested or particularly clued up about anything that I find interesting about mental health, e.g. the impact of economic, cultural and social factors, the nature of "madness" and what that says about human nature etc. I feel really alienated from most of them.
> 
> I don't want any advice btw, just needed to get it off my chest!



Don't beat yourself up about it. You're the type of student - older, thinking about the future generation - that most courses lose half-way in the middle. Watch out. I've been there.


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## killer b (Dec 5, 2011)

i think it's a common issue with vocational degrees blags - many of the students are doing the course because it's required to get a particular job, rather than because they have any interest in or aptitude for the subject.


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## Pingu (Dec 6, 2011)

my missus works at a university.  from te conversations i hear involving lecturing staff through to admin staf ALL students are annoying


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## Shippou-Sensei (Dec 6, 2011)

student can be very frustrating.

especially ones who seem to revel in not trying hard enough

and this is coming from a dedicated lazy person.

doing marking has got to me. and i don't even do it that much.

i guess i too was  shit  at college and not much better at uni.

it seems to be  something of a pattern.   the best students tend to be 25+   i'm not sure what it is.  perhaps  it's  the distance from having been at school.   i think school fucks up your  way of looking at study.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Dec 6, 2011)

Pingu said:


> my missus works at a university. from te conversations i hear involving lecturing staff through to admin staf ALL students are annoying



bitching about students  is  practically a  hobby for most teachers


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## stuff_it (Dec 6, 2011)

Blagsta said:


> Yeah, it was. Thing is, I like the academic side, I'd love to have some debates about the social issues around nursing, but no one else does, or if they do, its like a sixth form discussion.


Years ago when I was on a nursing course some of my fellow students could barely turn on a PC despite having 'just left college' and having left a good while after me.... one girl was only doing nursing so she could meet a nice doctor and settle down and have five kids


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## wayward bob (Dec 6, 2011)

okay i'll be the voice in the wilderness on this one. it's the staff not the students who are a shower of shit at our place. i'm the oldest by a fair way on the course, the others are pretty much all straight off foundation. but their work is often inspiring, and the _way_ they work is too. we had a group tutorial where every one of us said we were rubbish at/hated drawing, but everyone showed development in their work over the term and everyone had come up with their own ways of getting past their lack of confidence. in particular the people who were working in their _own_ way, as opposed to the way we'd been _told_, were doing really good stuff.

the staff on the other hand chop and change what they want from us at every opportunity, say they're going to put stuff on blackboard then don't, expect us to be psychic about what we're supposed to be doing, go to the wrong campus for lectures, drop work/turorials on us with fuck all notice etc. etc.

the only way anyone manages to get stuff straight is through the facebook group. oh and the second years have independently organised a field trip abroad cos the staff couldn't get their fingers out of their arses 

edit: but the technicians are all darlings


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## Shippou-Sensei (Dec 6, 2011)

things can be bad at both ends.  staff nowadays are often massively overstretched.  even when they are not  you simply can't  get time to work with people individually.

most of the time it's triage rather than intensive care


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## wayward bob (Dec 6, 2011)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> things can be bad at both ends. staff nowadays are often massively overstretched. even when they are not you simply can't get time to work with people individually.



point taken, but they're getting fucking paid for this. we're paying for the privilege of being fucked about and unnecessarily stressed.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Dec 6, 2011)

I'd just want to hear about  the other side.  it can be  the end result of  teachers being told  to cover extra classes  due to people  being fired or quitting.   the thing about lessons is they take massive prep work   but  nowadays teaching staff are given less and less time to do this in.  not to mention having to mark work at home.

yes it's unfair on the students  but  often it's not due to the teacher being shit


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## wayward bob (Dec 6, 2011)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> I'd just want to hear about the other side. it can be the end result of teachers being told to cover extra classes due to people being fired or quitting. the thing about lessons is they take massive prep work but nowadays teaching staff are given less and less time to do this in. not to mention having to mark work at home.
> 
> yes it's unfair on the students but often it's not due to the teacher being shit



in our case it's due to the tutor (higher ed) in charge of a module not actually starting until half way through the term, leaving all the other tutors holding their hands up and saying "not my module!" when asked questions about it. and then fucking us about royally when it comes to times/dates/locations of lectures/tutorials. oh and promising to post vital information on blackboard and failing to do it.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Dec 6, 2011)

that not my module thing  is  actually quite legitimate  in terms of not being able to answer questions.  i'm an IT person they tried to get to teach business studies.  what the fuck do i know about business studies?  even if it is a topic i know  unless i actually know the syllabus of the course  my info may be  way off  what  your qualification asks for.

talking from personal experience i've just had to  go back over a whole load of   work  as   one of our teachers  is  used to doing G&G work but  now we are doing OCR  so the  qualification  criteria  are totally different.  i had  to tell him   none of the students work would pass the qualification.  we're having to  get them to come back in after the course is over.


