Home of Slightly Cracked Dreams

With everything that has happened this semester, what with the moving house, spending exams looking for work rather than studying, and no on-campus session to motivate me, I was genuinely worried I wouldn’t pass this semester, let alone reach my goal of maintaining a credit average.

So it was a surprise to discover I managed a pass (for Property Law) and a credit (for Equity).

Of course I am disappointed not to get that credit in property, considering I did pretty well on the assignment, but I’m terrible in exams. The pressure is too much, I can’t think, I need to talk through problems to get to the solution, and most importantly as “technically” gen y, my hand gets sore after I’ve been writing for 10 minutes, let alone 3 hours.

Still, the good news is I passed, and while I can’t quite squeeze in a law subject this semester, I can see that long term I’m still on track to get there.

Yes, I’m just a little bit happy about that.

This semester was awful. What with the whole moving thing, M&M starting two new schools, ballet, soccer, swimming, etc etc etc.

The exams were awful. Just awful. After the Tuesday exam-that-nearly-wasn’t-because-I-arrived-and-noone-was-told-I-was-coming-and-thus-my-exam-wasn’t-there that eventually was faxed and so I started late but wasn’t allowed to leave beause I could be cheating (I’m not sure how though, but whatever) and it was AWFUL.

Then Thursday’s exam I though I’d done quite well, until I was talking to the only other person doing the same exam as me afterwards and it seemed I’d only got 1 out of 3 issues in the first question. Woops.

Anyway, I have since recieved my assignment results and while not brilliant, they are certainly encouraging considering the disrupted semester. Both putting me on target to maintain my credit average, although possibly not after the exams, but we’ll see.

Now all that remains is to wait for the results, and whether I’m accepted back into the education so I can get that finished.

I’m still studying for my exams.

Well, occasionally.

A lot has happened, but then, not a lot has happened.

One thing that has happened is that I have decided the time is right to finish my Dip Ed that I started in 2002. I applied for readmission last night, with 3 subjects left to complete, and pending successful completion of those at the end of this year I will be a fully qualified Business studies and Legal studies teacher.

This does of course mean the law degree will be put on hold for at least six months. Possibly 12 depending on the work I get next year (if any).

I also have one exam down and one more to go.

I’m hanging out for it to be over to be honest - Only 26 hours to go. Not that I’m counting. Much.

Honest.

Although I’m a little scared now. The subject I was most afraid of has turned out to be the easiest, and the one I thought was going to be a breeze, well, not so much.

On the plus side I managed to change my location of exams and I’m now sitting them at the university that’s about 2 minutes drive, rather than some building in the busiest part of the city with no carparking and limited public transport starting at 8:30am which would mean leaving home at 5am just to get there, not to mention carting my 6!! textbooks plus notes etc from the car into the exam (yeah, it’s open book).

So I think that’s a bonus. Hubby still needs to take time off - and he gets to take Miss Moo to her swimming lesson. But it’s one less thing to stress about.

Still, I wish there were more hours in the day.

2 blocks of chocolate

2 bowls of cauliflower soup

8 cans of Pepsi

2 cans of Lemonade

2 packets of pretzles

1 frozen lasagne

and 60 hours later the take home exam is done. I’m now a total expert in the Native Title Act 1993, and its 1998 amendments, the Fauna Conservation Act 1974, and the ficticious Save the Turtles Act 1980.

If I’m MIA a bit these days it is because I’m trying to study. I have a take home exam this weekend which needs to be completed in just 80 hours.

Despite my best intentions I spent most of last weekend working on an assignment that was due on Monday. I actually finished the first draft on Saturday afternoon, but spent Saturday evening, a few hours on Sunday and a couple more on Monday morning getting it under the word count.

Now we’re not talking silly word counts here. The assignment called for 1500 words. My first draft, lacking an introduction and conclusion totalled over 1900 words.

After hours of reading, re-reading, re-drafting, and proof reading by 3 different people, I managed to get to total of the body down to 1200 words, which actually left me with a few more than needed to write a killer introduction and conclusion.

But why do words count so much? Why do I have to spend more time trying to get my answer under the word limit than actually doing the assignment?

I get that I prattle on a bit, and I was somewhat repetative, but even removing all the guff I’m used to writing because Business subjects ask for 3000 word essays and I totally always went for the +/- 10% rule (ok, the minus part of it anyway) in those but apparently they don’t do that in law and when they say 1500 words they mean a maximum 1500 words and not a single one more, I was still sitting around the 1600 words.

And yes, reading hundreds of answers to the same problem must get terribly tedious, but this is an exercise in answering a legal problem, not paring an answer down to the absolute minimum number of words possible to get your message accross.

I removed quotes, cases that I thought were relevant, but simply did not have the room to leave in, and spent hours with my step-mother rewording things to cut just a few words from each sentence.

