Getting results back from assignments is an important process in university life so I thought I would put down a few things I have found with them. So far on my course I have had two pieces of work marked. The first was an essay and the second was a lab report, both of which I worked very hard on but, as I had never done anything like them before, I was not convinced I would do very well.
First it is the policy of my course (I cannot speak for other courses) that the results will be given to you in 20 working days, so basically 4 weeks from the due date. While I was writing the assignment, the return date for the marks seemed so long away and I wondered how I would be able to take the long wait to see how I had done. However, once it is sent off through turnitin (for my assignments it is all submitted online) it is very easy to forget about it until the return date. Not only is it quite easy to forget but it is essential to forget because there are other things that need attention. As soon as my first essay was submitted, my lab report needed my full attention and there was no time for me to focus on the results of the essay. Once the lab report was submitted it was time to revise for exams so again there was no time to dwell on it.
On the return day and maybe the day or two before, it does become harder to completely forget about it. For the results of my essay I barely thought about it because I got them back on a Friday of a weekend I was going home. The results got posted at 4pm and that day I got up early to pack, then went to a lecture 11am-1pm, then had a quick stop at my flat for food before I got on a train to London. I had to cross London and get on another train to take me home and it was part way through this train trip that my results would become available. I didn’t even think about the results until I was waiting for a bus to take me back home at the end of my train journey and then, just to increase the suspense, the internet on my phone would not work so I had to wait until I got home to look at the results. The lab report was a very different experience because the results got returned during the Christmas holidays. It was on a day that I didn’t have anything except revision to do so I was just sitting and thinking about it and waiting for time to tick by. By far keeping busy is the best option because it was quite an agonising wait the second time round.
Once the results are in though it is important to look at all the feedback to see what could be improved. I always find this bit the hardest as being a perfectionist I don’t like to see that I have made mistakes. However, it is vital that all the feedback and comments are read through because the tutors would not write them unless it was important. It is also important because the tutors do not want to see the same mistakes made in the next essay which they have already commented on in the first as this shows no progress.