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## wayward bob (Dec 6, 2011)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> that not my module thing is actually quite legitimate in terms of not being able to answer questions.



so who _does_ answer the questions when we have work we're told we're supposed to be doing from the start of the term? but no-one can actually tell us anything about the detail of the stuff we're supposed to be doing because it's "not their module" ?

(not ranting at you btw shippy  just at life in general )


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## Shippou-Sensei (Dec 6, 2011)

managment.

the people who wouldn't take on someone  extra for the  first part of your course    or  structure   the department  so that  there was enough slack space that  this sort of thing could be dealt with.


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## BlueSquareThing (Dec 6, 2011)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> it seems to be something of a pattern. the best students tend to be 25+ i'm not sure what it is. perhaps it's the distance from having been at school. i think school fucks up your way of looking at study.



I think we nanny them far too much - they don't really learn to think or study by themselves v much in school imo, let alone read or reference. All so we can hit targets.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Dec 7, 2011)

given the very tight peramaters to the curriculum there is very little opertunity  for self motivated discovery.

too much emphsis on what people learn not how they learn


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## fractionMan (Dec 7, 2011)

One of my mates is a lecturer and spends an awful lot of his time facepalming over his students ineptitude and general disinterest in the subject being taught.  He reckons only half of them should even be there.


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## ViolentPanda (Dec 7, 2011)

wayward bob said:


> okay i'll be the voice in the wilderness on this one. it's the staff not the students who are a shower of shit at our place. i'm the oldest by a fair way on the course, the others are pretty much all straight off foundation. but their work is often inspiring, and the _way_ they work is too. we had a group tutorial where every one of us said we were rubbish at/hated drawing, but everyone showed development in their work over the term and everyone had come up with their own ways of getting past their lack of confidence. in particular the people who were working in their _own_ way, as opposed to the way we'd been _told_, were doing really good stuff.
> 
> the staff on the other hand chop and change what they want from us at every opportunity, say they're going to put stuff on blackboard then don't, expect us to be psychic about what we're supposed to be doing, go to the wrong campus for lectures, drop work/turorials on us with fuck all notice etc. etc.
> 
> ...



My old art teacher, a lovely bloke who made several award-winning educational films alongside his teaching career, reckoned that the reason he taught in a secondary school rather than an art school was because most of the art school teachers *he* knew were frustrated because they couldn't make a living from art, and passed some of the pissed-off vibe onto their students.
I thinking he ended up co-forming an independent production company making radio and tv programmes about "the arts" back in the '90s, after 20-odd years at the chalk-face.


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## wayward bob (Dec 7, 2011)

ViolentPanda said:


> My old art teacher, a lovely bloke who made several award-winning educational films alongside his teaching career, reckoned that the reason he taught in a secondary school rather than an art school was because most of the art school teachers *he* knew were frustrated because they couldn't make a living from art, and passed some of the pissed-off vibe onto their students...



the two best lecturers we have are both practising artists. not sure how good they are at admin etc. cos they're not my tutors.


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## fractionMan (Dec 7, 2011)

The only art tutors I know are practising artists. Many of my art tutors I had back in the day were also practising (as in exhibiting/publishing/selling artwork).  My mate does it because it adds a certain amount of predictability to his cashflow as well as getting him out of the attic and into the real world once a week.


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## equationgirl (Dec 8, 2011)

fractionMan said:


> One of my mates is a lecturer and spends an awful lot of his time facepalming over his students ineptitude and general disinterest in the subject being taught. He reckons only half of them should even be there.


I'd agree with this. When I did tutorial work there was one student who spent the hour drawing a huge circle and then filling it in with biro. I told her she could go if she didn't want to work through the tutorial or need any help, but she just shrugged and continued colouring. Why she was there I had no idea.

I did private teaching for one of the courses because the lecturer was so awful - 2 hours a day for a week, started with one student and had 6 the next day. Got them all through the exam because they were motivated enough to want to learn and asked me to help because they'd asked the lecturer and he made them feel stupid. I got a lovely card with all their grades in - they all passed.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Dec 9, 2011)

the difficulty in teaching generally isn't the students who want to learn.

student apathy is probably  the biggest problem (except perhaps bad managment)


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## BlueSquareThing (Dec 9, 2011)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> the difficulty in teaching generally isn't the students who want to learn.
> 
> student apathy is probably the biggest problem (except perhaps bad managment)



And Gove...


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## Kate Hillier (Mar 22, 2012)

How horrible.


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## Kate Hillier (Mar 22, 2012)

I am an ardent Self Learner so extra points for  The Ugh Factor.


