Congratulations, Charlon hi. Now you are de avukat. Kemm ilhaqt! Issa ohrog ghal MEP ta, halli tkun wasalt sew
After I've paid for this, I might have enough left over for my water and electricity bill
Life has its moments of unexpected hilarity.
Watching on Net News the latest bus-loads of new law graduates drive up to the Nationalist Party HQ for a spot of horn-blowing and cheering, I was beside myself at the sight of Lawrence Gonzi merrily shaking both Charlon Gouder’s hands in congratulations, while Charlon looked mortified.
The camera, of course, homed in on the telling moment.
Min jaf kemm se jkun avukat tal-prima klassi. The law course appears to have become a waste-processing plant. You don’t even have to know how to write and spell to come up through the six years and graduate. Il-vera arukaza.
But I’m told that actually he’s only halfway through the course and was celebrating because he’d got his BA in law. I thought as much, given that we’d only fairly recently heard how he was made to repeat the first or second year because he’d failed his exams, even as his great and advanced mature student age.
A brilliant man like him, why am I not surprised? And so the Army of Stupid continues to advance, and we are threatened.
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The Labour Party has another doctor.
Do you mean this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsK_1yuFRsI
no he’s just another LL.B. graduate and not yet a doctor, if and when he makes it. Forsi Bartlu Varist jghinu naqra ma tanfx kif, with a little help from my friend.
He’s still only half way through the course. Charlon is graduating as a Bachelor of Laws, not Doctor of Laws… yet.
[Daphne – Thought as much. It was only recently that we’d heard he had to repeat the first or second year.]
He had failed Constitutional Law in first year (twice) and, I believe, had taken the subject ‘up’ with him to second year.
He was then caught cheating in a true or false exam at his third attempt, but, I guess, he must have passed the credit overall.
I’m surprised that someone who tried to cheat their way through Constitutional Law – which really isn’t all that difficult to study – managed to pass the famed Law of Obligations in third year. Honestly.
If Anglu can do it, so can anyone.
Are people allowed to fail an exam twice now?
What happened to selection?
Matt B, with all due respect you are not taking into consideration that mature students find it rather difficult to re-adapt themselves to the lifestyle of a student. it is highly common that a mature student is likely to fail in first year or just make it (obviously exceptions exist), which satisfies the dilemma you have how the heck he had resits in first year and passed the 3rd year without problems…..on all other encounters I admire such students who though having a successful job (not just Charlo), return to the life of a student proving that in life it’s better late than never
[Daphne – I was a ‘mature student’, BC – at all of 29 – with three children, a job, a house to run and no stipend. And I was one of just six students (selected from among the many hundreds in bachelors courses) on the Dean’s List, which is based on grades in your first and second year. Had I gone to university 10 years earlier and unencumbered by responsibilities, I would probably have been reprimanded every other week and might even have been asked to leave for not bothering or paying enough attention. It’s actually EASIER when you’re older. Charlon’s problem is that he was born with a below average IQ. If you look up past interviews, you’ll see how he tells of struggling to pass exams even at school. Mature students get in without the necessary qualifications (not me, though – the only thing missing was a Maltese matriculation exam, though I did have an A at O-level) but once they’re in, they’ve got to get through. To my mind, the tragedy is that even people that thick get out the other side at the University of Malta, in certain courses. That wouldn’t happen with engineering, architecture or medicine, because you can kill somebody in your professional career, so weak students are weeded out. But with law, the thinking seems to be that there’s no scope for killing anybody with a collapsed building or a botched procedure, so you might as well let them go through. And as a result, the country is littered with really bad lawyers giving their clients lousy advice and letting them down bigtime. Why, some of them can’t even write or spell. Look at Anglu Farrugia, for instance. Now isn’t that shocking?]
Then you, Daphne, might be falling under that category “(obviously exceptions exist)”, that’s the scope of stating that, which I must say is the minority of such mature students.