Wouldn’t it have been better if I’d had that time to make sure I actually had the right answer in the first place?

My cousin asked me yesterday how I find the time to study with 3 kids and school and swimming etc etc etc.

Last night was a perfect example.

I was wondering around the house procrastinating the study, as you do, when M&M (5) spotted me and said:

“Get back to your computer!” Complete with one hand on the hip and the other pointing in the direction of the study.

“But I don’t wanna” was my increadibly mature response.

So she grabbed my hand and dragged me to my desk, where she proceeded to pull up a chair to watch me and make sure I did actually study, and not play silly card games.

Then came the kicker:

“No more Wii for you until you finish your study.”

So I poked my tounge out at her and managed to get some work done before the tables were turned when I sent her off to bed.

It really is helpful to have the support of your family, especially your kids.

Ok, I did more than pass. Two credits for me thank you (70%) for my two subjects last semester.

I was more than a little worried with one drama after another for Torts. I’m sure I was about ten centimetres away from a complete mental collapse, what with being expected to complete part two of an assignment without the results or feedback on part one, as well as covering material that hadn’t been covered in class, and according to our schedule should have been covered in a lecture the Friday before the final assignment was due (on the following Tuesday), however due to the lecturers illness that lecture was canceled but the material was still assessed.

I have so many complaints I don’t really know where to start, but a credit is still a good mark despite all that. In my previous degrees I would have been happy with credits in my best subjects.

I’m not sure what’s happening with uni this year. I’m supposed to be enrolling in Constitutional Law and Administration I and Property Law in Equity I for the first semester, then the follow on subjects in the second semester. I have applied to transfer to a university in Queensland, tragically negating my need to flit off to Sydney twice a year, but  saving thousands of dollars a year in the process. That is of course, assuming I get into the Queensland university I’ve applied for, and assuming I do it so I can start in March.

I hate not knowing what lies ahead, but I’m hopeful that in the next few weeks I’ll have a better idea of what we’ll be doing for the year, and be able to settle myself down and focus on getting through the next part of my degree.

Well, another year of uni that is. Only 4 more to go.

I stayed up late Sunday night/Monday morning to get my last bits finished. It’s not due until today but I had had enough. There were so many drama’s to do with the last subject that I am not really too fussed on what I get now, as long as I pass (and considering I need 5/40 to pass I think my chances are pretty good).

The drama’s all started, I suspect, when the course co-ordinator gave herself 28 days to mark and return the previous assignment. The structure of assessment for this course was layered ie:

1st assignment 10%

2nd assignment 30%

3rd assignmenr 40%

With 20% for in class participation. The idea being that we would build on the feedback from each assignment in completing the next one, and each one was progressively longer, worth more, and more difficult. The first assignment was 500 words and an outline, for which I recieved 8/10, and as that was the top mark in the class, I felt pretty good about it. When I completed my second assignment I wasn’t so sure, so was looking forward to some feedback.

Apparently they were posted on Thursday. From Sydney. 2,500km away. A minimum of 3 days to get here.

I emailed the co-ordinator on Thursday night asking for my mark and any feedback she could give me to assist me to complete the assignment. No response was forthcoming.

On Friday I found out why - she was rushed to hospital Thursday night. I haven’t heard any reports on her progress but I hope she’s doing well.

I stalked patiently waited for the senior tutor to return my calls during the day, to discover I had recieved a mark of 19/30, but as he hadn’t marked any papers, much less laid eyes on mine, he couldn’t give me much in the way of feedback - so I was none the wiser, apart from the fact something I did in the second assignment clearly wasn’t right. Unfortunately I had no idea what that was.

So I decided to work with what I had. I worked hard over the weekend to get it done by Monday and give me time to get some other things done around the house and while I had some extra daycare days booked up my sleeves.

But that, in a nutshell, is the drama of this last assignment, and why, just now, I couldn’t care less what I got. I’m sure when my assignment arrives tomorrow or Thursday I will be very upset because despite changing the way I answered the question and my structure I am positive I repeated the same mistakes that I didn’t have a chance to correct.

Needless to say I am drafting an email to the coordinator to air my concerns about the nature of the assessment.

I know because Microsoft Office told me so. Or more specifically didn’t tell me I’d spelled it wrong.

Which means I’m going to have to proof read this assignment I’m thisclose to finishing much more closely.

But on the plus side, I am nearly finished my second assignment of the semester. Of five assignments. I am looking forward to the next one. Reading about poor sexual assault conviction rates can get really depressing after a while.  Bring on some good negligence cases for me to sink my teeth into. After a few days rest to get the house back into shape of course. Because for some reason I can’t study AND keep the house tidy. What’s with that?