In my last post I talked about how I was struggling with assignments and had difficulty accessing the JANET UK Univesrsity Roaming Service. I am glad to say that I have now finished the assignment I was struggling with and that I have resolved the issues I was having with Roaming.
I think the main issue with the Assignment – which was to write a report about a Engineer/Technologist who had made a significant impact on society, was that I had tried to go too deep. No word limit was specified and although pointers were specified about the sort of information required I didn’t really know how much detail to write about each bit.
Anyway, its all over now and I just have to get an assignment done for a module called “Product Realisation” which is about how the electronics industry actually works. I have 2 circuit diagrams and I have to copy them into a SPICE simulation package called Multisim, then do the PCB layout in Ultiboard (which is part of the same package as Multisim).
This is a fairly easy task, but unfortunately Multisim/Ultiboard are not available off campus due to licensing restrictions and the licenses are a bit difficult to bypass. But I have until 17th December to do that, so I expect it will be OK in the end. Incidentally Multisim is a very bad package and my tutor says he was once given a spec for a military project which specifically said “DO NOT USE MULTISIM!”
The issue with the Roaming Service was that I had my wireless driver set to verify the certificate provided, clearly something dodgy is going on at Bolton, because there instructions specifically say to turn off certificate verification! Again this is another example of how bad a University it is and how it has become too big for its boots! Never enough computers available for use, very small library and a general penny pinching attitude – we’ll try and get as many students on a course as we can, never mind if its booked for a room where there aren’t enough computers or we don’t have enough licenses for the software they are using!
I will try to decide in a few months time what to do next, weather to stick around or take my credits and go somewhere else…
I find it deeply ironic that no matter which university you go to, you always face the same problems.
All Universities, no matter no how big or prestigious they are have issues like a lack of computers in the middle of the day, poor IT support, the most popular books are always checked out and you have this general sense you’re -just- a student.
I’ve heard the same criticism drawn towards ex-polytechnics, tiny universities, big universities, expensive universities, cheap universities, prestigious ones and bottom-of-the-barrel ones. Many people feel that way, I’m not lying.
The idea behind going to university is not the score you get – at the end of the day, nobody really cares about the grade. What you are doing at university is proving to the world that no matter what crap happens and no matter how hard the work gets, you stuck with it. You proved to everybody that you had the patience and inclination to work at something and get the job done.
When I was a student, I struggled all the way through. There were several times that I felt like I was drowning in the work, a few times I thought to myself ‘what’s the point? I should just quit’. Many times I felt like I was the only one who was suffering, and too times I was up late into the night trying to get something complete. I almost failed 2 years of one course. I didn’t have a single friend on my course to talk to. People around me were telling me that I should give up. BUT I DIDN’T. I looked at all my options, decided that to hell with other people, I’m going to get this degree to prove to the world I can do it!
I talked to the university advice people, talked to my former and current tutors, and got myself back up again. I left university with a 2-1, and by god I was proud of it! I struggled and pushed and I damn well thought I deserved my degree!
Seth, I think you’re great and so do all the guys in TermiSoc. I know you’ve had a hard lot over the years, but this is your moment to shine. JEven if the work is boring and uninteresting and your lecturers are all prats and your university is a pain, you should say to yourself ‘I don’t care, I’m doing this for ME!’. 😀