The totally off-topic thread

[anat0l]

Be careful what you say, one of my mates is a first year engineering student at your university.

I'm already (in)famous because I'm a support tutor for one of the key first year engineering courses anyway.

Let's hope your friend was good enough to pass the course.

Considering that effective communication is such an important quality for engineers, and these are second semester students, I just found it so hard to believe how badly some of the critical judgement questions were answered. Some of the English was really flaky (and obviously not ESL students), but more commonly people were answering "another" question rather than the question stated on the paper.

On average it's been done pretty badly; it's doing my head in.

 

[medhead]

Unless its something really rare or exotic, and you've owned it for more than 12 months, I put this in the "pointless" category, as any (minor) saving will be lost on resale in the long term when no-one wants to buy a private import.

just looking at the F-type pricing in UK vs local. Not sure I'd be too concerned about resale, spent 3 years admiring an e-type that was always parked at uni during undergrad. 12 months should be ok as my brother lives over that way. But having now googled about it, it does seem all too hard.


Sent from the Throne

 

[Katie]

Anyway imported a car to Australia from Europe? Rough costs?

12yrs ago & from the US, not Europe. Will have to check if Mr Katie remembers those costs vs conversion costs.

 

[medhead]

I'm already (in)famous because I'm a support tutor for one of the key first year engineering courses anyway.

Let's hope your friend was good enough to pass the course.

Considering that effective communication is such an important quality for engineers, and these are second semester students, I just found it so hard to believe how badly some of the critical judgement questions were answered. Some of the English was really flaky (and obviously not ESL students), but more commonly people were answering "another" question rather than the question stated on the paper.

On average it's been done pretty badly; it's doing my head in.

They don't really seem to change it seems. Used to demonstrate in physics practicals to first year engineers 15 odd years ago. The majority of these pracs involved measuring 2 parameters and setting up a linear equation. It was amazing the number of students that couldn't seem to understand that concept by the end of 2nd semester. Or perhaps couldn't explain it when quizzed about what they had to do.


Sent from the Throne

 

[Katie]

Marking a bunch of exams, I've come to the conclusion that the general skills of first year engineering students to make succinct, critical arguments is embarrassingly horrible.

Do you think it improves for later year engineering students??

 

[anat0l]

Do you think it improves for later year engineering students??

Actually, in the majority of cases, yes.

Group assignments are done far better in latter years (as far as communication goes); probably under the threat that if the grammar and spelling was pretty much horrid then the entire assignment was auto-graded as a zero.

As for critical judgement questions in exams, that's debatable, but still in general done better in later years.

 

[tuapekastar]

Someone in the MEL DJ lounge has a wi-fi network called 'F@$& off it's mine'

 

[serfty]

Someone in the MEL DJ lounge has a wi-fi network called 'F@$& off it's mine'

One evening I did a BlueTooth discovery in an RSL - one of the devices discovered was "Peters - P1ss off"!

 

[NM]

Whats with all the complaints about 1st year engineering students? I was one of them once. Then a 2nd year engineering student. Then a 3rd year and then a 4th year engineering student. I remember the progress from being a school kid to a professional and its not an easy path and takes time. That's one reason the course takes multiple years. But that was more than half my life ago :shock:

At least now I can communicate ... even if I can't type

 

[Must...Fly!]

I'm 4 years in to a 3 year business degree.

And I agree with anat0l. I am astounded at the number of people at universities who cannot properly construct a sentence or report/project. Admittedly I have trouble constructing an essay in the best way - it's something I have tried to fix but I have only gotten so far. But at least what I write makes sense from an english perspective.

 

[medhead]

I guess I can't really talk about communication. Currently procrastinating a job application since I hate writing those things. Thank you for e-application systems, going to be a late night.


Sent from the Throne

 

[jetlagger]

Some of the English was really flaky (and obviously not ESL students), but more commonly people were answering "another" question rather than the question stated on the paper.

On average it's been done pretty badly; it's doing my head in.

Quite appropriate similarities with many posts on the AFF forum.. :mrgreen:

 

[JohnK]

Quite appropriate similarities with many posts on the AFF forum.. :mrgreen:

And I thought I disguised my poor English quite well!

 

[JessicaTam]

The advantage of learning a second language at school was it taught me about english. Learning a language shouldn't be dismissed with "but I will never go there".

 

[JohnK]

Anyone need rain?

Not expensive and comes with money back guarantee.

 

[blackcat20]

Someone in the MEL DJ lounge has a wi-fi network called 'F@$& off it's mine'

I saw one the other day called "Get your own"...at least they were more polite about it

 

[The Rok]

43 & sunny up my way!

 

[Blinky]

Well that makes me feel better. I had the last meeting with the GM and the HR Director about my redundancy package. Despite not having any bargaining power at all, I told them that the package was light on, mainly due to all the flying I've done and the 12+ hour days (neglecting to mention that I flew forward most of the time coming home ). Anyway I asked for an extra 25K tax free. The HR Director started spluttering and said that he could not endorse this, to which I replied "that's why I'm not asking you". Anyway, within 5 minutes the GM rang back to say it was approved. She caved in so quickly I should have asked for more.

The benefits of knowing where the bodies are buried........

 

[Simo]

well that makes me feel better. I had the last meeting with the gm and the hr director about my redundancy package. Despite not having any bargaining power at all, i told them that the package was light on, mainly due to all the flying i've done and the 12+ hour days (neglecting to mention that i flew forward most of the time coming home ). Anyway i asked for an extra 25k tax free. The hr director started spluttering and said that he could not endorse this, to which i replied "that's why i'm not asking you". Anyway, within 5 minutes the gm rang back to say it was approved. She caved in so quickly i should have asked for more.

The benefits of knowing where the bodies are buried........

big like for that

 

[QF WP]

Big clap on the back for that one - nicely done!