University cruelty

I am very worried about this assignment (I've mentioned it before) its all about Huffman encoding and entropy. I understand some of it, but the assignment is very hard, and there isn't any easy questions on it, basicaly I don't understand it enough to get 40% in it, and its only worth 50% of the module with a harder one to follow.

Why have they give us this assignment during the most stressful semester when millions of stuff is due in?

If I don't pass this at 40% I don't get a degree, its as simple as that.

 

Thats what happens at uni.

 

Who said degrees were supposed to be easy?

 

Nobody but all the modules so far have been quite easy to pass 40% (3rd) but to get anything above 60% its really hard, luckily its been stuff I have understood. Three people have dropped out all ready in because of this one assignment, and I don't think its fair in the 3rd year.

Its also worded in a way that makes things harder to understand. Its not the content I object to, I understand a lot of that Huffman stuff, I have managed to derive a table and tree, but that dosn't answer the questions, if it was simple produce a Huffman tree I could do it, but some of the questions do not even form gramaticaly correct sentances.

I have done to much hard work and got myself into too much debt to fail my degree becuase of this stupid thing.

 

First 20% of the effort gets the first 80% of the result. That's true not only in doing a degree (or any course), but real world projects too. No doubt you'll have experienced that already.

You just have to do the best you can. If the assignment is genuinely too hard to too many people then they will moderate the result. If people are throwing away years of work on a course over a single assignment then they are incredibly short sighted.

And I got my degree (2nd class) with several modules that I found too hard and several that I failed (maths and control theory). You make up ground on the stuff that does suit you.

 

I hope so, I worked really hard last year and managed to do very well, ( I got 68%) and for that I had to spent about 50 hours on some assignments but I knew I could do it so I put lots of effort into it. That will help this year, I have just managed to answer an other question which now means I understand the next one. So I guess this is exactly what you mean by 20% of the first effort gets 80% of the result.

The reason they droped out is they are defering their studies till next year, this assignment also co-inciding with the exam results from last semester, so it all got too much. I am working 20% harder this year, and my grades are on average 15% lower.

I also feel guilty when I am not doing work, I had that feeling in the last year of college, I feel guilty for being on here now and its 12:25! Argh well at least I only have eight weeks to go.

Also you did very well to get a 2:2 in electrical engineering becuase that is pretty much three years of what I am doing now.

 

Welcome to the world LOL, it dosn't get any easier.

 

Stop whinging

Amazingtrade.

You have no right to a degree. You should only get one by sheer hard graft.

I am a pensioner and still paying 40p in the pound in tax in order to pay for your education and I expect value for money.

So spend more time on your studies and less time whinging here. learn to live a can do attitude rather than feeling sorry for yourself.

Regards

Mick

 

The reply by mick parry is quite blunt, but I tend to agree with him. I had to work bloody hard for my degree. The impression I get from your posts is that you have maybe coasted a bit up to now and reality is beginning to bite. I'm glad that you are getting the hang of it now and seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I hope everything works out.

 

I do work very hard believe me, I am often up to 2:00am doing university work, I also put a lot of effort into it, I have had to give up any part time work I did before, and I now go clubbing about once a month every/three weeks instead of weekly.

Its just with this module it seems if you don't understand it fully you can't even pass at 40%, and if you don't pass all modules at 40% you fail your degree thats why I am so worried about it.

 

AT

IME, I really do believe university lecturers are looking for the same trotted out answers to their questions that they've always had. They want text book solutions to text book problems - no marks for original thought.

If you find the answers to the questions in books, doesnt really matter if you understand it!

Finally, robot-like university lecturers IME use the same assignments year in, year out.

Is there anybody you know who did the course last year? There could be copies of that assignment available for pilfering.

 

IME students have a tendency to confuse wacky flights of fantasy with original thought. Any scientific / engineering undergraduate degree is inevitably going to be learning the basics as a base for a potential career in research, and there are well-understood 'right' answers for the vast majority of the likely content of said degrees.

Sometimes, though academics in this country are required to depend on research results for their existence, so it's not all that surprising that many of them prefer not to devote more time than they have to to teaching.

 

However, there are many who manage original things.

My final year project was the simulation and characterisation of a new type of transistor that was being produced as part of a research project. In the end, it was simply simulation because the devices did not arrive on time. That's the nature of cutting edge research.

Mick - maybe a fraction of a penny in the pound of your money goes into higher education. AT will still be leaving university with debts of £6-£10k or more, and from where he is now it would be nice to know that you will actually have something to show for that. Still, over the next few years I would think that AT will be putting much more than average back into tax and NI just as I am.

Just keep at it AT.

 

I hope you're right, my debts will be about £7k I think. I know my mates who haven't gone to university and who are may age are still stuck doing the same jobs they did when they left school earning £11k a year so hopefully it will pay of eventualy.

My final year project isn't exactly ground breaking but its involved, its producing a site which lets customers choose components to build a PC, i.e you select the CPU, then compatable motherboard are displayed, you have to select one etc. Then when the customer has completed the order they check despatch status, can check BIOS settings etc. The aim of it is to beat any system that Dell or the like have. It also has to be accessable, which is quite hard when you're using ASP.NET. I've also had to teach myself the programming language where is probably where a lot of marks will be alocated.

I'm at the stage now where its half way complete with many bugs that need fixing, so I will be having many late nights I think. I am dedicating today purely for this project.

 

If you'd taken a proper - arts - degree, rather than computer science, you could have spent your time at university drinking absinthe, shagging women, and taking acid, all in the name of research. It's your own fault.

-- Ian

 

Thats only at certain ex polys (me bad) I do know some students that do behave like this, but 99% of them will never get to the final yer and if they do they will probably get a poor grade of fail. The first year on some courses is a different matter.

My sister is doing Sociology at Manchester, she has a lot more spare time than me but then she is in the first year so it should be easier, but she still has quite a lot of work load.

I suppose any subject which a high amount of practicle stuff in it is going to have a lot of workload, I knew there would be before I started because of college.

I like to keep busy anyway so it dosn't bother me apart form the stress but I just hate it when there seems no way out of an assignment.

Oh well only 8 weeks to go and I will be a member of the unemployed underclass. Although I am not signing on as it wouldn't be moral to do so in my case.

 

AT - take it from me. You'll put quite enough into national insurance over the years, and you'll get very little out of it. Take what you can.

 

saftey net or crutch? You decide.

I agree 100% with Isacc if you are entitled to payments from the state then take them - they are yours by right.

You may well feel that you do not yet have enough moral fibre to take what is yours without getting hooked on them and so becoming "a member of the unemployed underclass". The payments should in my view be seen as a short term saftey net and not a long term crutch on which to rest.

 

See, I took the same pov you did. I've never received any benefits since child benefit ended. Since then, I've paid several thousand pounts into NI, and several thousand more into tax.

State 1, Isaac 0

 

well i have theory that all of the lectures have a meeting and decide to set all deadliens as close s possible to each other, this uasdually happens after a prolonged period of no dealines. If they could spread trhem out just a little it would make things so much easier.

This happened about a month ago, i had two weeks solid of asiingments, tests, presentations to do and hand in one after the other. inevitably its now happening again as its near end of semester

next year can only get more fun theyres always gonna be certain mdoles which are a real pain in the ass. Mind you this is what business management courses are always gonna be like, lots of topics/modules have to be crammed in.

I have approx 18 hours of lectures a week, compared to say the 6 my cousin has studying geog at reading