Son who is studying HNC? Lots of work But low passes by tutor

flexrider

Wonder if anyone can help us on this one

My son (Whos in the u.k studying) Is studying for his HNC in business and computer science at level 4. He spends most of his time doing the work normally from what i have seen around 50 or so pages on the assignments?

He has covered the work and what is required but keeps acheiving the pass mark and not Dist level or merit, He feels really anxious and downhearted on this because from what i have seen his work is really good, All grammar and everything on subject right as required. Yet the tutors at his College keep placing him for pass mark?

We have tried talking to the tutor in question and it seems he feels thats all it is worth the work yet I think from the work produced my son has done it shows creative thinking and logic on the subject?

Any ideas on how he could approch this?

martinthebandit

A pass mark in a good HNC is a very good mark in the first place, to get a merit let alone a distinction you have to produce an exceptional piece of work.

Are any other students on the same course consistently getting better marks?

flexrider

martinthebandit wrote: »

A pass mark in a good HNC is a very good mark in the first place, to get a merit let alone a distinction you have to produce an exceptional piece of work.

Are any other students on the same course consistently getting better marks?

Just asked me son that one on the phone and appently there are some who have got merit yet produced only 10 pages of infomation he says that are just you expect to be the lazy type who copy and paste from the internet or write the subject from the website and not research he said.

bestpud

It's not the amount of pages produced, but the quality of the work that counts.

Oldernotwiser

As above^^

It sounds like he's writing far too much for this level and is probably getting marked down for it.

I also find it rather strange that you write, "We have tried talking to the tutor in question" - I really hope that you don't mean this literally

Sambucus_Nigra

OP's son needs to ask the tutor what he needs to do in order to up his grades. It's quality not quantity that's probably needed here.

flexrider

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

As above^^

It sounds like he's writing far too much for this level and is probably getting marked down for it.

I also find it rather strange that you write, "We have tried talking to the tutor in question" - I really hope that you don't mean this literally

I have convosation with the Tutor in Email being the fact im in Europe at the minuite working away over The work needed and my son has asked direct.

As for the writing part their is no limit to the amount of work produced.

bestpudIt's not the amount of pages produced, but the quality of the work that counts

OP's son needs to ask the tutor what he needs to do in order to up his grades. It's quality not quantity that's probably needed here

True, Was thinking of along the lines also of getting a private tutor also for his help but not sure. But regardless of this:

He has been researching and take time to convay in Lateral Thinking of the subject Since it is a It course he is undertaking there are only many ways to elvalute and show findings to the challenges. But the tutor Does not apprently conclude this in his findings.

Thanks again everyone anyway for your comments i guess he will get passes and have another notch under his belt anyway then he can consider doing a professional Microsoft course or something else in IT.

Oldernotwiser

flexrider wrote: »

I have convosation with the Tutor in Email being the fact im in Europe at the minuite working away over The work needed and my son has asked direct.

As for the writing part their is no limit to the amount of work produced.



OP's son needs to ask the tutor what he needs to do in order to up his grades. It's quality not quantity that's probably needed here

True, Was thinking of along the lines also of getting a private tutor also for his help but not sure. But regardless of this:

He has been researching and take time to convay in Lateral Thinking of the subject Since it is a It course he is undertaking there are only many ways to elvalute and show findings to the challenges. But the tutor Does not apprently conclude this in his findings.

Thanks again everyone anyway for your comments i guess he will get passes and have another notch under his belt anyway then he can consider doing a professional Microsoft course or something else in IT.

As HNC is degree level study, it isn't your role to contact the tutor for your son, who is now an adult! Neither is a private tutor appropriate for this situation.

I would be the last person to want to stop creative work but "lateral thinking " isn't what is needed at this level, particularly as it seems to be leading your son to miss the point of the assignments as he's obviously doing.

I'm sure that you mean well but your attitude really isn't helping your son at the moment.

melancholly

well find out why he's being marked down first. it could well be that he's covering lots of information but not putting enough of his own opinion in - showing how he can summarise the evidence and form a conclusion. it could also be that by including too much detail, he's not demonstrating that he can be selective about what evidence is most important. getting a private tutor seems premature until you know what he needs to improve. i have never marked anything in IT, but the best essays are rarely the longest ones. it's about integrating information and interpreting it, rather than listing it all. it's a tricky thing to master.

i think your son needs to take an essay and go through it in detail. he could also try reading some of the essays that got higher marks and seeing what is different about the way they approached the question (because answering the question is far more important than showing lots of information that isn't central, even if it may be interesting). there should be some marking guidelines to compare against as well.

i'd let your son and the tutor work this out to be honest. a meeting with them one on one should make what needs to be addressed very clear. i think being proactive will be a good way to move forward more positively rather than comments complaining that other students didn't deserve good marks as they're lazy..... that's not a good mindset to be in for the rest of the course. even if it's true, it won't help him improve. focussing on what he can do seems like the better option.

mum2one

I did a HNC in business (added finance) thou it was a few years ago, but from memory there was word counts, so if he's producing 50+ pages, then it could be he is being to vague and covering many aspects, rather than concentrating say on 2 or 3 elemements, overall when I did there was 12 sub-courses, and 9 of them was for the grading, I got a couple of merits and 2 distinctions on individual pieces, on average mark overall was about 30% merit, 70% pass.

I'm not studying with Open uni for a degree, and again there word limited assisgnments, -
x

GothicStirling

flexrider wrote: »

He has been researching and take time to convay in Lateral Thinking of the subject Since it is a It course he is undertaking there are only many ways to elvalute and show findings to the challenges. But the tutor Does not apprently conclude this in his findings.

To me this sounds like his method of evaluation or interrupretation of findings is weak.

The work he is producing has to be relevant also, misinterpret a question or go off on a tangent that is not being asked for will affect grades.