"What is it you do at college?"

Hi everyone!

I thought I would enlighten you all on what I do at college since when I try to explain it to people - it doesn't make much sense. 

I study at a college in Cambridge and I'm there Monday through to Friday, a long week for college hours! It's a weird timetable, I study one subject and that's split into section, meaning I have many free periods of sitting around and eating away at vending machine snacks. So, the subject I'm currently studying is known as 18 Unit Media Diploma. And I know what you're thinking - what on earth is that?

18 Unit Media Diploma is basically a course where all the work is coursework based and no exams are involved. Currently, it's split into 3 sections (with 3 different teachers) where you study different areas of media - i.e. I'm currently doing gaming, photography and film between these 3 teachers. Roughly you end up doing about 9 units per year to add up to the 18 full units.

"There's no exams - so how is it graded?"

So the 18 Units all add up to 3 A Level grades depending on how well you do the coursework tasks set. It's graded by pass, merit, distinction and distinction star. Basically, in grading terms that is C,B,A and A*. If we want to get 3 A's at A Level on this course, we have to get 6/18 units graded at distinction - quite simple once you get your head round it.

"Don't you get bored only doing one subject?"

As I'm at a sixth form college - most people are studying A Levels and find it strange that I'm doing a college course, so this question gets asked a lot. When I tell people - they assume that I go back to the same classroom and study the same thing over and over. Nope, it's completely different. Since I have 3/4 teachers it seems like a different lesson each time, but based on something that I really enjoy doing. 

"Why did you take this course?"

Mainly because I hated exams back at school. The revising part just took over my life at times and I didn't like the stress it caused me. Also, doing coursework I feel as if you get more time to put in work and effort so you can ensure a good outcome on the final thing. I feel in exams you're mostly judged on what you can remember in a one hour plus exam. Some people may think its unfair that I can still be able to get into universities or get the same qualifications from this course, but for some people - it really is for the better for them to put hard work into coursework!

Hope that has shown you what its all about,
See you in the next blog post,