[Daphne – On the contrary, I was certainly not in the minority. I was in a course jam-packed with older students and they all did exceptionally well. I do remember a few mature students in other courses, though, who dropped out in the first year. This is because they should never have been there in the first place, because back at school, they weren’t even capable of collecting a couple of O-levels. Maybe the people you know fall into that category. The point I’m making is that if you’re not up to it, know your shortcomings and go for something else. This idea that everybody is capable of getting a university degree is very harmful. It brings down standards at the one university we have, for a start. It’s not as though the brighter people have the option of applying to a university with more rigorous standards. You can tell already that Charlon Gouder is going to be a lousy lawyer. He just doesn’t have the brains. So why doesn’t he just ‘mercy kill’ his dreams and stick to what he’s best at?]
The trend is that one who is mature will find it much harder at the beginning until he/she re-adapts himself/herself to student life and that is fact which could be confirmed if you were to look at the statistics of how these mature students perform….on the other hand I must correct you that O’levels are graded according to numbers not letters so you must be confusing it with something else….at least that’s how it was back in my years.
[Daphne – ‘I must correct you’, God, how tedious. No, BC. O-levels were graded in letters. It’s the Maltese examinations you’re thinking about. Back in 1980, the only national examinations were in Maltese and RE. O-levels and A-levels were set by the Oxford and London examination boards. Then it was decided that we should have our own examination board to keep the money in the country, and I can’t say it helped in any other way. No, mature students do not find it hard to adapt. On the contrary, by definition you have more life and work experience and find it easier to adapt. A person who has worked at a job, raised children or run a household is most unlikely to be panicked at the thought of ‘coping’ with lectures while also writing the occasional essay. The only problem, as I said, is in the IQ department. I trust you will notice that all those who you see having problems are challenged in that department. Or perhaps you won’t notice, for reasons that I don’t wish to rude and specify.]
But I must compliment you for such great academic career Daphne, assuming that what you’re saying is true.
[Daphne – I don’t have an academic career, BC. That much should be obvious, given that I very publicly Do Other Things. ‘Assuming that what you’re saying is true’ – this Labour attitude fascinates me. Facts are not contestable, BC. Go to the university and look it up. I would have to be MAD, in this position, to lie about having been on the Dean’s List.]
I totally agree with you that at UOM, especially the law course, there are those mature students who are not capable of getting that degree and in fact they do it the hard way (studying everything by heart), and I have no idea aobut Gouder’s capabilities as an academic, however though the intelligence quotient plays a major role in obtaining that degree, stuying methods and technicalities would seem to lack in mature students and this is due to the fact that as you mentioned these people have a hectic life with difference to that of a full-time student.
one of my best frineds is one who is a mature student who has a degree and who is extremely intelligent but when it comes to studying methods, notes etc he seemed to lack since for him the course was only a part-time and since his student years were way gone. And it clearly showed in the first exams where he struggled in the first semester, hardly managed through the second but then in second year and third his results were brilliant. He got used again to being academic. ON the last part, yes I msut say that when I take assumptions I should say to leave everything open to interpretation. I still can’t take your word as a fact.
[Daphne – You don’t have to take my word as fact. Next time you are at the university for a lecture, go and check. And no, ‘studying methods’ are not harder when you are older or when you have other commitments. They’re harder only if your heart isn’t in it. As for notes, spare me. That would be part of the problem, I’d say: the ‘notes’ mentality.]
When i’m 30-40 and I’m still studying I’ll tell you about it…as to the notes mentality, tell me about a person who made it through any course (particularly law), without any notes, and I can vouch that he must be some fucken wizard. You need to be in it to confirm how important notes which you yourself make (not read anyone’s notes) are useful.
[Daphne – My husband teaches a course in law. At every lecture he is confronted by 100+ laptops and the tops of 100+ heads as they type down every single word he says, indiscriminately. I tell him that he should occasionally throw in a wild-card sentence which includes the words effing wotsit, to see whether they take that down as well. I think your lot confuse notes with dictation.]
At least we 100% agree one point…..latops or students taking every word that comes from the mouth of the lecturer should be banned from Uni…..By notes I am implying research (formulating my own notes in conjunction with lecturer’s notes)
Ah, a carefree BACHELOR still, and not a doctor.
Oh, is that picture from his BACHELOR’s party?
Meta konna l-Vietnam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EKqDCFcIck
Bring on the law course rehaul next year – and hopefully, all the other courses will follow suit.