Bit gutted about my degree...

Lil_Me_2

Looking at your regulations it says the following -

9.2 There are two grades of award in the Master’s degree, Distinction and Pass. The marking scheme shall prescribe the conditions to be satisfied for each. A distinction may only be awarded on the basis of credits taken within the Institute, including credits which have been undertaken as part of the PGCE course. Those who do not pass shall not be awarded the degree.

I can't easily see these online, but perhaps you have a copy somewhere.

Plus were all your modules taken at the institute? This might be an issue.

Also

Request for reconsideration
6 A student wishing the board to reconsider a decision must request such a reconsideration in writing. The request should reach the Academic Registrar within one calendar month of the date of the notification of the result to the student.

7 The student must provide the Academic Registrar with evidence within the same period:
7.1 That his or her assessment was adversely affected by illness or other factors which he or she was unable, or for good reasons, unwilling to divulge before the board of examiners reached its decision. Such illness, where claimed, must be supported by acceptable medical evidence; and/or
7.2 That the formal assessment was not conducted fairly or not in accordance with the relevant instructions or regulations or marking scheme.

So if you want to appeal you need to move quick.

Desperado99

katie89 wrote: »

I'd just like to say thank you for posting this thread - I graduated from a university in Sept last year, and was given a 2:2 at 59.37%. Many other students had a similar mark rounded to 60%, or a 2:1 (some of which were lower). Your thread has given me the encouragement I needed (being a bit of a wallflower) to email the university and simply inquire why.
Thank you

Wow! that reminds me of my OH! he got a 2.2 at 59.995% and was livid! He did appeal but he was told that they (in 1995) used three difference ways of marking, and they applied the highest one and did not round up any marks.

It is a good idea to get a breakdown of your marks and a more detailed explanation of your grade.

Good Luck to both of you!

Becles

I would appeal just to see if anything can be done.

I'm busy going through an appeal with the Open Uni over BA degree. In my final course, I needed to get Grade 2 (above 70%) on both the exam and the coursework assignments to graduate with a 2:1.

I went into the exam knowing I already had a Grade 2 on the assignments and was very confident about getting a Grade 2 in the exam.

On the day of the exam I was loaded with cold, but still felt confident. However, the exam was held in a function room of a hotel. Right behind my desk was a door through into the public hotel bar.

I was fine for the first question and have scored highly on that. Then as I started the second question some very noisy people came into the hotel bar. There was lots of laughing and carrying on, children were running around, some ladies were doing that whoopy giggle thing and a baby kept crying. The invigilator did go through and ask them to be quiet but they ignored him (to be fair, they probably wouldn't have expected to go into a public bar and have to sit in silence!)

Anyway, the noise was very off putting and I couldn't concentrate, then my head started banging from a combination of the cold and stressing over the noise and I did badly on the rest of the exam.

I sent in a special circumstances for which has been noted, but I've not been given any extra credit for doing the exam under difficult circumstances and I've been awarded a Grade 4. Therefore I've been offered a 2:2 degree which I'm very disappointed with.

I've appealed as it wasn't my fault the room was so noisy and I know I certainly could have done a lot better if I'd sat the exam under quiet exam conditions.

georgie262

Hi I also work at a university. I would imagine all universities have different criteria for borderline marks and classification. It is very complicated when it is borderline and has led some students to assume we 'round up' which we dont. Here if the mark falls between say 58.01 and 59.98 the system we use would look at whether the majority of the credits were marked at the higher or lower classification if it is the higher the classification would be rounded up and if the majority were marked at the lower classification then the mark would not be 'rounded up'. This leads unfortunately to a situation were sometimes a student with say '59' not being rounded up and a student with 58.5 getting the higher classification. It's not even as simple as that but, here at least, it is never an idividual tutors decision it is all worked out by a computer.

flimsier

Lil_Me wrote: »

Looking at your regulations it says the following -



I can't easily see these online, but perhaps you have a copy somewhere.

Plus were all your modules taken at the institute? This might be an issue.

Also



So if you want to appeal you need to move quick.

Wow; that's a good piece of research. I'll have missed the boat though, as I knew in early October about the marks. It's only now I've got the certificate, and asked about the criteria, that I'm puzzled!

I think it's a bit different to undergraduate degrees though.

flimsier

Sent a message to the administrator, and it was forwarded to the course leader (who I get on well with - she also gave me the .

I really don't feel like my work was worth the "distinction" award, but it's worth asking anyway, right?

flimsier

OK, that was a quick reply. I feel much happier now, even though nothing has changed:

From the course leader:

Hi xxxxxxx,
Firstly, I am glad to hear that things are going well for you and the baby. That's really good news.
Regarding your final grade, I can't reproduce the comments of all members of the exam board on this, but unofficially I can report that there was some discussion of whether or not you should be awarded a distinction, given that you received an A in your dissertation and 3 modules. As xxxxxx explained, the award of distinction is not automatic and in your case, the "A" for your dissertation was a bit borderline, in that one of the markers had originally awarded it an "A-/B+" and the External Examiner was inclined to go for the lower grade as he identified some weaknesses in the writing and the presentation. After some discussion, it was decided that the dissertation merited an A but that, given the fact that it was a low A (and possibly this was the case with one of the essays too, but I don't have that information to hand), a distinction would not be appropriate. I know this may sound a bit unsatisfactory, and as I'm sure you'll appreciate, this is not an exact science, but we did, I think, have a fair and rigorous conversation about this at the Board. Of course if you want to pursue this further, you have the right to do so.
I hope this is helpful, and that you are not too disappointed by the overall result.

xxxxxx

So I'm convinced I got discussed. That's all I can really ask to be honest - and I thought the marking was generous at the time anyway!

southoftheriver

I'm glad you have some clarification and feel like you can move on. I did a Masters last year and was going to be awarded a pass despite some extenuating circumstances and being very borderline. My appeal was successful but I think the act of just finding out why you were awarded what you were is useful. Congratulations on completing your masters in the circumstances you experienced, you should be really proud of yourself.

Best Wishes

onlyroz

I think with the clarification you can say "fair enough" and move on. At least it seems like you were properly considered.

In my university, I know there is a large open meeting each year to discuss the borderline cases. E.g. you need 60% to get a 2:1 and 70% to get a first. If you're just below a boundary then I think all your tutors that year get a chance to express an opinion about whether you should be moved up, based on various factors such as coursework, attendance, your contributions in tutorials/lectures etc. I know that I was concerned because I ended my 3rd year on 69% and knew that it would be fairly close for a first in my 4th year. In the end I finished my fourth year on 71% so was a "fairly safe" first.

evespikey

just wanted to say even though it's annoying you just missed the distinction, a massive well done for doing it with a full time job! I don't know how you managed! And your topic sounds really interesting, too.