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## stuff_it (Mar 23, 2012)

Blagsta said:


> Some yes, but not all. I'm one of the oldest, being 40, but quite a few are mid to late 20's and have worked as healthcare assistants before coming on the course


When I started my (unfinished) nursing course about ten years ago most of them could barely operate a computer - and it's not like computers weren't commonplace in schools even in my day. And no, none of them gave much of a shit. One lass wanted to become a nurse so she could 'meet a doctor, settle down and have five kids' - she figured the five kids she wanted would cost a fair bit so she needed to find a man that earned well. 



Blagsta said:


> Yeah, it was. Thing is, I like the academic side, I'd love to have some debates about the social issues around nursing, but no one else does, or if they do, its like a sixth form discussion.


Most of them are sixth formers tbf. Either you can be arsed to gradually bring them up to your level or you can't, it's up to you.


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## toggle (Mar 26, 2012)

fuck me. I'm sitting in the library listening to a lass working on an essay and she starts off with:

who is the 'decision maker in this country'?
she is given an answer of david cameron.

what party is he then?

does he make all the decisions himself or do other people do them as well?

i'm going to have to move before i ask her how in the hell she got into uni.


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## fractionMan (Mar 26, 2012)

toggle said:


> fuck me. I'm sitting in the library listening to a lass working on an essay and she starts off with:
> 
> who is the 'decision maker in this country'?
> she is given an answer of david cameron.
> ...


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## purenarcotic (Mar 26, 2012)

toggle said:


> fuck me. I'm sitting in the library listening to a lass working on an essay and she starts off with:
> 
> who is the 'decision maker in this country'?
> she is given an answer of david cameron.
> ...


 
Why is she in the library talking out loud.  Both stupid and incapable of following basic library rules.


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## killer b (Mar 26, 2012)

toggle said:


> fuck me. I'm sitting in the library listening to a lass working on an essay and she starts off with:
> 
> who is the 'decision maker in this country'?
> she is given an answer of david cameron.
> ...


in the third year of a journalism degree (in the newspaper specialism group), one of my fellow students asked me if the express was left or right wing.


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## _angel_ (Mar 26, 2012)

Miss Caphat said:


> Yeah, that would really bug me too.
> A similar experience I can think of was after years of really great art classes (and other classes) with motivated, passionate, intelligent classmates, I found myself at community college trying to do my degree there (I didn't stay for long!)
> Anyway, in the drawing class, one of the first assignments was to stand at our easels, which were back to back with our classmate partners.
> We were told to take turns drawing something and describing in great detail what we were drawing and where on the paper we were making the marks, etc. Our partners were supposed to try to duplicate our pictures without looking at them.
> ...


Prince Harry?


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## toggle (Mar 26, 2012)

purenarcotic said:


> Why is she in the library talking out loud. Both stupid and incapable of following basic library rules.


only a few quiet areas tbh, they enforce those to the point that you can't use a laptop in those bits, but can work as groups in most spaces. the day i lost my voice and had to whisper to the library assistant, he was most confused


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## DotCommunist (Mar 26, 2012)

people who do book reviews using sparknotes and not actually reading the book always annoyed me.


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## mrs quoad (Mar 26, 2012)

Epic Onslow thread was perhaps the best ever.

"Will anyone write my Marketing dissertation for £250? I've got 10 days left, and haven't started yet..."

e2a: I've been unfair.

It was £300.


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## smmudge (Mar 26, 2012)

lol quoad quality thread  I reckon it's possible to write a dissertation in 10 days though. It would be shit, but possible.

I overheard some philosophy students saying that one of their coursemates was recently done for plagiarism. And 3rd year philosophy essays are 2000 words; it takes some laziness not to be arsed with just 2000 words!


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## Miss Caphat (Mar 26, 2012)

_angel_ said:


> Prince Harry?


 
what did he do?


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## _angel_ (Mar 26, 2012)

Miss Caphat said:


> what did he do?


Cheated allegedly. 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2004/oct/14/schools.uk2


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## Miss Caphat (Mar 26, 2012)

_angel_ said:


> Cheated allegedly.
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2004/oct/14/schools.uk2


 
yuck  that's pretty sad.


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## Threshers_Flail (Mar 26, 2012)

smmudge said:


> lol quoad quality thread  I reckon it's possible to write a dissertation in 10 days though. It would be shit, but possible.
> 
> I overheard some philosophy students saying that one of their coursemates was recently done for plagiarism. And 3rd year philosophy essays are 2000 words; it takes some laziness not to be arsed with just 2000 words!


 
My mate wrote half of his dissertation the night before it was due in, a history student at a Russell group uni, he got a 2:1.


