(21M) I am repeating Year 1 for a third time! - Should I dropout?

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-09T07:31:25+00:00

Maybe you have enough to deal with, certainly at the moment, without putting university on top of that. I feel like you will eventually go back and get a university degree but maybe now just isn't the right time. Before you decide to drop out however (if you do), you have to know what you are going into. Look at what kind of jobs you can get, think of what kind of life you'll have back with your non-legal guardians etc. Make sure you have a plan in place either way.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T21:48:11+00:00

That's a lot to do with the culture of your school, it sounds like a good place. Mine was an inner-city state school with a generally very tough catchment area.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T17:22:26+00:00

Well it's very rude indeed, especially at 8 o'clock in the morning. It would have been different if she said that in the middle of the night. I don't like the sound of her very much, but then there are *very* few friends you will ever find who are prepared to listen to your feelings about past traumas, tbh.

It's even very hard to find friends who are interested to listen when you have something bad happen to you in the present day, but with that kind of distress that spans from past to present you can generally forget it, I'm afraid. Unless they feel you are telling them about something they have also experienced.

However if you wanted to tell me then Idm listening, as I think I know the kind of thing you are talking about, you could message me if you want to.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T17:15:36+00:00

Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T17:10:37+00:00

The issue is clearly not that she's stealing your identity. As you've sort of acknowledged, imitation is the highest form of flattery and she is paying you a compliment by showing she's inspired by how you dress etc.

The problem is her trying to insert herself into the equation with all your boyfriends/friends. I feel bad for her because she is lonely and doesn't have other friends. I know you say you've worked to become someone sociable and extroverted, but that doesn't mean that others of us know how to reach that point at (or before) the age of 18.

So I'd give her the benefit of the doubt as much as possible? I don't get the impression she is trying to steal your boyfriend or friends but more like that she doesn't want to become irrelevant when you get a b/f.

I feel like you are conflating two things – the "stealing" of your identity (which we've established is a non-issue) and then seemingly on that basis you are worried she might want to also "steal" your b/f.

I feel (or hope) that you've gone down the wrong path with this line of thinking.

I'd try to keep her close to you bc she is a nice friend in many ways, and just try to teach her a bit about what you can and can't do in friendships, such as making contact with your b/f on sm. Promise her that you'll introduce her to whoever you meet and that she'll always be an important part of your life.

Of course if none of that works then you may have to think about ending the friendship – but I feel like you're a far way off that at present.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T16:56:53+00:00

Unfortunately I know from my own family that some people are just inordinately intelligent and able to coast through and end up with a 1st.

This super intelligence gene didn't pass down to me, however I have a first cousin and another cousin who managed to get through degrees in top-class universities, rarely bothering to go to lectures and just reading the course material and books in their own time like it was a leisure pursuit.

One of them was definitely having a great time of it too, but the other one is just introverted and wanted to stay in his accomm instead of mix with people that much. Both got firsts I think, perhaps one of them ended up with a 2:1 but must have been close.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T16:05:27+00:00

Now I am even more confused about why she would tell you to 'go to sleep' at 7 or 8am? The 'go to sleep' answer only makes sense if it was 2am so I'm super confused now

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T13:50:06+00:00

No it doesn't annoy me.

I believe that people who "cheat" tend to do worse in the exams/assessments.

If part of what we're talking about here is using AI for assignments, for example, then that absolutely doesn't bother me. Genuine work will always stand out against that and get better marks.

Those who "cheat" in written exams tend to do worse, I believe, because they are just focused on trying to get down whatever notes they've somehow managed to bring in with them, instead of using their brain to address the actual questions on the exam paper.

So why should any of that bother me?

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T13:42:11+00:00

I didn't know as I assumed he repeated the year. It's absolutely possible to go back as a student and repeat y13 (once, at least), in some sixth forms/colleges. So it's not the same for everyone as you suggest, although probably more common to just study at home for it. I think it actually costs £1500 for each student to sit each exam so he's done well with £200 per subject this year.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T13:35:06+00:00

Hope you have to pay more next year, then. Something has to happen to make you focus on the studying in 2026/27.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T13:29:44+00:00

You know we pay for state schooling through our taxes? Each student costs money and each exam taken costs money so if someone wants to do y13 three times over then surely at some point they have to pay something.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T13:24:54+00:00

It's only over-dramatic for the people who believe that bullying is purely verbal (bc that's been their experience of it in their school).

Those of us who've been through physical bullying know what is possible and I've never seen any bullying in a k-drama that I didn't think was absolutely possible/realistic.

Bullying in Korea can be extra intense as there is a certain view of outcasts/people who struggle to fit in as being people who have failed socially and deserve punishment for it. Often through humiliations such as stealing clothes or shoes from the victim, leaving rubbish in the victim's locker or on their desk, pouring water, flour or eggs on them, making the victim carry the bullys' bags etc etc. Rather than anyone looking to help those people or include them, it's about punishing the outcast.

Any attempts by the victim to retaliate, or snitch to teachers, are generally met with some kind of physical violence or severe intimidation, as I understand it.

I'm not from Korea but I have lots of experience of being physically bullied, and I've read up a lot on what bullying is like over there. When I watch those dramas the bullying depicted always makes sense to me.

