Masterchef + Murdoch = Joyness!!

Except I think you need to live in the village....

This proves yet again how much awesomeness can come out of Murdoch. Okay, so a previous student never won an Oscar (but I'm pretty sure someone from Murdoch was nominated?) but Callum from Masterchef is giving the student village free cooking lessons! Eeep! Makes me wish I was a student living on campus.

You can read allllllll about it here: http://media.murdoch.edu.au/callum-from-masterchef-comes-to-murdoch?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4d6dac8b7a908437,0

Exemption Outcome....

EXEMPT!

What a relief!! I am officially graduating University. It was a little up in the air before I received this e-mail. The possibility of preparing yourself to go back after thinking it's all over is just unbearable. It reminds me of that scene in Despicable Me when the evil villain sees a boy crying over an ice cream, so he gives him a balloon, and then he pops the balloon.



This is only for 2/3 subjects, but seeing as I didn't use my workplace unit for these exemptions I will now automatically be exempt from the third. Confused? Here's how it works.

If you successfully complete a workplace unit at Murdoch that coincides with your degree it will replace a core unit. As for the other two units, well...  i'm going to put that down to a damn good exemption letter (and maybe good grades, also maybe the professor was just in a really good mood....).

I stressed for weeks over how I was going to word this letter. How would I address the person I was talking to? How am I going to show I deserve to be exempt? How am I going to phrase "can I be exempt" without sounding pushy? The worst thing was there were no guidelines to writing this kind of letter. Until now.

Due to the amount of hair and sleep I lost over how to write an exemption letter, and no matter how much you google or search the Murdoch site you will not receive any help, I have decided to provide my own how to guide.

How To Write A Killer Exemption Letter:

• Keep it formal - Address the person your talking to formally. For instance, don't say "hi" or "hey". Try going with "dear" and finish off with "yours sincerely". It's a bit of an over kill, but it's better to be over formal than under formal. Also, make sure you use the right title for whomever your addressing. For example "Associate Professor Terrence Lee". Then when they reply with something more simple, you can use that in the future.
  
  
• Demonstrate why you should be exempt - Have you completed several units that correlate with the core unit you have left over? Do you believe you've learnt everything you can on the subject? Ultimately it's up to the person your writing to decide if you've satisfied course requirements, but it doesn't hurt to give your own example.
  
  
• Provide a copy of your academic record - Be prepared for the first reply to ask for this. I wasn't to sure where to get this from. I ended up going into my units and taking a screen capture of my unit results.
  
  

It's not much, so here's a template as well.

If your not to sure whether or not you have any core units left over it's best to ask a question through MyAnswers. They will usually get back to you within a couple of days if your submitting the question during a teaching week.

Good luck with the rest of your studies! And a BIG congrats to all those graduating with me this year :)

Tav Tuesday!

Why has it taken me so long to go to the tav, sit down, and have a drink?  Today was so much fun, and all we did was drink and talk. I'm planning on going again on Wednesday now. Trust me to become addicted to the tavern during my final (ever, hopefully) teaching week of the year.

Day's off are AMAZING!

I can't remember the last time I was this impressed to have a day off. I went to bed at 11:30 last night - which is early for me lately. I woke up at 10am this morning and all I've done is lazily wake up and begin some homework.

The past month has been absolutely hectic. My work hours have increased, the website I'm working on has launched, I've been to 4 gigs (including a 2 day festival and a comedy night), handed in 2 essays, and have still managed to have a social life. I've just looked at my diary, and tomorrow it all starts again for the month of November. Why is the end of the year so intense?!

Currently I am writing what was meant to be a weekly assignment, updating this blog, studying for a test and chatting on facebook. Now that's what I call balance.

Also, check out what I found while studying in library:

Funky, huh?

- Jess

There's a first for everything.

Well... those essays didn't exactly go to plan. I'd like to blame a few things on my late submission of assignments, but truth is it's really my fault. I'll quickly play the blame game though, just to make myself feel better for a moment.

Firstly, I worked on my assigned day off which is when I reserve a majority of my study for. I didn't find out I was working a full day until Thursday night while I was working, so I had prepared to write a majority of the two essays that day. Friday night came around, and I was too tired to string a sentence together. Poor excuse, I know, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to assignments. So if it's not perfect; it's not right and if it's not right; I'm not submitting it. Consequence is, it takes me a lot longer than average to write an essay, aside from that day that I wrote a 2000word essay in 8 hours (I ended up with a C+... but still, terrible terrible habit!)