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## toggle (Mar 26, 2012)

bastard.

but then in my second year, I lost an essay 3 hours before it was due. just coudln't find the electronic copy to print. I got a 2;1 on somehting i wrote in under 2 hours.

but then if you've done the reading for something, the writing up bit can be easy. sometimes easier if you have to do it fast and concentrate on bullshitting about it rather than nitpicking every details


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## BlueSquareThing (Mar 26, 2012)

_angel_ said:


> Cheated allegedly.
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2004/oct/14/schools.uk2


 
I'm not sure there's any allegedly about it.

Almost entirely responsible for changes to coursework requirements at GCSE as a result.


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## equationgirl (Mar 27, 2012)

mrs quoad said:


> Epic Onslow thread was perhaps the best ever.
> 
> "Will anyone write my Marketing dissertation for £250? I've got 10 days left, and haven't started yet..."
> 
> ...


Top quality thread, I think it should be nominated for the library project.

Whatever happened to Onslow anyway?


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## mrs quoad (Mar 28, 2012)

equationgirl said:


> Top quality thread, I think it should be nominated for the library project.
> 
> Whatever happened to Onslow anyway?


In the short-term? He buckled down, got an extension, submitted and got a 2:1 IIRC. I'd be slightly surprised if that isn't somewhere in the original thread.

In the long-term? Last log-in Christmas 2011. He posted a fair few threads about... erm... things like marketing diagrams. So I guess he found employment. Think he had a bit of a weird love-triangle thread, or something, at some point, too. Which probably wasn't work-related.


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## Blagsta (Apr 24, 2012)

Well today we had the majority of fellow students calling for the re-introduction of capital punishment and for prisoners having to pay back the costs of their incarceration upon release.

I despair


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## stuff_it (Apr 24, 2012)

mrs quoad said:
			
		

> In the short-term? He buckled down, got an extension, submitted and got a 2:1 IIRC. I'd be slightly surprised if that isn't somewhere in the original thread.
> 
> In the long-term? Last log-in Christmas 2011. He posted a fair few threads about... erm... things like marketing diagrams. So I guess he found employment. Think he had a bit of a weird love-triangle thread, or something, at some point, too. Which probably wasn't work-related.



Is there a venn diagram for the likelyhood of a love triangle being work related?



			
				Blagsta said:
			
		

> Well today we had the majority of fellow students calling for the re-introduction of capital punishment and for prisoners having to pay back the costs of their incarceration upon release.
> 
> I despair


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## purenarcotic (Apr 24, 2012)

Blagsta said:


> Well today we had the majority of fellow students calling for the re-introduction of capital punishment and for prisoners having to pay back the costs of their incarceration upon release.
> 
> I despair


 
Jesus Christ.  And these people want to be nurses?!


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## Kidda (Apr 24, 2012)

Blagsta said:


> Well today we had the majority of fellow students calling for the re-introduction of capital punishment and for prisoners having to pay back the costs of their incarceration upon release.
> 
> I despair


 
Ha they used to do that when i was at uni, it was made all the more scary because i was on a Youth Work course and trained with Social Workers. 

The SW would see no harm in spouting right wing shite and the room became so divided us Youth Workers demanded to be taught separate from them.


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## Blagsta (Apr 24, 2012)

it's usually me and the lecturers against the rest of the students


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## stuff_it (Apr 24, 2012)

Kidda said:


> Ha they used to do that when i was at uni, it was made all the more scary because i was on a Youth Work course and trained with Social Workers.
> 
> The SW would see no harm in spouting right wing shite and the room became so divided us Youth Workers demanded to be taught separate from them.


*prays this means an engineering course will be full of lefties*


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## Mr Moose (Apr 24, 2012)

Blagsta said:


> As some of you know, I'm in the first year of a mental health nursing diploma. I'm finding most of my fellow students really frustrating. We had a lecture today on the wider determinants of health and health inequalities. Most of the reaction from students was either to attempt to justify the equalities that exist in things like life expectancy, access to health care etc or to not see it as relevant to nursing.
> 
> Hardly any of them ever think about shit, or seem to do any reading beyond the bare minimum for the course. None seem interested or particularly clued up about anything that I find interesting about mental health, e.g. the impact of economic, cultural and social factors, the nature of "madness" and what that says about human nature etc. I feel really alienated from most of them.
> 
> I don't want any advice btw, just needed to get it off my chest!


 
It would concern me too. If they can't think critically they are not going to get much beyond the medical model.

It's no surprise though. I did a masters relating to health and social care and I reckon most of my fellow students could have been easily swopped with a business studies degree. I've never found social care full of radicals, though you'd think it might be.


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## Kidda (Apr 24, 2012)

Mr Moose said:


> It would concern me too. If they can't think critically they are not going to get much beyond the medical model.
> 
> It's no surprise though. I did a masters relating to health and social care and I reckon most of my fellow students could have been easily swopped with a business studies degree. I've never found social care full of radicals, though you'd think it might be.