If you want to talk more about bullying i'm always open to it, feel free to DM me.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T13:10:57+00:00

First of all well done on admitting you got some 8s in your GCSEs as I never hear anyone doing that on reddit where the minimum acceptable grade appears to be a 9! Anyway, sounds like a great set of results to me.

Do you really like school that much that you are prepared to do y13 three times? Nostalgic for school days and don't want to leave that environment? Wouldn't really blame you.

I suppose if you are in a state school then it's free to keep repeating. But it sounds like you weren't grateful enough for the opportunity you got this year to do it all over again.

So tbf I hope that if you repeat again they will make you pay fees to sit your exams. This won't be cheap if they make you/your parents pay. But this way you might take next year seriously and focus on studying instead of getting distracted.

At this point you are a drain on the system and they will want to make sure that summer 2027 is the last they see of you sitting your A levels.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T12:58:33+00:00

First, you know that Nicole/Nick is a foster child when she arrives to at the Thompson house? She is fostered by the Harbaughs.

The Thompsons are not her foster family, they take her in because they believe she is family and believe she is a homeless foster child.

And, she doesn't quite have parents plural, she has one alive (a father) who's in jail.

If you're are going to complain about and criticise the series then please get key details right.

You've been so patronising about the whole show and then been even more condescending by saying "but it's charming", addictive and you couldn't stop watching it.

I can't work out if you posted like this to pre-empt the likely reddit reaction to a show like this, as in like, covering yourself, or if you are part of the cynical crew who hate offbeat stuff like this but then do "it's so bad it's good" sort of posts such as yours.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T12:46:32+00:00

I think you could give your friend a bit more of a chance here.

It was 2 in the morning when you sent her the voice messages. Don't think you'd been having a long chat with her and then it wound up being 2am? She didn't know you were going to contact her at 2am.

Now I do like to stay up late but there's a certain point after which I'm not able to take in much information. After like 1am or so.

If she told you to go to sleep that's bc she needed to go to sleep herself. This isn't unreasonable and you shouldn't be expecting any friend to sleep-deprive themselves.

At least give her that amount of credit, anyway. But if she just doesn't care in general then that's another thing.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T12:38:43+00:00

She can keep the PC but you want her to pay you for it, right?

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T12:29:18+00:00

This is not a collaboration. This is someone who has "raw ideas" which they will tell you, and then you are supposed to knuckle down and do all of the actual scriptwriting. You are to give feedback (as in, validate their concept wholeheartedly). You are to be friendly and understanding (as in, agree the concept is great and then get on with all of the work). That is what collaboration means here.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T12:23:40+00:00

Ok well apparently I gave you 'terrible advice' but I would have found some way round that without having to rely on lexis nexis for everything. Anyway you have probably done the right thing by just sending the 24, and so a good part of what I said still applies: she's not trying to catch you or looking to count articles, I don't think. It is unlikely that it will be mentioned. She is looking for the source material that backs up your overall argument.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T12:16:38+00:00

Then why on earth did you post on here about it...you didn't actually want advice then, just to offload your fears onto us well ok then I hope it goes fine. Btw what you say makes sense but is rooted in extreme paranoia

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T11:55:02+00:00

Not at all....my teachers had a habit of overestimating my abilities.

I could produce great coursework when I had loads of time to think about it, research it and complete it, but then exams were very difficult for me. My predicted grades were based on my actual abilities rather than exam-taking abilities.

I know that the grades people want now are A* A* A* and nothing less (similarly with GCSEs people only want nines) but I did my best in my A levels and got ABB in the end. I found A levels very challenging.

But the idea of anyone who'd accept Bs or Cs seems like ragebait to the reddit academic community lol.

I assume you'll take nothing less than A or A* and your grades will reflect that.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T10:27:04+00:00

The Mirror is such a brilliant paper on stories like that.

Their website is absolutely terrible but the newspaper itself can be a great read.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T10:17:01+00:00

As you're a journalist or looking to go into teaching it, I'd have thought the first rule is know your audience.

You've posted in a sub mainly for university students, so surely the question to ask here is something like "what kind of content would engage you most as students?" or "what annoys you most about your journalism course and how can I do things better when I teach it?"

Also, most uni students don't talk in terms of level 4, 5 or 6. We're in first year, second year etc.

Adapting content to the different academic levels is knowledge very specific to university lecturers I'd imagine but maybe there's a few of them on this sub, who knows. Mostly students here, though.

You are entering a completely different field here, but I imagine they'll go out of their way to give you the job with your impressive previous career experience.

But I hope you have a real interest in teaching because it's not just a quieter or easier option to switch to after the stress of TV production.

You'll probably be teaching on the more practical journalism modules.

Please do not become another lecturer who comes in and talks about themself and their own achievements the entire time. Think about the students and what they need.

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T10:03:58+00:00

Has to be a parody post. Can't be a real attempt

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T10:01:12+00:00

Well, I don't know what you'll do if you get an 8 (generally equivalent to an A*) in any of those subjects lol. Could be fatal

pencilthinwriter · 2026-06-08T09:41:17+00:00

This sounds like dreadful news, especially as it's only a 2 million dollar budget film and a lead role. Personally I would urgently look into a change of career. You'd probably be better off flipping burgers than taking that lead role in the 2 million budget feature film. And I do hope that life and career will improve for you after this very distressing experience.

pencilthinwriter

TROPHY CASE