Both essay's were due at 5pm, and I need to allow for at least 1 hour to travel to uni and reach the assignment box. As 3 o' clock ticked by and I was still in my pj's trying to polish off two conclusions I started to doubt whether I's be ready in time. 4pm came by, and I was still referencing. At 4:50pm I emailed my tutors to let them know my essay's would be late. It was the worst feeling in the world. I've just spent 3 solid days and nights trying to finish these, and I still couldn't get them in on time.

These a few things to be learnt here. Firstly, stop procrastinating. I shouldn't have been writing the bodies for two essays the weekend before they were due, discovering along the way that I actually had more research to do. Secondly, reference along the way. Don't wait till the end of an essay, because you'll finally be finished and realise that you've actually got to spend another hour referencing. It's extremely painful.

I hope everyone's semesters are wrapping up better than mine. I'll let you know my final result when their in. I have no idea what percentage of my mark I'm going to lose - if it's the difference between a C and a D I just might die.

Jess.

Extensions aren't all good news...

So I should have had an essay in by Monday just gone, but instead the class was given an extension till this Friday. It made no difference, I still haven't started writing it.

Last week was pretty full on. I helped run two launch events for a new web page I've been working on with a few other people (Check it out here ;) http://mandurahyoungandrestless.com/) and I partied it up at One Movement. So really, not enough time dedicated to study in between all that. I was pretty focused on handing in the essay on Friday, however, so I was a little bummed when we got another extension.

Yesterday a full class rocked up to our tutorial, only to have the tutor not show. It was like being back in high school when the teacher never showed, I felt free for about 5 minutes before realising I'm meant to look after myself at University. Bummer right? Half the class began to trickle away while a few of us stayed to "work" on our essays. Yeah, that never happened. That afternoon I DID go to the library and borrow some books though, which I haven't done since first year. It didn't help all that much though, and I still went home and stared at my computer; knowing that I needed to write something, but I couldn't figure out what.

That night our tutor sent everyone an e-mail saying we had an extension until next Monday. Great? No. I have a 3000word essay due Monday! Stress stress stress!! I'm sprouting grey hairs as I write this. 5500 words, 5 days. Totally achievable...

Can I be exempt?

It sounds simple, but the title for this blog is one of the hardest lines I have ever had to write. Not in the context of a blog title though...

In order to graduate from Murdoch at the end of this semester, which is only 5 study weeks away (eek!! :D), I need to be granted exemption from 3 subjects. 2 belong to my media degree and 1 belongs to my public relations degree. I've set out an e-mail that explains why I think I should be exempt, but I just can't seem to close it. Do I simply say "due to the above, I believe I should be exempt" or should I be less pushy and write something along the lines of "is it possible for me to be exempt?"

I spent so much time on this letter, that I'm now sure I've missed the deadline. At least according to the Murdoch website. This is something MyAnswers didn't prepare me for. I'm kind of disappointed if this is the case. I would have expected MyAnswers to tell me there was a deadline, rather than just telling me I needed to write a letter to my academic chairs. There's also the fact that there are no guidelines to writing a letter for exemption. It's not such a big deal, but this is a pretty important letter. The outcome of this letter means the difference of me graduating at the end of this year, or half way through next year. Last year I was all "it'll be fine, I'll take this extra unit and if I have to come back I'll have to come back." I thought it would be fun finishing half way through the year, that way I wouldn't be committed to finding a job straight away and would be fresh from 6 months off when I started looking in the new year. But freedom is ever so close right now and I'm fed up with my casual wage and work hours which see that I remain broke for a good majority of the uni semester.

It's true what they say. The final semester is the hardest. I'm getting lazier with my assignments, and slacker with my study schedule. It's like knowing you're prison sentence will end in 6 months, but you dig you're way out anyway. Because it's so close you can't stand it! Okay... maybe that's an exaggeration... but 15 years of school with no more than a 2 month break once a year kind of does your head in.

I WANT TO GRADUATE NOW!!
So please please please Murdoch let me graduate this year! Otherwise I just might cry...

I'm going to go and watch 30 Rock now and procrastinate calm down :)