D'oh! - John C. Kirk

03:30 pm - D'oh!

Well, got my transcript faxed through, so I checked that over. I noticed that a couple of the subjects I'd mentioned weren't listed, so I emailed Durham again to double-check on that (wasn't sure whether it was two subjects in one paper, or whether it had been skipped). The admin person checked on it, and got back to me. Turns out that the subjects were merged with others, so that was fine. However, when she did the check, she found another subject that she'd listed individually, which should also have been merged, so she's done a new version of the transcript. Since that was one of my better marks (66/100), I was sorry to see it go... Memo to self - next time, keep your mouth shut! Anyway, she'll post the amended transcript to me tonight, so I should get it tomorrow or Monday (fairly long way from Durham->London).

I must say, it sounds like they have an unbelievably stupid system for organising these transcripts. From what I can gather:

The central university office has lists of marks, grouped by year and subject. So, they can look up Software Engineering II in 1995, and get a list with 100 names on it, and the marks that each person got. However, they don't have a list of which courses each person took - that's held by the department. This was a big delay - the department still haven't given my list to the central office, so they had to use my list in the end. Otherwise, they'd have to check through every module, looking up my name. This also suggests that it's all hard-copy, rather than computerised. Aargh!

Ah well, at least I've got it now. Next step - try to put a good spin on it. I have some good marks (e.g. 75/100 in my 2nd year project), and some bad marks (e.g. 35/100 in Microsystems and Data Communications). Careful phrasing required, I think...

Hmm, back to lunch. Minor newsflash there - I have defected from cheese and cucumber sandwiches (a staple of my diet for the last few years)! I'm now eating cheese and lettuce instead. The thing is, cucumber is great if I make lunch, and eat it right away. However, if I make sandwiches in the morning, then they get a bit soggy by lunchtime, so lettuce is better. I got the idea from the ICSF buffet a few weeks ago.