It’s past time for my annual moan so excuse me.

My uni semester starts on Monday. I happen to not have classes until Tuesday but either way it is Friday today – Friday of the week before.

The system is 3 classes per semester (it’s very tightly controlled). This time one of those classes is obviously led by an efficient tutor. Well over a month ago through the uni’s online portal access was granted to that class. There was prep work for the holidays. Since then he has put up a clear guide to how the class was going to run AND the material needed to be studied in advance for week one.

This only highlights how bloody awful it is that ON THE FRIDAY BEFORE I still have no access to my other two classes. One of those has put up a reading list through the library system so I self-assigned myself some prep work. For the other class? That happens to be my very first class of the semester – Absolutely nothing.

It is the Friday before. I know I’m repeating myself but it is literally just one working day – today! – from classes starting.

Do they not want us to prepare in advance for class? As it stands at 11am on Tuesday I will be going in completely blind.

Of course from previous years I know full well that even if admin do flip the switch so that the classes show on my profile, there is no guarantee there will be any information there as it’s up to the tutors to be organised enough to put it up.

I’m not a very good student (though I’d like to be) I’m just scared of failing (this year the marks start to count) and information is a good weapon to fight that terror.

And it is the Friday before. Not totally unreasonable right?

The left hand doesn’t talk to the right at my uni. I’ve known that for ages but it still makes my eyes roll when I see it. This time I haven’t had confirmation that my class choices have been accepted (they aren’t appearing on my list, it’s not just lack of an email) but my synched timetable feed on my phone is showing them.

This semester doesn’t look so bad. I have Monday’s not timetabled which is always nice next to a weekend, one 9am start but as when I’d tried to work out the timetable on my own I had made it two that’s not so bad either. There will be a campus dash on Friday afternoons but as the lecture and seminar are for the same class I won’t be the only one running late every week.

Next semester though, so many 5pm classes :/ and I prefer 9am to those because I can get up early enough to beat the rush hour, I don’t want to have to wait until like 7pm to go home to miss it. I loathe rush hour driving ugh. There’s this one roundabout in particular where the road goes from two lanes down to one which bottlenecks and the other drivers scare me. Not looking forward to that.

Anyway lack of official confirmation or not looks like I got my choices. I remain a little sad as there was a class I really wanted to take which clashed on the timetable, you would think five months later I would have forgotten but nope I still wish.

Right thus far this month I’ve not done anything that I said I was going to do.

That feels really sucky and bad inside.

So I’m going to go make myself miserable for a week and churn out my stupid assignments. That won’t make me feel better, in fact I’ll probably feel worse as it’ll be then mid-month with zero progress on what I intended, but that’s my fault for getting in a weird headspace for the past 10 days.

Three assignments. 5700 words. Doesn’t sound like much when I put it like that. Feels a bit like an impossible mountain though, always does before I get started, like can I really get this done :/ obviously I do come out the other side, I have done before and I will do this time. It’s just staring down the barrel of the assignments is quite intimidating.

I’m actually going to close the tumblr tab lest I give into the urge to whine. Nobody wants that, not even me.

#shutting up now#why do I always get myself into states like this?#seriously self sort it out you do know better

I just went to make coffee and the hot water is broken and there’s no way I’m paying for a cup *hisses* “it’s a traaaaap”

*is a cheapskate*

*is grumpy*

It’s not the caffiene it’s the warmth, I find it comforting and I have the stupid lecture today 🙁 oh and I know I said I wouldn’t whine on here anymore *sniggers* mmm that resolution didn’t last 2 minutes did it? /sigh

After flipping a coin several times and rambling on for ages and going round in circles I have made a decision!

On Friday I will go look up as many books on the reading list for the Early Medieval History as is sensible. That way I can banish my idealistic whimsical fantasy related to it, and hopefully replace it with what the reality of studying it would be like aaaaand then maybe I’ll have an answer.

It kinda boils down right now to what do I want to study more – linguistics or early medieval europe history? They were both my initial first choice picks and I think I’m kinda stuck on the fact that I can’t do both, and so I’m looking at the alternate choices of what I’ll have to do if I pick one over the other and just getting myself extremely confused.

Extremely confused /headdesk

For anyone remembering my panicked rambles, I have settled the scriptwriting question – that is over!

Now I have a new problem.

Do I want to take a class on linguistics, about how language can be used, controlled, corrupted and change over time?
OR
Do I want to take a class on gender and perspective in fiction?

Influenced by the choice above, so if I choose the linguistics class I can’t take early medieval history and vice versa.

Do I want to take a class on the history of the cold war?
OR
Do I want to take a class on early medieval history covering over 800 years of various empires?

—-

Honestly I do not know! The more I read the information, the more I want to just take everything but that’s not an option *snorts*

Just to bash the UK for a second to be honest this is the problem with our university system. Because we have to pick essentially I guess what we major in before we even start, we can’t then change our mind and take other classes. I mean I’m sure that all systems have their faults and it is likely to be a case of ‘grass is always greener’ and I’m just moaning because I don’t want to pick. I hate choosing!

Seriously though I would have taken the history course but I can’t do exams and a lot of mandatory classes have exams. Alternatively I might have taken American Studies but that has a mandatory year abroad and I hate leaving my house as it is. So I wound up on English Literature which doesn’t have either of those problems except for the fact that I much prefer the others.

