Moving forward in 2010/11…

 

Director, LSE External Study Rosie Gosling welcomes and encourages new students at the Singapore Institute of Management induction day.

Since the release of examination results this August, students have been experiencing a variety of mixed emotions, from elation to extreme surprise and disappointment.  Some  students have written to us for advice and so we thought that we should write this blog to give you some information and to help you understand what, if anything, you need to do. 

If you are surprised that your result was below your expectations,  you may consider having your marks checked.  However, before making a representation against your result it is important for you to be aware that you can only make a representation on administrative grounds. Our examinations are very carefully doubled marked and checked carefully.  Representations cannot be considered on academic grounds as each script is marked independently by two Examiners and the confirmed result is then determined at an Examination Board meeting. The decision of that Board is final. If you do wish to make a representation your script will not be re-examined by an academic but thorough administrative investigation will be undertaken. 

There have been a lot of successes this year with many students achieving first class honours in the degrees, or distinctions in the Diploma for Graduates, the Diploma in Economics and the Diploma in Social Sciences. Many students have been able to get new jobs or have been given promotion on the basis of their qualifications through the University of London International programme.  Others are getting ready to study in excellent universities in the United Kingdom, including LSE, and in the States and elsewhere. 

For those who are continuing with the EMFSS degrees and Diplomas, results are important as they can be very good indicators of your strengths and/or weaknesses. 

If you were surprised at your results, use the Examiners’ commentaries to see why you may have received the mark you did. The Examiners’ commentaries for the past three years are available from the home page of every course in the VLE. The 2010 Examiners’ commentaries are coming in thick and fast and will be available shortly. Reviewing the Examiners’ commentaries should help you to understand what the examiners expect of you to achieve good marks in the next set of examinations.  

If you have failed a subject, you may take it again (up to a maximum of two more attempts) on the degree, Diploma in Economics and the Diploma in Social Sciences, and once more on the Diploma for Graduates. If you failed a course this year, think about why you may have failed? 

• Some of you may not have understood the language or approach of the discipline. If this is the case approach the subject afresh, start again by reading the Subject guide and text books carefully and make sure that you understand the core concepts.  If there is a video on the VLE listen and watch carefully to see how the academic explains the approach that should be taken in your study of the subject. 
• Some of you may have ran out of time in the examination. If this was the case then you need to practice more, working through past and sample examination questions in timed conditions. In many cases students simply write down all they know, which is unfortunate because examiners want to see an answer to the question rather than read through all the material that they have written!
• Some of you will have done some question spotting and the questions you prepared for did not appear. Question spotting is very dangerous! Examiners can ask questions on any part of the syllabus and will do so; you must cover the whole syllabus (unless the syllabus specifically indicates otherwise).  Most examiners set questions across the syllabus and so you need to know and understand the material to apply it to answer the questions set. 

• Some of you may not have answered the questions directly. In our examinations this is probably the most usual case of failure. We ask specific questions and therefore the examiners require specific answers. For further advice on preparing yourself for the upcoming academic year, examinations and learning skills please do make use of the the resources designed to support your studies on the VLE and in Strategies for success. 

In all cases, think strategically, think sceptically and remember that you need to cover the whole syllabus in order to do well as examiners have a tendency to surprise!

I look forward to seeing lots of you at the Kick off day on the 25th September.

Best wishes

Rosemary Gosling 

Director, LSE External Study 

 

Inspiration from Alumni…

First of all, I hope that examinations are going well for you all.

If you are struggling to motivate yourself to revise I thought it would be useful to push you in the direction of the University of London’s YouTube channel.

In addition to Cameron Paige’s inspiring story (here) there are many examples of External Study students who have achieved great success since graduating from the University of London External System:

Of course, their success is based upon their own tremendous hard work and I hope that for at least some of you these stories will motivate you to push yourself just that little bit extra during revision time.

You too can achieve  your goals!

Further inspiration from External Study alumni can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/UniofLondon

Best of luck from all in the External Study office!

Moving forward…

Welcome to all new students and those returning for another Academic Year. 

Your results are now out and some of you are very happy, some reasonably relaxed and some, very surprised at their results and disappointed, wishing that you’d done better. There have been a lot of successes this year, many students received first class honors or distinctions in the Diploma in Economics and over 150 students will be studying at excellent universities in UK after obtaining a degree via the External System. Others are continuing on the External programme, or are now in good jobs, whilst others are still searching.

For those who are continuing with the EMFSS degrees and Diplomas, results are important as they can be very good indicators of your strengths and/or weaknesses. Use the Examiners Commentaries if you were surprised at your results to see why you may have received the mark you did. The Examiners Commentaries for the past three years are available from the home page of every unit in the VLE. The 2009 Examiners Commentaries are coming in thick and fast and will be available shortly. Reviewing these should help you work out what you need to do to get good marks in the next set of examinations.     

If you have failed a subject our system allows you to take it again, up to a maximum of three times. Think about why you have failed, most of you will know why. Some of you have not understood the language or approach of the discipline. If this is the case approach the subject afresh, start again by reading the subject guide and text books carefully and make sure that you understand the core concepts.   Some of you ran out of time, especially those who were taking Accounting or Statistics subjects.  If this was the case you need to practice more, working through examples in timed conditions.  Some of you will have done some question spotting and the questions you prepared for did not appear. Question spotting is very dangerous! Examiners can ask questions on any part of the syllabus and will do so, you must cover the whole syllabus (unless the syllabus specifically indicates otherwise).  Some of you may not have answered the questions directly, in our examinations this is probably the most usual case of failure.  We ask specific questions and therefore the examiners require specific answers! For further advice on preparing yourself for the upcoming academic year, examinations and learning skills please do make use of the Supporting your studies area of the VLE and Strategies for success.

