The Real CC Saga, and why I am and should be frustrated...

This was the first email I sent:

From: Mark Kiak Min Tan
Sent: Thu 11/22/2007 12:27 AM
To: Dr. XY
Subject: CC Revision Classes

Hi Dr. XY,

My name is Mark and I am currently in JC3. My CC group is group 11 with Dr. D.

As you may well know, we finished our last CC class for the term today, and we were told that for our OSCE exams, content from last years classes as well as this years will be examinable.

Anyway, I spoke to Dr. D about this and she said that she would be perfectly happy to give us a couple of extra practice classes (formal or informal) if we needed to, but she said she would need your approval for it as not all tutors may be willing to do so.

This is a private arrangement which she is happy to help out in if you agree to allowing it. It will not take place during Dr. D's scheduled clinical teaching hours in RCSI or during any of our class times. It will also be on a voluntary basis, and no one in the group will be forced to come if they do not want to, but I am sure that attendance will be quite good for this if it does happen.

As such, I hope that you will give your approval for this to happen.

Also, it would be good if you could provide some information about our OSCE exams for JC3. So far, all that we have been told is that the case studies which are examinable are from JC3 but the clinical stations can be anything from JC1,2 or 3. We have had no information about how many stations there will be, what each station will be examining, what happens with the CCCI lectures we receive, and also the timing for each station and other details like that.

Thank you very much & I look forward to hearing from you.

Warmest regards,
Mark Tan

I NEVER got a reply, so I sent another email:

From: Mark Kiak Min Tan
Sent: Wed 11/28/2007 2:04 PM
To: Dr. XY
Cc: Dr. D
Subject: FW: CC Revision Classes

HI Dr. XY,

I am attaching the email that I sent last Thursday, of which I have yet to receive a reply.

I am just resending it in case you did not receive it. Hopefully you will be to give a quick reply as I do not foresee much time available if we delay for much longer.

Thank you very much,

Regards,
Mark Tan

This time she DID reply, but with a negative:

Dear Mark,

I received your email, with thanks. I had to review this issue with DR. C before replying. As we are unable to provide additional tuition for the full class, these extra sessions cannot be permitted. We appreciate Dr. D's commitment, and are very grteful for her commitment to the programme. All teaching must be standardised, as I am sure you can understand.

I hope this answers your query,

Kind regards

I replied:

Hi Dr. XY,

Thanks for that quick reply. I do understand that it is hard to organise a whole class revision session, but in the light that we are being tested on content from previous semesters in addition to confusion with the course this term, no thanks to room changes and also to lack of equipment, I think that we should be entitled to a session where we can raise our doubts and queries. I do understand that teaching has to be standardised but what we are requesting for approval of a private initiative by the students of the group, who have a demonstrator who is agreeable to our request to conduct a review lesson, and not for the coordinators of this course to organised a whole class revision session.

You have also not addressed the other issue I mentioned in the email regarding the structure of the OSCE exams for JC3. I feel that we should have been given information about this earlier, as with all the other exams, so that we have adequate preparation. Without this information, which even the demonstrators have no idea about, I feel that we have not been sufficiently prepared for the course and exam and is another reason why we feel we need a review session. Would it be possible for you to explain the structure of the OSCE exams for JC3?

Thank you very much.

To which she replied with the most stupid statements:

Dear Mark,

I am unsure as to how some room changes, of which students were informed well in advance of the classes, (I check Moodle every day, at an average of a 3 hourly basis, and I was caught off guard once with the room changes) could affect the delivery of the course content. I would appreciate if you could clarify what you mean by "confusion with the course", (my group did not have a video taping device for one of the session, and when we got one for the next, it had no memory; we had non patient for another session and Dr.XY herself had to step in as the patient; during my first session I was not able to log into Moodle to sign in for the session; we were supposed to get the same tutor for the whole semester, but during our last session this was changed, and the other tutor did not know what to teach, and those are just to name a few...) as I have not received any communication from any students, including yourself, querying this , up until now - I am always available to discuss any issues, but I can't anticipate if uninformed. (I personally approached her regarding the issue of logging in to Moodle for attendance, and if she cannot recall that, I have emails as proof of correspondence, I am sure other students went to see her also, and if they didn't it's because they didn't know who she was, or where to find her, because she does not have an office and her name is not listed as the module coordinator)

I understand that it is a private initiative, but I'm sure you can understand that the rest of the class may feel disgruntled when they cannot avail of such an opportunity.(I am sure they will be, which is why I am writing to you in November, so that you can set up one for the whole class if need be for January, is 2 months not sufficient?) It is unfortunate that this issue is only now brought to my attention - it is usual practice for the class representatives to approach me during the semester, if any additional tuition/classes are requested by the majority of the student body. (At this point, I approached the class reps and they assured me that something would be done...) All such requests are given great consideration by the faculty, and every effort is made to facilitate students, where resources and time allows. (The result of this consideration I will post below, look out for it...)

I have brought your concerns to the attention of Dr. Barry, who is the module coordinator, and to whom such issues should be addressed. Any decisions made on course delivery rest within her remit.

After this fiasco of emails, I emailed the class reps, who assured me that they would bring this matter up with the Junior Cycle Director, and a couple of weeks back, during the Christmas Holidays, I received notice that they had agreed to a tutorial.

The first week of school resumed, and no word of a tutorial was heard. Our OSCE's were to be held the following Thursday and Friday.

Over the weekend, a thread was started asking how many people would be interested in a CC tutorial and a whole bunch of people replied with an affirmative response, and we hoped that our request was being seriously requested.

Anyway, on Monday, we received a strange reply:

Clinical Competencies Revision Session

by Denise O Mara - Monday, 7 January 2008, 03:42 PM

Dear All

A revision session on the clinical competencies content of JC III will be held at 13:00 in the O'Flanagan Lecture Theatre. The format of this session will be Questions & Answers

And one of my classmates posted this up as a reply:

One of the CC ladies (Dr.XY herself) turned up at 1pm in O'Flanagan to give a tutorial and was wondering why no one showed up.

Anyway, I just had to post this because yesterday one of my friends told me that I shoul dbe thankful because this lady was doing us a favour... but that's only because they didn't know the truth, and what happened before that...