Originally posted by allthereactions

This is literally me right now because I do not know the answer. They are equal in terms of how they are taught and what the assessments are like, the debate is purely on topic. Ahhhhhhhhh!

emospritelet replied to your post “timelordthirteen replied to your post “So I spoke to a graduate from…”

I’d say go with your choice. You know you don’t want either of the other choices so the script writing module sounds like the least worst option, and you may find it suits your style far more.

You are right! I am quite technically orientated, I did programming before I turned to English, so that part of scriptwriting doesn’t bother me. I think I just need to pull up my big girl pants so to speak :p and stop agonising over it. I need to make a decision and then draw a line because there’s only so much “well what if?” back and forth I can do.

*hugs* thanks for caring!

timelordthirteen replied to your post “So I spoke to a graduate from my uni course today. They told me one of…”

If it sucks can you just withdraw and then take something else next semester? Is it the teacher that sucks or the entire topic?

urban-trek-thru-middle-earth replied to your post “So I spoke to a graduate from my uni course today. They told me one of…”

Can you talk to the person again to find out specifically why they hated it? Was it all group work, and they’re a loner? Was it continuous assessment, and they prefer a single, cramming exam? Can you speak to other people who’ve taken the course? I once got hired for a job to replace a friend who resigned cus she hated the place, and I loved it. So, you’re right to question if you’ll have the same experience.

jackabelle73 replied to your post “So I spoke to a graduate from my uni course today. They told me one of…”

Did this person say WHY the class is bad? Is it the teacher? Is the material too difficult? Is it irrelevant to your goals? Thinking about those issues might focus your decision.

Thanks you guys! Sorry I wasn’t ignoring you, I made the post right before I went to bed to try and get it out of my mind so I could sleep (yeeeah not successful).

I don’t really know people so there isn’t anyone else I can talk with. It’s a scriptwriting class and they said that they signed up to do it because they wanted to learn how to craft dialogue, but then they were actually told not to include much dialogue … that’s the unnerving part because I’m not sure how you can write a script without dialogue as I thought (aside from the camera stuff/stage directions) that the dialogue was the main thing?

Basically I can choose between Creative Writing: Scriptwriting OR Prose OR Poetry. I would never do poetry and prose is basically what I did this year on the introduction course and I didn’t get on with it that well. I don’t like, nor do I write, literary fiction and that is what my uni wants. They want the flowery literary turn of phrase and that’s just not me. I thought I’d get on better with scriptwriting because it’s more plot-centric.

I’m agonising because uni in the UK works very differently from the US. There is no option to drop a class and take something else next semester. It’s very regimented. I need to take 6 classes next year, 3 per semester (you aren’t allowed to load on one and take it easy on another). Most of the classes only run for a single semester so either semester 1 or 2. Also 40% of my degree comes from my marks next year. Obviously 16.6% of 40% isn’t very much so if just one class goes badly, so long as I pass, then overall I’m not screwed. I will be a much bigger mess when I’m picking classes for my final year as that’s worth 60% and we only take 4 classes.

The main problem is I have really disliked this year and so what I want is now I have some measure of choice (restricted but still options), is that I hope I can pick classes that I won’t dislike quite so much. It would be lovely to actually enjoy class for a change.

So TLDR: I’m just scared of getting it wrong as there is no undo button. There is no way to change it once the choice has been made. I will have to live with it.

So I spoke to a graduate from my uni course today. They told me one of the classes I was planning on taking next year is awful and now I don’t know what to do :/

On one hand we are different people. They hated it, I might love it. On the other hand some of their claims were a little unnerving.

On the third hand that class is in “Option group C” and there are only two other choices and I had thought this one the best of the lot. So do I take a class I’ve been advised against because I dislike the sound of the other options or…

I feel like there is no right choice to this dilemma. If this class sucks then I’m screwed, if I take an alternative which I don’t want then I’m screwed. The only “good” answer is if it doesn’t suck but I have no way to know that.

Honestly this is why I hate picking things because you always wonder. This is very much going to wind up being “the road not travelled” and that unsettles me. I would much rather just be told what to do so I can abdicate responsibility and therefore if it all goes horribly wrong it won’t be my fault.

But sadly somebody decided that I’m an adult so yeah… /headdesk

I’m actually doing work. This is kinda unheard of – “who are you and what have you done with me?” Hehehe *sniggers*

No sorry it’s just I felt it was worthy of comment. I know I could be a lot more productive I’m sure but the fact that I have done anything is just ??? WOW right now. I mean it’s Sunday, I don’t have classes next week, so I have all of next week theoretically do to my various assignments AND I’m actually working on an essay right now.

I like this! Let’s keep doing this!

I got a third of the wordcount so far for the first draft and it’s only just gone noon! Sorry I’m just super impressed with myself right now. The fact that I’ve even started is like eye-popping. Go me! 🙂

#honestly I could cry because I’m so pleased this is the version of me I want#I know self-congratulation is a little bit … I can’t think of the word but I mean like not the done thing#I’m going to do it anyway though because I have nearly two weeks until the deadline and I’m working on it#let’s keep this I want this