 
In my experience it attracts people who have had bad things happen in their lives, this then qualifies them to understand everyone else's problems and so they set off on a academic quest to gain the qualifications needed to save people. 

Not everyone mind, just a good sum of them.


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## emanymton (Apr 24, 2012)

Blagsta said:


> Well today we had the majority of fellow students calling for the re-introduction of capital punishment and for prisoners having to pay back the costs of their incarceration upon release.
> 
> I despair


Sadly this is not surprising, I knew someone who taught social policy and she said many of the students just parroted shit from the Sun or the Mail. There the sort of people who think rags like these count as newspapers and reading them makes them intelligent and knowledgeable. She also had one student who wrote an easy arguing Thatcher was a Marxist and argued with her when she failed him, and another who in their second year didn't know the Liberal Democrats are a political Party.

My housemate teaches IT to first year engineering students and every year he gets a couple who don't know how to work out the volume of rectangle, as well as other sillyness

One of favorites (from a history tutor) is the student who while doing a module on 19th century Germany History had to write and essay on German unification, but wrote it on German unification following the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Apparently it was quite a good essay otherwise.

in principle I am all in favor of expanding higher education and think it should be free and open to all, but I have meet so many students that leave me thinking how the fuck did you get into university, I sometimes find it hard to hold to that principle. I think what really bugs me though are students who seem to have no interest in their subject and don't even care about learning, or think they know it all already.


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## miniGMgoit (Apr 25, 2012)

Hey Blagsta

Glad you ended up doing it.

I'm in my final year of a nursing degree down here in Australia and I feel your pain. Many of the students on my course clearly have no interest in the subject and are perpetually having to retake units. Much of our practical preparation for our clinical placements is now peer assessed and let me tell you. If I was admitted to the hospital up here in a couple of years time and any of the numpties I had to assess came anywhere near me I'd be kicking up a stink and asking for someone else.

One of the things I find most frustrating about being on a course with loads of people with zero interest is that there is literally no conversation in lectures beyond me and the lecturer. I'm a 'mature' student too and it's almost become sport now, you know, how long can I keep the conversation going. Quite often now I'm actually the only student around and have had more than the occasional lecture in a lecturers office. Then all the students call me a creep and a nerd because I get good grades and am on good terms with the lecturers. I point out that I am an adult and am comfortable in communicating with other adults which usually shuts them up.

Don't know where I'm going with all this. Fuck em, get what you need out of your education and fuck the rest of them.


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## equationgirl (Apr 25, 2012)

emanymton said:


> Sadly this is not surprising, I knew someone who taught social policy and she said many of the students just parroted shit from the Sun or the Mail. There the sort of people who think rags like these count as newspapers and reading them makes them intelligent and knowledgeable. She also had one student who wrote an easy arguing Thatcher was a Marxist and argued with her when she failed him, and another who in their second year didn't know the Liberal Democrats are a political Party.
> 
> My housemate teaches IT to first year engineering students and *every year he gets a couple who don't know how to work out the volume of rectangle,* as well as other sillyness
> 
> ...


 
I think you mean _area_ of a rectangle - a 2D shape can't have a volume


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## stuff_it (Apr 25, 2012)

emanymton said:


> My housemate teaches IT to first year engineering students and every year he gets a couple who don't know how to work out the volume of rectangle, as well as other sillyness


Isn't a rectangle a 2D shape?  

Area of a rectangle, volume of a box...


/pedantmode

And many many  for those students.


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## Teepee (Apr 25, 2012)

mrs quoad said:


> Epic Onslow thread was perhaps the best ever.
> 
> "Will anyone write my Marketing dissertation for £250? I've got 10 days left, and haven't started yet..."
> 
> ...



That thread reminded me about Aldeberan, haven't seen him for a while. I liked him.


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## equationgirl (Apr 25, 2012)

Teepee said:


> That thread reminded me about Aldeberan, haven't seen him for a while. I liked him.


Me too.


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## emanymton (Apr 25, 2012)

stuff_it said:


> Isn't a rectangle a 2D shape?
> 
> Area of a rectangle, volume of a box...
> 
> ...


Opps, it is a volume so the volume of a Cuboid then I think.

Anyway its L x H x W, even I know that.


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## Blagsta (Apr 25, 2012)

miniGMgoit said:


> Hey Blagsta
> 
> Glad you ended up doing it.
> 
> ...


 

I've just started my 2nd year, really enjoying the subject material so far.  Some of the students are showing a bit more interest in the subject material, but not to the extent of actually reading any books it seems.  A couple of students who sit behind me have taken to giggling whenever I voice an opinion, which is a bit irritating, but they're kids, I'm old enough to be their dad.  I just keep telling myself that my career will progress much quicker than theirs cos I'm actually interested in it and do some reading!