Our examinations are very carefully marked and checked. You can of course ask for your marks to be re-checked. You cannot, however, ask for your papers to be re-marked as they have already been marked by at least two Examiners and in many cases checked by a third.

For those who have just completed a few units, this is an important time. Many of you will be applying for postgraduate study and will need to apply after your second year on the External programme, if you are completing in three years. Therefore any results that you have will be scrutinized. It is a much better idea to get excellent marks as you go along each year rather than wait until your final set of examinations.  Most universities and companies look at the spread of marks as well as the overall degree result so the ‘transcript matters’.

So welcome to the new session. Use your subject guides, associated reading and online resources on the VLE. And remember, you can contact and support other students via the VLE discussion forums. Please see my previous blog “Learning from each other” here.

In all cases, think strategically, think skeptically and remember that you need to cover the whole syllabus in order to do well as examiners have a tendency to surprise!

 

Rosemary Gosling

 

Director, LSE External Study

We are with you!

May and June are examination months for all External students. I am thinking about you at this time and hope that you will do well in the examinations.  I thought that it would be useful to remind you of some of the examination preparation suggestions made in Strategies for success.

1. Answer the question set: Remember that an examination is a test; it is a test of your command of the subject area. It is not an opportunity for you to let the Examiner know all you know about the subject. Therefore you should answer the questions specifically and directly.
2. Read the instructions: Make sure that you answer the correct number of questions and read carefully to ensure you answer all the subparts of questions which are divided in this way.
3. Put yourself in the Examiner’s place: Do not think that Examiners are there to fail you! They are there to grade your work and to report to the University of London on your ability to tackle the examination paper. They cannot see you and have no information about you. Therefore, you should use this opportunity to impress them not only with your knowledge but also by demonstrating your abilities to analyse the question and to answer it directly.  You should look at the unit information sheets to ensure that you have prepared enough to demonstrate the skills indicated in the learning outcomes.
4. Plan your time: Make sure that you plan enough time to answer all the questions that are required, and do not spend too much time on the questions that you are very happy about, leaving out those you feel are more difficult. Examiners are only able to award marks as they are listed on the examination paper -  they cannot add extra marks. Also remember that it is easier to get the first marks in any question, rather than the last few marks, so do make sure you at least attempt the required number.
5. Relax! It can sometimes be difficult to start writing in an examination hall. If you find yourself struggling, relax, rub your ears and move your feet, lower your shoulders and tell yourself that you have studied all year and therefore you should be able to pass. In short, relax and enjoy the experience.
6. Afterwards: After an examination you may feel disappointed because you think that you haven’t told the Examiners all you know and feel like you have not demonstrated your true ability. Remember that you are not supposed to be telling the Examiner everything that you know, but selecting the appropriate material to answer the question!

In preperation for your examinations please also take time to visit the ‘Supporting your studies’ area of the VLE and take advice from Educational Developer Neil Mclean, who gives revision tips and advice on the most effective ways to prepare for examinations here, and gives advice on what the marker is looking for when answering essay examination questions, whilst also discussing what plagiarism is and why it is problematic, here.  

I am fully behind you and send very best wishes from myself and the team here for a good performance this May and June.

 

Rosemary Gosling

Director, LSE External Study

Happy New Year to all students, lecturers, and friends!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Chinese New Year, the year of the Ox – Gong Xi Fai Cai

The new year brings the realisation that you have examinations this May and June. We wish you well in your preparation for these, but most importantly please remember that the deadline for returning your examination entry form to the University of London is 1 February 2009. (Some examination authorities require even earlier registration).

The start of a new year is a time for good resolutions and I believe that many of you will have decided to spend more time studying and revising. You have set admirable goals of working even harder and given up some other activities to ensure that you have enough time to work. Set realistic targets and keep to them, rather than unrealistic targets which will be impossible to reach.

The dramatic changes that are occurring in the world economy with the subsequent loss of jobs and financial insecurity for many will affect us all and some of you will be worried about the future. At this time it is important to develop additional skills and aptitudes, particularly those of scepticism and flexibility as so many things have changed. Huge financial institutions have gone bankrupt; big outsourcing companies have been found to be corrupt; the global car industry is in serious decline and the commodities markets are in disarray. Interest rates are at an all-time low and for those who have been deferring gratification for a bright future have seen a dramatic fall in the stock markets. What will the future bring?

The important thing to remember is that studying can make a difference: it can make you more adaptable. The way that you study will help develop the softer skills required to adapt to the rapidly changing environments but also the tools to analyse them. Please don’t try to memorise the materials presented to you but keep asking the questions ‘why’ and ‘how’ did these changes happen? What went wrong with the financial markets; why did confidence drop? How do the theories that you have been working on explain these changes? More importantly, are these theories perhaps incapable of helping us to understand the situation we find ourselves in. Be sceptical of the media and read the stories of the crisis carefully; often the examples they use to demonstrate the points they want us to remember are not valid. Question the sources of the data and discuss the issues with your friends and/colleagues.

The units which you are studying indicate that we require you to know, to think and to reflect on what you have learnt and to apply it when necessary. They will certainly provide you with the necessary tools to analyse new situations, and to deal with the data and examples that are presented to you.

It may be difficult to study with so much uncertainty but this is the time to develop your ‘human capital’ and your transferable skills. Remember that the process of studying is as important as learning your material and the skills you develop will always be useful. The best way of gaining these skills is to engage in discussions and debates. (For more information please see Strategies for success, chapter 3, Learning skills for success). Discussion and debate can be done in a college setting, on the discussion forums in the VLE, with friends and, if there is no-one else around, with yourself!

Best wishes for the new year from us all at LSE External Study.

 
Rosie Gosling