Sydney Life

There’s a lady that catches my bus everyday and she’s always late. It’s become a community bus joke: every morning, the bus pulls up and there she is hurriedly running towards it again. Everyone on the bus is so used to it, that the driver and passengers just grin to themselves. Interestingly, she is always running late on time. She never misses the bus!

Late Lady is an unexplained phenomenon in our social world. How she manages to make it on time, late every morning, never ceases to amaze me. She could teach CityRail a few lessons…

Are you a Late Lady or a Temporally-Generous Gent? Here are some things you need to know if you’re going to be late @ uni:

1. Most lecturers really hate people walking in late on their lecture (and walking out early half-way through). Particularly when the door to the lecture theatre is in full view of the entire audience, late-arrivers can be distracting as they fumble around trying to find seats. So if you’re running late, and find yourself making the decision on whether to go to a lecture or not, make sure you consider:

= How late you are running. 5 minutes is more acceptable than 25 minutes.
= Whether the exit/entry points to the theatre are discrete enough for you to slip in unobtrusively.
= Whether the lecture is already full and it would be difficult for you to find a seat.

Let me tell you, I have seen some late horror stories! Once, someone walked into a one-hour lecture 45 minutes late! He was really lucky because the lecturer was really nice. She stopped for a bit, shook her head, laughed and asked if the person had had a big night… in front of 200 people. *Cringe*

If you ask me, that person got it good! Some lecturers can get narky about late arrivers and rightly so! After all, if you’ve put in all that effort to prepare a lecture – complete with notes/overheads – except in exceptional circumstances, arriving late is just plain rude and shows no respect!

2. Handing in assignments late. Most faculties will penalise marks from assignments handed in late so you need to be strategic!

Some subjects in the Economics and Business Faculty have a policy of stripping 20% off your mark for handing it in up to a week late. Others subjects take 10% off your final mark for every day the assignment is late. It all depends on the subject. Therefore, if you are going to lose 20% per week: take the week, work on the assignment extra hard and make up the 20% with a 120% effort. With other subjects in Economics and Business, the late penalties are just horrific, so if you don’t think you can make up those percentages in the week after an assignment is due, then it’s just not worth handing it late – you need to get it in on time. My advice: Prioritise any E&B Faculty assignments as they are particularly severe on late penalties.

Most subjects in the Arts Faculty and Law Faculty have a two-mark per day late penalty policy. Note: This is not a weekday policy – the weekend counts as two days. The Arts and Law two-marks per day policy is less severe than the E&B Faculty, however it can be particularly irritating if it means you just miss out on getting a High Distinction or Distinction on your assignment. This is because uni assignments are marked differently to high school, with marks corresponding to certain levels: 50%-64% (gets you a “Pass”), 65%-74% (“Credit”), 75%-84% (“Distinction”), 85%+ (“High Distinction”). (If you think these marks seem a little low compared to high school, you’re right! You need to do exceptional work to get in the High Distinction range. I’ve managed to get 90% or above, on only about 5 assignments in all my years at uni!)

So how can missing out on a "Credit" for example affect you in the long run? Firstly, your assignment marks count towards your final course mark (usually made up of a combination of assignments, presentations, class participation and exam marks). Your course marks will be recorded permanently on your graduation academic transcript, which future employers will ask to see.

Secondly, missing out on a certain average (e.g. a Credit average) might mean you won’t be eligible for honours. In Arts, honours is an extra year you do at the end of your course, to further your knowledge and do some research in your field of choice. In Law, first-class or second-class honours are awarded at the end of your degree if you have maintained a certain average throughout your law degree.

I’m not sure about the other faculties, but some general rules to keep in mind when handing in assignments:

= Hand them in on time to optimise your chances of marks.
= If you’re going to hand them in late, consider whether the extra time will in fact help you improve your assignment to such a degree that it will make up for late penalties. Consider your individual faculty late policy to make your decision! Get smart and be strategic!
= If you are having problems doing the assignment, let your lecturer or tutor know as early as possible. Extensions can be granted when, for example, illness or a personal crisis affects your ability to hand in assignment on time. If you suffer from illness or misadventure, let your lecturer/tutor know ASAP before the due date. Otherwise you also may be penalised for handing in an assignment late.
= You can’t avoid doing an assignment, as you are required to do them all to pass the course – so you may as well do it on time and maximise your mark potential!

3. Staying back late on main campus? If you have a late class on main campus and need to get to Redfern station after 5pm, catch the security bus which will take you there for free. Not only are the drivers really nice but it’s much safer than walking by yourself at night. You can find bus stops all around campus. Try and catch it around Fisher Library as it can sometimes fill up very quickly – particularly on cold and rainy nights. If you miss it, you can always hang around the sandstone buildings, admire the bats flying around and pretend you’re Harry Potter. Note: This is most effective on nights with full moons.

That reminds me, I have a friend who walks around campus in a wizard’s hat and cape. An odd creature but lovable…

4. Being late to exams. This one is my particular pet hate because I’ve let it happen twice, in two separate years, and guess what… both times because of the same boy! Argh! The first time was because I was looking at a clock for the time (which I later realised had stopped) whilst The Boy and I were in one of the "not-so-public places" previously mentioned. The second time was because I misread the exam time as 9:20am when it actually started at 9am… because you guessed it; my eyes were glazed over, as I sat sipping coffee with the aforementioned (but now ex) Boy.

If you are running late for an exam, my advice is just to get there as quickly as you can. If you’re late, the exam supervisors tend to be very helpful and will let you in and help you settle down. If you’re late or miss an exam due to extraordinary circumstances make sure you fill out a misadventure form. Unfortunately for me, being madly in love was not taken into consideration.