The exam is over now, at least for me. But, official exam period will continue till 6th June. To be honest, I hated my exam schedule at first. I had two back to back exams on 17th and 20th May. It took me some time to accept it and it was fine at the end. Had the exam pressure gone any longer, I might turn into complete insane character. It is a different matter though that some friends termed me insane long back. 🙂

The Sun is shining over Manchester now-a-days. Events, celebration, barbecue, playing and even revision is being done in open air. European Champions League has just finished. I guess, it all feels well after exam. Too bad for those who are having exams and can’t enjoy all of these now. Hopefully the sunshine will stay beyond 6th June.

Relation between the Sun and Manchester is quite funny, or should I say rain and Manchester! By the grace of Almighty, almost all the time the sky remains cloudy here. Consecutive two days of sunshine is kind of serendipity. I remember one old Facebook post saying ‘saw clear sky today’, only to follow with quick retort – ‘post pictures, or it never happened’. Even the statistical questions at the University ends with – ‘Find out the probability of rain in Manchester’. 😉

Anyway, back to celebration. Students like us celebrate in all kinds of crazy ways. Still among all these, there is a certain level of Mancunion spirit imbibed upon us. Be it rain or exams, we love Manchester. The university spirit also echoes into videos like this one, organised and delivered by students. These kind of student videos are created in other universities as well, to showcase their university spirit in a funny but creative manner. Although sometimes, this can culminate into unpleasant situations.

In Oxford University, students shot a Harlem Shake video in the Library which resulted fine for few students, and sacking of the librarian without much of her fault. In Canada’s Queen’s University, one university comic group presented university lifestyle in a satirical manner. This may not go well with die-hard Queeners, but one must understand the real motive behind these kind of videos. Students also need to take permission and precautions before venturing into this kind of activities. Thankfully, we have sensible student community here at Manchester.

Well, here I am again. I am probably writing the last post of this studentblog before exam. I would be quite surprised if other bloggers could find any time to blog in this busy period. For me, it’s quite hard as well. But, I have just finished submitting my project progress report and I think I can have a little break before writing another report tomorrow. Oh, BTW my exam starts from 17th. Cruel, isn’t it?

I don’t think that I have written so many reports ever in my life. The good part is that it improves my academic writing skills by leaps and bounds. The scariest part in these report submissions is that few students every year are punished for plagiarism. The authority has zero tolerance on this. The department has state-of-the-art plagiarism detection software, which uses lot of statistical measures to find the originality of your report. If there is any plagiarism found, you’ll most probably fail or get very low marks. Of course, cheating is bad. Everybody knows that too. The problem is that you’re not doing any path-breaking research at your undergrad or masters, you forget to include quotations or references and bingo! You’d live the hell!

The authority knows our feelings too. The department each year tries their best (and I mean it) to circulate information on plagiarism. There was a mandatory course that we all needed to pass, after obviously thorough study of the course content. Also, we went through some lecture materials on this. There were repeated reminders about the possible dreadful course of action or how to avoid plagiarism. Project supervisors every now and then stress on the advantages of referencing. In our coursework, it is advised to follow the standard academic writing pattern with due references and quotes. Even the director of our masters program offered to help any students having questions on this. The point is that they all have utmost empathy on our situation, but a rule is a rule!

Anyway, hope we all can come out with our heads held high. Best wishes to everyone for the exam!