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## smmudge (Apr 25, 2012)

Blagsta said:


> A couple of students who sit behind me have taken to giggling whenever I voice an opinion, which is a bit irritating, but they're kids, I'm old enough to be their dad.


 
That reminds me of a time in first year we were discussing what "genre" meant in the arts, and the lecturer went through us one by one to give an example of a cinematic or theatrical genre. Annoyingly he made me go first so I thought...hmm what's an influential cinematic genre..."Italian neorealism". And quite a few people laughed; cue massive facepalm on my part when I realised I was obviously supposed to say something like "comedy", "horror" or "sci-fi". Luckily my friend sat next to me went next, and he went with "Brechtian alienation". 

It's like at school when you don't realise that what matters is the grades and what doesn't matter is what other people think, except this time you DO know that (though poor sods that have just got out of school probably haven't quite grasped it yet  )


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## Blagsta (Apr 25, 2012)

smmudge said:


> That reminds me of a time in first year we were discussing what "genre" meant in the arts, and the lecturer went through us one by one to give an example of a cinematic or theatrical genre. Annoyingly he made me go first so I thought...hmm what's an influential cinematic genre..."Italian neorealism". And quite a few people laughed; cue massive facepalm on my part when I realised I was obviously supposed to say something like "comedy", "horror" or "sci-fi". Luckily my friend sat next to me went next, and he went with "Brechtian alienation".
> 
> It's like at school when you don't realise that what matters is the grades and what doesn't matter is what other people think, except this time you DO know that (though poor sods that have just got out of school probably haven't quite grasped it yet  )


 
Yeah, some of them have a very school playground attitude to it all, where showing an interest and thinking about shit is not allowed.


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## purenarcotic (Apr 25, 2012)

Blagsta said:


> Yeah, some of them have a very school playground attitude to it all, where showing an interest and thinking about shit is not allowed.


 
Being the same age and giving a shit _really_ sucks.  You're a proper geek.  Barely anybody on the course speaks to me except to ask me a question about an essay they're struggling with cos they think I must know the answer cos I talk in the lectures.   My MA better be fucking better than this.


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## Blagsta (Apr 25, 2012)

that's shit


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## emanymton (Apr 25, 2012)

Blagsta said:


> I've just started my 2nd year, really enjoying the subject material so far. Some of the students are showing a bit more interest in the subject material, but not to the extent of actually reading any books it seems. A couple of students who sit behind me have taken to giggling whenever I voice an opinion, which is a bit irritating, but they're kids, I'm old enough to be their dad. I just keep telling myself that my career will progress much quicker than theirs cos I'm actually interested in it and do some reading!


The fact that you haven't turned round and smacked that must make you a candidate for canonization.

To add a bit of balance most of the students I have come across on my OU course have been decent, the ones that attend the tutorials anyway.


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## Blagsta (Apr 25, 2012)

emanymton said:


> *The fact that you haven't turned round and smacked that must make you a candidate for canonization.*
> 
> To add a bit of balance most of the students I have come across on my OU course have been decent, the ones that turn up to the tutorials anyway.


 
I believe there's something in the NMC Code of Conduct that prohibits that


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## DotCommunist (Apr 25, 2012)

I have to say, this thread makes me look more kindly towards the politics of my fellow ba students of english which I despaired of at the time. 1 proto-nihilist metal head and a mixture of apolitical/liberal/vague left. Maybe I was just lucky.

The advertising students were to a (wo)man absolute fuck-haired lackwits.


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## emanymton (Apr 25, 2012)

Any rational person would conclude it quite a reasonable thing to do.


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## toggle (Apr 25, 2012)

Blagsta said:


> Yeah, some of them have a very school playground attitude to it all, where showing an interest and thinking about shit is not allowed.


 
i've noticed that.

and not just from the young ones, there's a few of the mature students that have picked up the same bullshit attitude. trying to be one of the kids and best freind to all of them I think. thre's not many i have any time for, but even they feel that any time they do show any opinion or passion about their subjects, they have to apologise for speaking. cause giving a shit might offend someone.


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Apr 25, 2012)

Blagsta said:


> Yeah, some of them have a very school playground attitude to it all, where showing an interest and thinking about shit is not allowed.


What? You are actually studying at college. *singgers*

I went to university  a little older and found it odd that the kids straight out of college were all so eager to cut class and be bad boys. It did not occur to them that nobody gave a shit and that they could cut class for free by not being at university. Even though what I was doing was I suppose a relatively artistic subject, doing anything other than the bare minimum was swatting. One girl was proud of the fact she turned up to two lectures in one year (not proud of managing it twice, but proud that she was the ultimate slacker).
Hey I still liked drinking and all the other stuff, but it was only few lectures a week, almost felt part time compared to college.

Sadly it takes a little more maturity to take a mature attitude to learning in most cases.


