I will never forget that awful day that I received my International Baccalaureate grades... After hours of private classes of economics, mathematics and chemistry with the "best" teachers in town, hours of boredom at school and overnights of solving equations and answering questions, I was expecting more than 35 for my IB (ok, maybe 38... :p). I finally got a 28 out of 45 (2 out of 7 for chemistry....), and I failed to get into City University to follow a Journalism/ Economics degree... I ended up to enrolled for a BA Journalism course at University of Westminster - which by the way was ranked higher than City University for media courses. The same happened to my best friend who got a 29, and entered Lancaster University which is generally ranked 8th for all UK Universities. Don't forget that Einstein was the worst student in his class at school.
I cannot say that in University, I have achieved to become the best of my course, as a matter of fact my marks can barely reach 65% because English is not my first language. And guess what? My course is assessed only with assignments- there are no exams at all. In my opinion, assignments cannot be marked subjectively, especially when they are not anonymous. For example, I am 100% sure that when my tutors read: "Veatriki Stefanou", without even skim my essay or article, they write: need to improve your english, even in cases that I ask a British mate to sub my work.
When you are called to sit for an exam there is one question (usually SOS): eg "What is inflation?", the only thing that you need to do is to reproduce what you have memorized from the lecture and study guide, throw two contemporary examples, and that's it, you got a 70%. But what happens when you need to write an essay about exactly the same question: you must not use information from the lecture, you must not copy things from books (unless you want to be graded with a zero, due to plagiarism rules - trust me you don't want this to happen...), in other words you must imagine what your teacher wants to read. And the eternal overestimated problem: references... I always get them wrong! And the funny part: I am 100% sure that I will never use references for my future jobs.
I got a 50% for the below masterpiece :p , and my work was characterized by my tutor as disappointing.... But as my mum says the value of Picasso's paintings was recognized after his death. :/
Guess who has not graduated from University:
Steve Jobs
David Beckham
Albert Einstein
Just enjoy the journey of education as well as your twenties. Degrees, Distinctions and Harvard is not the key to happiness and success. Besides, life is a journey not a destination.
I cannot say that in University, I have achieved to become the best of my course, as a matter of fact my marks can barely reach 65% because English is not my first language. And guess what? My course is assessed only with assignments- there are no exams at all. In my opinion, assignments cannot be marked subjectively, especially when they are not anonymous. For example, I am 100% sure that when my tutors read: "Veatriki Stefanou", without even skim my essay or article, they write: need to improve your english, even in cases that I ask a British mate to sub my work.
When you are called to sit for an exam there is one question (usually SOS): eg "What is inflation?", the only thing that you need to do is to reproduce what you have memorized from the lecture and study guide, throw two contemporary examples, and that's it, you got a 70%. But what happens when you need to write an essay about exactly the same question: you must not use information from the lecture, you must not copy things from books (unless you want to be graded with a zero, due to plagiarism rules - trust me you don't want this to happen...), in other words you must imagine what your teacher wants to read. And the eternal overestimated problem: references... I always get them wrong! And the funny part: I am 100% sure that I will never use references for my future jobs.
I got a 50% for the below masterpiece :p , and my work was characterized by my tutor as disappointing.... But as my mum says the value of Picasso's paintings was recognized after his death. :/
Guess who has not graduated from University:
Steve Jobs
David Beckham
Albert Einstein
Just enjoy the journey of education as well as your twenties. Degrees, Distinctions and Harvard is not the key to happiness and success. Besides, life is a journey not a destination.
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