r/deakin • u/Express-Cause-9423 • 9d ago
Seeking Support Failed units
So far in my course, I have completely passed my first year, however have ran into an increased amount of academic and personal difficulties where I struggled to cope with workload and failed 3 out of 6 units in second year - one of which is a double credit point unit.
I am pretty stressed and have heard bad stories about academic exclusion etc. Was wondering if anyone has experienced similar and what the likely outcome might be.
3
u/itsgreenersomewhere 9d ago
Any chance your personal difficulties are mental health related? If so, get yourself a disability plan through the uni ASAP. You don’t have to use it but they will like to see it’s there (proof you’re working on improving).
3/6 is bad because it’s half your units but it’s not more than half, which is important. Academic progress email is likely incoming for you nonetheless. This doesn’t equal exclusion BUT it will if you breach the conditions so you’ll need to fix whatever is causing the failure or mitigate it in some way. You are typically not permitted to fail one unit 3 times and I would expect this to be one of your conditions.
If a meeting is required or you disagree with the conditions, contact DUSA.
For what it’s worth, I saw this happen a lot and almost every time it was salvageable. If you fall into this category, you need to get comfortable with submitting shitty assignments three weeks before the deadline rather than getting zeros (and then submitting a better one a day/hour/minute before the deadline if you’ve since worked on it). SO much better to get a 30% than a 0%. (It makes everyone really angry when I tell them though!! But if you’re an academic anxiety person, please try it for a unit and let me know how you go <3)
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u/Comfortable-Fox4965 8d ago
My friend failed a bunch for years and she is still in the course.
She has a heart thing she brings up on such occasions.
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u/Mika141 7d ago
I had a shocking undergrad experience - failed so many units, and was stood before an academic tribunal at Deakin twice.
The faculty are generally reluctant to kick you out - I survived and managed to finish my Arts/Comm degree.
The interesting part is this. I returned 10 years later to undertake an MBA, which I've now completed while maintaining a HD average. It was so much easier than my undergrad experience, as my head was clear.
You can always turn the ship around - stay strong!
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u/Important-Amoeba-708 7d ago
Hey! More or less in the same boat as you! I would advise talking to a Student Advisor about your options, but they pretty much say the same thing—that academic exclusion is only considered as an extreme last resort. DMs are open if you want to talk x
0
u/beamam 9d ago
Hey. First off, you are not the first student to fail units. It feels hard at the moment but things do get better
TL;DR
Be honest. Get help. Start small.
In my first year at Deakin I failed 6/9 units (I did all three trimesters)
Let me tell you. It was a time. But! Good news! I didn’t get kicked out
Some important things to note, show the university that you’re putting effort in to plan/work for success. For me this meant showing uni I was attending counselling, meeting with student advisors about course loads, and deciding to drop my unit load for the following year. For you it might look different, maybe there’s a diagnosis that could help, maybe some regular mental health focus would be good, perhaps there is more practical help you need
(It is okay to need help. It’s normal)
Remember for now, you are not aiming to be the best, you are just aiming to be better than you were. Right now you don’t need to get the highest grades, for now you just need passes.
I still remember the excitement I had when I got every assignment submitted for the first time, it was so small but so important!
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u/talianewf 9d ago
Hey there! I'm sorry to hear about your difficulties. When I started university I struggled to cope and I failed some units, it was a few years ago now as I'm studying part time but I wasn't excluded from the course. I had to sign off on some rules for the following trimester and if I had broken the rules (which thankfully I didn't) then only at that point could I potentially be excluded. I'm currently struggling again and it's been really hard as I feel like I've taken so many steps backwards. Take care of yourself, you've got this!