Terrified of failing (1 Viewer)

[Hannelore]

Hi all

I was wondering if I could get some input on something. I'm currently doing a B Ed/B Arts (secondary) degree at USYD. One of the core units that I am doing (I am in second year) is EDSE2002 Indigenous Education Secondary Schools.

I very recently received a grade that I got for a tutorial presentation for the unit. We got 16/30. Needless to say, I am incredibly shocked and disappointed. We worked very hard on the presentation and I really believed that we had done well. Since we were only given one copy of the feedback, I don't actually have it with me, and my partner is unable to get it to me until the next (and final) tutorial. We had to rush to class the day I received it so I never got a chance to look at it, not even to look at the grade.

I am currently working on another group assignment (due Monday) which pretty much all of the people that I know in the unit have complained about it being terribly vague and confusing. I did ask the unit coordinator about something that I found very ambigious, so I think I am okay in that regard, but the rest of it is disappointingly vague and now I am having doubts as to whether I am even doing okay, especially given how badly I did for the presentation. Clearly I didn't understand the requirement for that properly, even though we really thought that we had done fine.

What is even more frustrating, is that we have not received grades or feedback for the other assignment, an essay, that we did earlier on in the semester. They posted a general feedback for everyone, but it's not very helpful, and I don't know what really applies to me, like what I should be working on. We get the essay back on Tuesday (the day after the final assignment is due, so that's not terribly helpful XD).

Basically the point is I am currently driving myself mad with fear that I am not even going to pass this unit. I have no idea what I got for the essay, but the poor grade for the presentation has really shaken my confidence. And if I were to fail this core unit then I would be a whole year behind in my degree. I have never had this problem before; usually I get fairly prompt feedback, and I have been pretty pleased with my grades during my nearly two years of uni so far, but this has me feeling like I might actually fail a unit, and a unit which would be pretty much the worst of all my units to fail XD

And that sort of turned into an essay, so thanks to anyone who actually read this far.

Does anyone have any advice? I'm feeling pretty shaken. The whole semester has been pretty stressful, and this is pretty hard on top of the general end of sem stress.

I suppose it would be nice to get some thoughts about worst case scenario, which would be failing the unit. For example, I'm not quite sure how specifically things would work if I had to wait to repeat a core unit; would I just do nothing until next year sem 2 rolls around, or would I do some more of the units for my major teaching area and just do no education units?

I hope that this is coherent enough to understand because I'm pretty freaked out right now XD

I hope that everyone else is doing well with the semester. Not long now (which is both nice and not so nice, really XD)

 

[Queenroot]

bump

tl;dr

 

[astroman]

tl;dr

 

[Hannelore]

I actually didn't know what tl;dr was so I had to look it up XD Oops. Sorry; I clearly should stay off the internet when I'm panicking because I ramble.

 

[flashyGoldFish]

So you can either freak out and spend your time freaking out and fail or you can apply yourself as much as you can while theres still time and pass.

Or if you fail you get two choices. To mope around about it and get no where or look at it as something that is character building and work even harder if you have to repeat the unit and ace it. Life can be challenging.

 

[Kittyrules]

im so blind somtimes, and i misread this as terrified of falling. so i was pretty confused while i read your post, trying to see how it connected with falling.

So you can either freak out and spend your time freaking out and fail or you can apply yourself as much as you can while theres still time and pass.

Or if you fail you get two choices. To mope around about it and get no where or look at it as something that is character building and work even harder if you have to repeat the unit and ace it. Life can be challenging.

but this ^ perfectly summarises what you need to know.

 

[Hannelore]

Oops, like my actual question got lost amongst the rambling. Sorry ^^;

I appreciate the virtual kick in the pants I am feeling more calm about things and I recognise that it would not be the end of the world; nothing to do but my best at this point.

But anyway, what I really wanted to find out (because I am just not so sure about how it would work specifically) is what happens when you fail a core unit. So, obviously I couldn't go on to the year 3 education units, but would I be able to do other units of the degree next year, say more of my major subject area subjects?

And would this make it part time semester one?

Hope that makes a bit more sense

 

[peri24]

i wouldnt worry about that.

 

[flashyGoldFish]

By wondering what happens if you fail before youve failed, youre basically willing yourself to fail. Cut out the fail thinking and get studying

 

[Blue Suede]

Oops, like my actual question got lost amongst the rambling. Sorry ^^;

I appreciate the virtual kick in the pants I am feeling more calm about things and I recognise that it would not be the end of the world; nothing to do but my best at this point.

But anyway, what I really wanted to find out (because I am just not so sure about how it would work specifically) is what happens when you fail a core unit. So, obviously I couldn't go on to the year 3 education units, but would I be able to do other units of the degree next year, say more of my major subject area subjects?

And would this make it part time semester one?

Hope that makes a bit more sense

1. Speak to your tutor directly to get feedback. If they take too long to respond, take it to the subject coordinator. If they still fail to respond sufficiently, take it to SRC or Student Affairs. It's part of a uni requirement that they answer your enquiries fairly and within a reasonable time-frame.

2. Your faculty should have a year or course coordinator for your course. If you fail, speak to them about degree planning and what your options are in terms of repeating the subject.

 

[Hannelore]

By wondering what happens if you fail before youve failed, youre basically willing yourself to fail. Cut out the fail thinking and get studying

Oh, I can't exactly do any studying for this one, because the final assessment was handed in some days ago. My partner and I were both trying our best to do the best job that we could, but my anxieties arose after it was finished. Apologies if that was unclear ^^;


The way that I try to deal with my anxieties is to try to figure out what the worst that could possibly happen is (after doing my best to avoid that, of course ) so I just wanted to find out what the protocol would be IF worst case scenario happened and I did fail the unit. I don't think that it's going to happen; we finally got the essay back (a day after submitting the final assessment, although it wouldn't have mattered if we got it back earlier because they didn't give a single word of feedback; just ticked some boxes, bleh, so that wasn't terribly helpful) and I did much better than expected, plus the grade I received for the last group assignment for this unit was bumped up because it was not marked 100% correctly. So I don't actually think that the worst will happen.

I do get what you're saying though

 

[Hannelore]

1. Speak to your tutor directly to get feedback. If they take too long to respond, take it to the subject coordinator. If they still fail to respond sufficiently, take it to SRC or Student Affairs. It's part of a uni requirement that they answer your enquiries fairly and within a reasonable time-frame.

2. Your faculty should have a year or course coordinator for your course. If you fail, speak to them about degree planning and what your options are in terms of repeating the subject.

Are you referring to my mentioning about not getting the essay back, and so not having feedback to go on for the final assessment...?

If so, the unit coordinator herself that said we would only get essay back during this week's tutes (which for me was a day after final assessment was due). Of course, there was no written feedback on it anyway, just ticked boxes next to the marking criteria, which is a bit irritating.

Thank you for the info