I'm in my second year and I fought so hard to stay on my course and not leave, despite hospitals and admissions and threats from uni but I've had 3 marks back this year and they've all been awful. I'm freaking out because I can't tell anyone; everyone thinks that I'm clever and expects me to do well. Last year I did three essays & three exams whilst I was in hospital and did well on all of them. This year I'm more well & out of hospital and my marks have never been lower. I'm so ashamed, what the hell am I going to do? This is my last chance to do my degree because I've used up all my funding thanks to taking time out, repeating years etc. I'm terrified that everyone will find out my marks; doctors, family, friends and they are all expecting firsts. Kill me now.
Maybe you need to admit to the university that you need help with your studies? There are things in place so that the university can help you with that. Or you might want to think about having a year out to focus on things?
"Its not how long a star shines, what is remembered is the brightness of the light"
Uni already know everything and I'm on the verge of being forced to take time out because they think I'm not well. It's something I have resisted for years and would be such a knock to my self esteem to leave now.
Its not really leaving though and at the end of the day you have to decide what you want to do. Time off is not a bad thing, you can still do uni work and be really prepared for when you go back and also get yourself better. But if your work is suffering because of that then it may be for the best.
"Its not how long a star shines, what is remembered is the brightness of the light"
Can you retake them?
Or ask for an extension on your next pieces of work so that you can spend more time making it good. If you get good marks with all of the rest of your work this year then it should balance out with bad one and then you will be ok.
Did you actually fail these pieces of work or were they just poor marks?
Also the more you worry about this the harder it will be to pick your self up and do well on all the other stuff.
Also speak to your personal tutor. See what the. An help with.
All the best x
The average,
well-adjusted adult
gets up at 7.30am feeling just plain terrible.
Call me Kate.
I have dyslexia so please excuse my poor spelling and sometimes poor understanding.
Ithink when people are ill at uni they have to step back and re-adjust their expectations of themselves as regards marks. So long as you are passing that's good enough. Firsts are only there for the very top few - and with what you've been through it would be unrealistic to force yourself to try to achieve that - in fact it may be dangerous. I had to give up on thoughts of a first a long time ago, and it was the best thing I could do. Focus on staying alive, and your degree will follow in due course. Trying to focus on a first, and you may put your life on the line if you stress yourself too much. xx
"Keep your heart open to dreams. For as long as there's a dream, there is hope, and as long as there is hope, there is joy in living."
I'm on my last leg with extensions and special considerations. I have to do it their way, all on time or I'm out.
No, I didn't actually fail the essays but the marks were so low they would be useless to graduate with. I can't retake them as I haven't failed them and when you retake you can only get 40% anyway.
I struggle to not put pressure on myself with this because I feel like it's the only normal thing I do/have.
Even if the marks would mean you only graduate with a third, you would still graduate. Which means you still have a degree and possibilities as a result. Keep going - if you drop out you'll only regret it. A pass degree is better than no degree.
"Keep your heart open to dreams. For as long as there's a dream, there is hope, and as long as there is hope, there is joy in living."
Time out is not the end of the world. I had to, then came back part time. Was horrible at the time, but I got a high 2:1 and am now doing well on an MSc.
I hear you. I hear what your saying but I can feel the pressure you are under from here hun.. it's bouncing of the page. If you enjoy your course, get your head down, read well, study well... and you'll do great.
You won't let anybody down sweetie. Do this for you, if you want to otherwise, don't put yourself through it.
I can't lie, next year will be very tough...third years at uni just are, they just are hard but it is possible. I am proof of that but you have to do it for you not because you might let X or Y down.
Would you rather take a much needed leave of absence and come back later when you are in a better place, even if it means paying for it yourself, or graduate for the sake of graduating with a mark that disappoints you and could end up haunting you forever? It's up to you.
Let's be honest here, graduates now need at least a 2.2, although more and more and more jobs are asking for 2.1s. A degree isn't really enough on its own. There is no shame in taking a year or two out in order for you to get yourself better.
Well obviously I have no intention of graduating with a degree that is useless and hating myself, that's what I'm saying.
I haven't worked out the money but I doubt I can afford to repeat a year or pay for it myself as I have no money and no family to help me with it.
I'm also frustrated with the idea that if I leave it will help my mental health. I don't have access to therapy or the kind of help I would need to get better so leaving my only focus to do nothing with no chance of recovery seems pointless. I have no idea how long it would take for me to recover to the point where I can work to my full potential academically so the whole idea scares me.