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## smmudge (Apr 25, 2012)

TBF my degree is split between two subjects and in one the classes and tutorials are made up of people who are really interested in the subject matter, have opinions, ask questions etc., and they're mostly young uns, so you can get them!


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## Frances Lengel (Apr 25, 2012)

Blagsta said:


> I've just started my 2nd year, really enjoying the subject material so far. Some of the students are showing a bit more interest in the subject material, but not to the extent of actually reading any books it seems. A couple of students who sit behind me have taken to giggling whenever I voice an opinion, which is a bit irritating, but they're kids, I'm old enough to be their dad. I just keep telling myself that my career will progress much quicker than theirs cos I'm actually interested in it and do some reading!


 

At least they're not flicking your ears.


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## xenon (Apr 25, 2012)

I don't remember people being so obnoxious when I was at uni. Late 90's early 00's. It was an art course. It wasn't exactly a hotbed of political radicalism or towering intalects. But not full of blinkered tabloid line following fucknuts. Mind you I spose we could have all been obnoxious in our way and I've just mentally redacted it...

You'd kinda think though, anyone at university today must be a bit more politically aware or at least questioning.


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## xenon (Apr 25, 2012)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> What? You are actually studying at college. *singgers*
> 
> I went to university  a little older and found it odd that the kids straight out of college were all so eager to cut class and be bad boys. It did not occur to them that nobody gave a shit and that they could cut class for free by not being at university. Even though what I was doing was I suppose a relatively artistic subject, doing anything other than the bare minimum was swatting. One girl was proud of the fact she turned up to two lectures in one year (not proud of managing it twice, but proud that she was the ultimate slacker).
> Hey I still liked drinking and all the other stuff, but it was only few lectures a week, almost felt part time compared to college.
> ...



Yeah. Our situation was, if you didn't turn up. Who cared. You didn't do any work. Well you've fucked yourself over and wasted money. Didn't have fees to pay but the grant (remember them) didn't cover your rent, so you still had student loans. I drank too much but managed to get shit done eventually. 

What's up with kids today *old-er git*


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## miniGMgoit (Apr 26, 2012)

Blagsta said:


> I've just started my 2nd year, really enjoying the subject material so far. Some of the students are showing a bit more interest in the subject material, but not to the extent of actually reading any books it seems. A couple of students who sit behind me have taken to giggling whenever I voice an opinion, which is a bit irritating, but they're kids, I'm old enough to be their dad. I just keep telling myself that my career will progress much quicker than theirs cos I'm actually interested in it and do some reading!


 
Yep, that's exactly what I say to myself now. I'll be running the show before long and I'll be on there arses 
I'm on my big placement at the moment in an awesome ward. There's another 3rd year student in there with me who I don't recognize so must be a chronic class skipper. He had to handover to me yesterday. They are only letting him manage 1 patient and he had to hand the patient over to me. His preceptor stood behind him as he went through hand over. The patient was in because she has bardycardia, he had spent the whole day "caring" for the patient. At the end of handover the preceptor asked the student "whats bardycadia?". Well fuck me if the useless cunt didn't know. How the fuck he was providing any sort of care for the patient was beyond me. It's really basic stuff, you know, what wrong with your patient?
This is the same guy who didn't know why we need potassium, and what it's called if your potassium is low (again a patient he was "caring" for) and didn't bother to find out even though his preceptor kept asking him throughout the shift. Oh, and I found him looking at his emails at work yesterday ffs 

This is just one, I dread to think how many other fuck whits there are out there.


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Apr 26, 2012)

xenon said:


> Yeah. Our situation was, if you didn't turn up. Who cared. You didn't do any work. Well you've fucked yourself over and wasted money. Didn't have fees to pay but the grant (remember them) didn't cover your rent, so you still had student loans. I drank too much but managed to get shit done eventually.
> 
> What's up with kids today *old-er git*


 
I have never understood the 'dossing' students. Sure I like a drink and whatever but how hard are 4-6 lectures a week and four essays a year?

I think I got the first year of loans, maybe in my second year (can't remember). I do remember lamenting that you could no longer get housing benefit in the holidays (like some of my friends).
If it was like it is now there is absolutely no way I could have gone to college.


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## wayward bob (Apr 26, 2012)

am i still the lone dissenting voice on this thread?  or maybe art students are some kind of special breed?

we have a group project this term, just had our first tutorial. pretty much everyone in the group (of about 15) had opinions, ideas, plans, stuff to bring to the discussion. we have a "live brief" which means our work goes to a client who is going to use the "winning" design, public exposure etc. etc. the girls (and they are all girls, 19 or thereabouts) had obviously thought about the brief and had already gone beyond the research we'd been asked to do. in the couple of hours since the tutorial they've set up a private facebook group for us to share ideas/resources/plans and i'm really looking forward to the group element of the work.

and as a bonus point we appear to have a _decent_ tutor for this module


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## miniGMgoit (Apr 27, 2012)

Art students are a special breed.

