How are third and pass degrees regarded these days?

anewman

talksalot81 wrote:

I am not totally comfortable knowing my medic may get things wrong upwards of half the time!

Having not studied medicine, I can't be certain, but I'm guessing a grade of 50% wouldn't mean they only got half of things right - but I'd seriously be worried about 40% or below.

Lara

With one getting a 2:1 & Masters, another a pass :rolleyes: and the last in the second year I can say as their Mum that No 1 not in a job he was trained for and wanted & now thinks Uni a waste of time and money, No 2 going great guns and loving life (didn't like Uni course :rolleyes: ) and No 3 will get whatever he gets. Youngest two have very good brains but cannot do exams. Plain and simple fact!

So you come out with whatever grade of degree you can and be proud of it. At the end of the day No 2 has never ever been asked his degree grade - fortunately!

melancholly

grades are never about getting 50% or 60% of the exam right. in an essay based exam in most universities, getting over 80% is practically impossible, so the maximum mark isn't really 100%. marks are given based on the standard of the work - you decide if it's a good 2:1, low 2:2 etc and then give the corresponding grade. even in subjects like maths you can get the answers right but not get full marks depending on the elegance of your answer (very annoying - trust me!).

a medic with a pass of 50% minimum is higher than about half of university graduates - and medicine is generally only offered at very high achieving universities. to get into medicine you need a very strong academic background and therefore you have an above average cohort of people so the lower half of the medical students would probably still do very well when measured against other subjects.

i'm not a medic but it seems very unfair to suggest that they get 50% of things wrong - if half the statements made on their exams were incorrect they wouldn't even pass. by now it should be clear than any level of a pass at university involves knowing a lot about your subject. it's the clarity of expression and extra reading that take you up the scale.

blackcateddie

melancholly wrote:

the problem is that employers have to pick people somehow - they get so many applications that at least half of them need to be rejected outright - you can't invite 100 people to interview for 1 job! they wouldn't want to spend the time and resources. academic achivement is very highly correlated with IQ, not perfectly so you can get very bight people with low grades and vice versa, but on the whole, it works as a way of getting good applicants.
it may not be great, but i think it's unavoidable.

It's not the fact that they see it as correlating with IQ, it's just to cut down the CV's!!!
Having been in HR/Recruitment for 17yrs I know that your degree level has nothing to do with your quality of application, some first degree holders haven't got the common sense of a gnat, whilst some third's can be very bright but not motivated by their college course.
Getting a third/pass doesn't stop you from getting a good job, it's all about presentation so if you can show that you have varied interests, take responsibility, can be organised and effective in other parts of your life, then employers will weigh those qualities just as much as they would your degree level.

anewman

ftbworried wrote:

Perhaps I'd never thought of the possibility that my potential employer might have a lower degree class than me and has some bitterness about candidates who did better than them at university, and therefore might invent some totally pathetic excuse as to why they have reservations about my application ("I might have no interpersonal skills because I was good at my subject! Ridicuous!").

OTOH I have a first and I, admittedly, have poor interpersonal skills and am still unemployed. My question is why should I look forward to unemployment just because of poor interpersonal skills and not being good at interviews, when I may be good at the job itself and on the whole the job might not require particularly good interpersonal skills. - Also would a job not give me the opportunity to develop my interpersonal skills?!

studentphil

The average mark on my course is 2.2 which is what it should be.

DrFluffy

talksalot81 wrote:

I might be unusual, but irrlevant of the difficulty, I am not totally comfortable knowing my medic may get things wrong upwards of half the time!

My experience of medics has me totally scared to go near them! Simple things, yes their seems to be little trouble. But time after time, slightly difficult situations have led to misdiagnosis or simply no diagnosis at all. I would really love to know how to find a medic who I can trust to go to with such an 'awkward' condition and not end up coming out with 'stress' as the only explanation!

Graduation is only the begining, not the end... Exams til we die...

Stress is always usually part of the differential, and should never be ignored - hence it is usually mentioned. No point pumping someone full of treatment for X, Y or Z iof they then go and top themselves because you didn't notice their anxiety...

DrFluffy

anewman wrote:

Having not studied medicine, I can't be certain, but I'm guessing a grade of 50% wouldn't mean they only got half of things right - but I'd seriously be worried about 40% or below.

In med, 50% is the bear minimum pass (less than that you get one exam retake and one year retake), and we've been repeatedly told it is akin to a high 2i/1st in any other degree (TM)...

Not to forget last year I had a big exam every 4-6 weeks...

talksalot81

DrFluffy wrote:

Stress is always usually part of the differential, and should never be ignored - hence it is usually mentioned. No point pumping someone full of treatment for X, Y or Z iof they then go and top themselves because you didn't notice their anxiety...

But when I pass out through pain... stress is not likely the answer... inspite of nothing else seemingly wrong

Personal rant really, I just wish more doctors were scientifically inclined instead of heavily relying on a set of known circumstances.

studentphil

Doctors just like a complex grading scheme.