Well obviously I have no intention of graduating with a degree that is useless and hating myself, that's what I'm saying.
I haven't worked out the money but I doubt I can afford to repeat a year or pay for it myself as I have no money and no family to help me with it.
I'm also frustrated with the idea that if I leave it will help my mental health. I don't have access to therapy or the kind of help I would need to get better so leaving my only focus to do nothing with no chance of recovery seems pointless. I have no idea how long it would take for me to recover to the point where I can work to my full potential academically so the whole idea scares me.
There are always options, perhaps part-time study or the Open University (you should be able to transfer your current credits) might be more suited further down the line. For the money you'd probably need to work and save, but it can be done.
Why don't you have access to help? You could change your focus to getting help, or to working, or to volunteering, or to travelling. Anything really. Maybe a break is all you need.
I keep coming back to this thread, and I'm not sure that what I'm going to say is useful, but I hope it helps at least a bit.
I know that you really, really don't want to take any time out, but don't let finances stop you from doing that. You can suspend your student loans for a year and actually when I enquired about it they were really helpful.
I don't know your situation fully, but on the surface I was in a very similar position to you. I spent the final term of my first year in hospital, came out in the August and went straight back to uni in the September. I fought so hard to pretend that I was well, but with the pressure of that my second year marks weren't good enough for me. There was no pressure from anyone but myself, but people were consistently surprised, because previously I'd done well. I then ended up in a really sticky situation.
In my third year (of 4) I forced myself to carry on, because I couldn't bear the "shame" of taking time and space to get myself sorted out, and I ended up with another month in hospital. I really wasn't well and it's only through major blagging and a really "playable" Spanish system that I got anywhere decent marks.
In my final year I reached a point where I told myself and everyone in my MH team that if I didn't get a 2:1 I was going to kill myself, and really, really meant it. To the point that when I went to pick up my results I took everything that I would have needed, and very nearly got into a lot of trouble.
Looking back, I can't believe that I carried on with how unwell I was. I believed that everything depended upon my degree result, on me finishing it and being brilliant. It didn't. Yes, I have a good degree from a good university, but has it solved anything? No.
What I'm trying to say is that my biggest regret is not taking the time I needed to get well. Everyone thought I was going to get a first, or so I thought, but when it came down to it, and what my friends, family and MH team have told me since is that they didn't care about my grades, they just cared about me getting through it without me seriously hurting myself.
So my second point is, don't think about other people's expectations of you, because actually they'll be your own, really high expectations, projected back onto them.
I'm sorry for this massive ramble, but I really feel that whilst it can be done nothing is worth what you're going through. Even maybe taking this term out and taking your exams in the resit period could give you a bit of time to get yourself sorted, or as sorted as possible.
Good luck and please don't place more value on the short term than the long term.
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Make us all feel wonderful. We'll never forget."
There is no point dropping out of this year because I'm so close to the end and I'm not that unwell so I'll do the rest of my essays and exams and see what mark I finish on. If I don't get at least a 2:1 I will seriously consider taking time out or repeating the year.
If I did want to take a year out I could actually just work for a year, class this as a year in industry, and have it as part of my degree which means no gaps on my CV. I feel like I would be better suited to work right now, the structure to my day, doing something more practical & working with people, less all about the reading & writing which is so hard when I can't concentrate in that way.
I'm going to speak to my careers centre and I'm seeing my personal tutor next week to ask him about all of this. One of my lecturers said something about how my marks could get bumped up for mitigating circumstances and that they do that quite a lot. I've not heard anything about it but I'll ask.
I'm just very worried about money. I also tend to go crazy during holidays & especially over the summer because it's like there is nothing to be well for so I say **** it and go mental. That's why I spent the whole of the last summer in hospital, got discharged on fresher's week and went back to uni. Xmas came, got sectioned, got discharged first week back etc. This holiday is the first I haven't gone totally off the wall in. If I had just endless time in front of me with nothing that I thought was worth being well to look forward to it might not be good for me at all.
Do you think that working would be easier than studying? I do quite well with people and practical things I've just never worked before so don't know much about that real world.
Oh and I did get another essay mark back that I got a low 2:1 on but the rest have all been 2:2's. I'm still waiting on another but I don't think it will be any better.
This is my last chance to do my degree because I've used up all my funding thanks to taking time out, repeating years etc. I'm terrified that everyone will find out my marks; doctors, family, friends and they are all expecting firsts. Kill me now. 
