Dissertation re marking.

melancholly

thinking about it, they will have looked at her overall marks and made a decision about whether she was a '2:1' candidate or a '2:2' candidate. the 2% just means that they'll have looked at it more. whenever i've done marking, the percentages haven't been exactly linear - i know if someone should get a first, 2:1, 2:2 etc and then it's about whether they were high, middle or low in that boundary - a 2% difference on paper could actually be quite a big jump. sorry if that sounds negative, but i think it's important not to give false hope....

poet123

Thanks, she has now checked her overall scores and it comes out at an average of 59%. She is still waiting to hear about profiling, but at a cursory glance it seems she may not fit the criteria.

Apparently she knew she was borderline, but her dissertation was proofread by the Tutor ( who marked it) all the way through, and any changes made, andit was critiqued by a leading lawyer who asked could he use it as a working document with his staff, and yet it only achieved 58%. It seems she was confident it would get a much higher mark, based on the comments she had received on it.

To add insult to injury that same Tutor has said in an email (yesterday) that he would like to use the souces (she found) in his own work, as they were new to him, and credit her for them!! Understandably that feels like he is rubbing salt into the wound.

She is now considering her options, going forward with a Masters is one of them. This has been a real shock, and she is so disappointed it is hard to know what to say. The usual euphoria of getting a degree has been tarnished, and she feels that if grads with a 2.1
cannot get a job, she will stand even less chance, hence the Masters consideration. However, the funding is an issue and the fear of the dissertation is also clouding her judgement.

Crispy_Ambulance

To be fair, the leading lawyer is not (I'm assuming) an examiner on the course. He may have thought it was a great piece of work - however, if it didn't meet all the criteria that the university requires, then it won't have gained a high mark.

It is worth her trying to get some more detailed feedback - if she wants to do a masters, she will most likely need to submit another dissertation for that course, so she could do with finding out where she went wrong. Many students are not critical or analytical enough and that might be the problem.

Academic judgement (i.e. you think you deserved a better mark) isn't a ground for appeal at most universities.

melancholly

maybe an informal email to the tutor concerned might make sense then? explaining that she was hoping for a higher mark based on the feedback given - could he give her any advice on what were the weaknesses so that she can learn for any furture study?

or maybe all the help that he gave meant that she was perhaps penalised for not being independent enough? i don't know really, but, i can only stress that finding information that is new and exciting is only part of the process; writing about it in a coherant, logical way is what gets the grades.

could there be anything really silly - like a penalty for not keeping to the word count, or a references section that was awful, or any other things like that? i would normally mark to the 'lowest' or 'poorest' section to a degree, as in if there was a terrible results section, even if the results were talked about in a sensible way, it would limit the maximum grade i would be able to give.

The_One_Who

Has she asked for feedback on it? This should be available for the dissertation, so she can at least where she went wrong.

poet123

Crispy_Ambulance wrote: »

To be fair, the leading lawyer is not (I'm assuming) an examiner on the course. He may have thought it was a great piece of work - however, if it didn't meet all the criteria that the university requires, then it won't have gained a high mark.

It is worth her trying to get some more detailed feedback - if she wants to do a masters, she will most likely need to submit another dissertation for that course, so she could do with finding out where she went wrong. Many students are not critical or analytical enough and that might be the problem.

Academic judgement (i.e. you think you deserved a better mark) isn't a ground for appeal at most universities.

I think that is a fair point, the lawyer was probably looking for content not adhering to the marking criteria. I think the issue probably was the analysis.

melancholly wrote: »

maybe an informal email to the tutor concerned might make sense then? explaining that she was hoping for a higher mark based on the feedback given - could he give her any advice on what were the weaknesses so that she can learn for any furture study?

or maybe all the help that he gave meant that she was perhaps penalised for not being independent enough? i don't know really, but, i can only stress that finding information that is new and exciting is only part of the process; writing about it in a coherant, logical way is what gets the grades.

could there be anything really silly - like a penalty for not keeping to the word count, or a references section that was awful, or any other things like that? i would normally mark to the 'lowest' or 'poorest' section to a degree, as in if there was a terrible results section, even if the results were talked about in a sensible way, it would limit the maximum grade i would be able to give.

She has asked for feedback, so that she can avoid those issues again. The word count was met, not exceeded, so no problem there.

The_One_Who wrote: »

Has she asked for feedback on it? This should be available for the dissertation, so she can at least where she went wrong.

Thanks for all the helpful comments, I think it is feeling less like the end of the world today.:)

leopard85

I had the same thing with my degree - I lost out because of small print. Apparently at Portsmouth Uni, in awarding degree classifications the markers have the final say and will use their own discression in deciding which award to give a student, even if that student has achieved points which will award them the higher degree classification. I had marks above 70 (i.e a first) for 75% of my year but lower marks for a crappy 25% unit. Despite having a weighted mark which would have easily got me a high 2:1, I was awarded a 2:2 because it was deemed that I couldn't possibly go through with a 2:1 when I had received a low mark for one unit. It sucks. It's not fair. More to the point, it does not reflect the sheer amount of work I put in and the weeks of sleepless nights spent trying to get the highest marks I could. It was a few years ago now, but as you can see I'm still a tiny bit bitter about it!! I really feel for you - you put your heart and soul into something only for somebody to tell you it wasn't good enough.

Fight for it; get it remarked; argue your point; anything. The worse they can do is say no. I didn't fight because I at the time I felt like dog turd, but I regret it now just on principle.

Surfbabe

poet123 wrote: »

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She is now considering her options, going forward with a Masters is one of them. This has been a real shock, and she is so disappointed it is hard to know what to say. The usual euphoria of getting a degree has been tarnished, and she feels that if grads with a 2.1
cannot get a job, she will stand even less chance, hence the Masters consideration. However, the funding is an issue and the fear of the dissertation is also clouding her judgement.

Sorry to hear she is upset about her 2.2 - she should talk to her tutor to see what he/she thinks. Just on another point she will probably find she can't get on a Masters Course as they usually specify a minimum of a 2:1.

scottishblondie

Surfbabe wrote: »

Sorry to hear she is upset about her 2.2 - she should talk to her tutor to see what he/she thinks. Just on another point she will probably find she can't get on a Masters Course as they usually specify a minimum of a 2:1.

Not always - I know several people who went on to do Masters with 2:2's. Often the recommendation of a lecturer etc will help. I also know someone in my department doing a PhD with a 2:2 classification on his undergrad degree. Make a strong case for admission and anything is possible!

poet123

My OH has a Masters and he got a 2.2!