I can't speak for many others but I think maybe being forced to write endless essays on (in my case at least) public health, health sociology, and medical and social ethics leaves your levels of interest severely depleted. In fact, right now all I want you to do is go and do a proper degree


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## wayward bob (Apr 27, 2012)

miniGMgoit said:


> In fact, right now all I want you to do is go and do a proper degree


 
who me? already got one of them


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## miniGMgoit (Apr 27, 2012)

wayward bob said:


> who me? already got one of them


Furry Muff


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## wayward bob (Apr 27, 2012)

miniGMgoit said:


> Furry Muff


 
_and_ one of them


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## tar1984 (Apr 27, 2012)

smmudge said:


> TBF my degree is split between two subjects and in one the classes and tutorials are made up of people who are really interested in the subject matter, have opinions, ask questions etc., and they're mostly young uns, so you can get them!


 
Same here, I feel quite lucky in this sense.  Most people in my classes are pretty enthused about the subject matter.


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## Miss-Shelf (Apr 28, 2012)

wayward bob said:


> am i still the lone dissenting voice on this thread?  or maybe art students are some kind of special breed?
> 
> we have a group project this term, just had our first tutorial. pretty much everyone in the group (of about 15) had opinions, ideas, plans, stuff to bring to the discussion. we have a "live brief" which means our work goes to a client who is going to use the "winning" design, public exposure etc. etc. the girls (and they are all girls, 19 or thereabouts) had obviously thought about the brief and had already gone beyond the research we'd been asked to do. in the couple of hours since the tutorial they've set up a private facebook group for us to share ideas/resources/plans and i'm really looking forward to the group element of the work.
> 
> and as a bonus point we appear to have a _decent_ tutor for this module


 my initial degree was like this - 20 people on the course , drama and theatre, students collaborated all the time on out of programme projects - it helped that not all students were straight from school and it helped that many of the staff worked in the industry and were scathing of students who didn't show initiative as they'd never make it in paid theatre work (I can't remember many who didn't do masses of extra work)

I lecture now in a different subject and this thread makes me feel very lucky that I have such lovely committed students (they are all over 25 though)


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## _angel_ (Apr 28, 2012)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> I have never understood the 'dossing' students. Sure I like a drink and whatever but how hard are 4-6 lectures a week and four essays a year?
> 
> I think I got the first year of loans, maybe in my second year (can't remember). I do remember lamenting that you could no longer get housing benefit in the holidays (like some of my friends).
> If it was like it is now there is absolutely no way I could have gone to college.


You only did four essays a year?


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Apr 28, 2012)

_angel_ said:


> You only did four essays a year?


 
I only ever did art and music production at college and university. There wasn't much writing involved. Actually I'm not sure I even did four essays a year.


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## _angel_ (Apr 28, 2012)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> I only ever did art and music production at college and university. There wasn't much writing involved. Actually I'm not sure I even did four essays a year.


I did a minor module in art in year one and think I must have done at least four essays in that and it wasn't even the major part of the course!


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Apr 28, 2012)

_angel_ said:


> I did a minor module in art in year one and think I must have done at least four essays in that and it wasn't even the major part of the course!


Well maybe I was lucky or I simply don't remember.
Certainly with music it was mostly practical, no exams.


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## stuff_it (Apr 29, 2012)

miniGMgoit said:


> Art students are a special breed.
> 
> I can't speak for many others but I think maybe being forced to write endless essays on (in my case at least) public health, health sociology, and medical and social ethics leaves your levels of interest severely depleted. In fact, right now all I want you to do is go and do a proper degree


What else did you expect though?


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## miniGMgoit (Apr 30, 2012)

stuff_it said:


> What else did you expect though?


I expected this, I was replying to Bobs post


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## Johnny Canuck3 (Apr 30, 2012)

killer b said:


> are they mainly straight from college? when i went to uni i was a few years older than everyone else on my course, and i really noticed the difference.


 
I noticed it as well when I went back to school. I was older than most of my comrades: I also had a wife and baby back in student housing. My comrades were mostly puking on their shoes at the Friday beer fest.


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## wayward bob (Jun 7, 2012)

the more i get to know these girls the more impressed i am 

they're switched on, interested, way more motivated than i ever was at that age. i've got a good 10 years photoshop on them and still they can do weird shit i've never heard of  and they know how to work the printers and all about dropbox


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## zippyRN (Jun 28, 2012)

Blagsta said:


> Some yes, but not all. I'm one of the oldest, being 40, but quite a few are mid to late 20's and have worked as healthcare assistants before coming on the course


 
gets ready for the back blast, but there a a proportion of ex HCAs who make  very poor RNs  becasue they don't get the fundamental differences in the roles ...


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