Sydney Life

For the 9th time, I got my uni results back.
For semester one 2009, I did 4 subjects.
One Distinction. Yay!
One Credit. Yay!
One Pass. Ok.
One Fail. WHAT?!
*falls off chair*

Failing a subject happens to thousands of university students every semester.
This time, I am one of them.
I was extremely shocked to learn that I had failed.
I felt I knew the subject content with an above standard level of sophistication.
I went to see my lecturer about it.

He was a kind and patient man, and went through my entire test paper with me. I had made some of the most pathetic mistakes known to humankind.
Calculation errors, reading the question wrong, not being able to type numbers into a calculator (or not being able to copy numbers from a calculator), making wrong assumptions, plenty of carry-on mistakes, drawing diagrams upside down, putting minus- instead of a plus+….the list goes on.
Needless to say, I had a little cry about it.

I wondered why I could’ve made so many silly mistakes. Undeniably, I had been dealing with some personal and family issues this semester. I thought I was coping fine, clearly I wasn’t. If I had felt I was on the verge of failing, I should have seen a counsellor and applied for special consideration.
The university also has many systems in place to help students at risk to help them stay on track

My mother reminded me, “Winey, if you’re going to be engineer, the university has a responsibility to make sure they graduate students who get it right more than half the time. If they let you pass on substandard knowledge, you will only be a threat to the Australian public. Engineering is powerful profession. Your designs may affect people today, tomorrow and many generations into the future. What is another $3000 and 6 months on your degree, if you can save thousands of lives?”

This was a core subject.
I will have to repeat it.
I'm going to get a High Distinction next year.