Re-sits

Voyager2002

Another thought: remember that if he has to leave Nottingham and get a job, all is by no means lost. The Open University will always be there for him; its degrees are very highly regarded; and it would give him credit for all of his achievements (including any Nottingham modules that he has actually passed). And if he has to live with the discipline of doing a job, and is away from the social environment of a university, he might well be able to study more effectively.

imported_goldie

To be fair to my son he is not aware i am doing "all this running around". He just thought he would have the option of retaking the year, it is me (who could get a degree in worrying!) who wanted to know for sure. He actually has had a part time job for a year and is currently working there full time. He seems committed when it comes to work, never late, never absent etc but he just seems to have gone "wild" whilst at Uni, mainly with his drinking. This is why i would prefer him to choose work over Uni but it is his life so he has to make the choice and face the consequences of failing but as his mum i obviously worry about him losing such a good opportunity at Nottm uni.

ffeindadifyr

In my opinion I'd give him the benefit of the doubt for his resits - and see where that leaves him. Who knows, you might be worrying over nothing - he might pass get into his second year and would have learnt his lesson. I know PLENTY of people that this has happened to and have gone on to get 2.1's (and one person a first).

It's so much better for this to happen in the first year where the marks aren't so crucial than in his second or third year!

What subject is your son studying - would it be possible to get someone to go over the work that he needs to revise? Usually it's just a matter of understanding the work a little better and it all falls into place.

pavlovs_dog

another thing to bear in mind is that some unis cap the marks on resits. im at swansea, and i dont know if the policy is limited to the school of arts or is uni wide, but resit marks are capped at 40%, meaning no matter how well you do in the resit you will not achieve anything higher than a basic pass mark for that module

ffeindadifyr

Yes Pavlov - this does tend to be the way it works - unless your resit is due to external mitigating circumstances.

But also marks from the first year don't carry in the Welsh Uni's through to your final grade - I assume the same is true in most English Uni's - correct me if I'm wrong. Which is why many a first year gets into this sort of trouble as they think that getting a pass is easy and won'r affect their final grade.

imported_goldie

Thats exactly what my sons trouble was. He knew his first year grades would not go towards his degree and knew he only needed 40% to pass. He is very capable of a lot more than that . He thought he could easily get the 40% with little work but has been proven very wrong!

melancholly

imported_goldie wrote: »

Thats exactly what my sons trouble was. He knew his first year grades would not go towards his degree and knew he only needed 40% to pass. He is very capable of a lot more than that . He thought he could easily get the 40% with little work but has been proven very wrong!

it's probably really good that he's had this reality check now, and that he didn't scrape through and then try and do the same next year!! while he's at home over the summer there won't be as many easy distractions (i.e. friends in the bar!) so he should be able to get a whole lot more work done!

imported_goldie

Well just had a reply from Uni and it seems if he doesnt pass his resits then "generally the Board of Examiners recommend terminating the course". He has started his revising now but its a worry. Why is it if you fail 5 exams you can retake the first year but if you fail less than 5 you have to take resits with the chance of having to leave Uni?

dmg24

Sorry to hear the news i_g.

Has the uni stated that if you fail all five exams you can retake the first year? I wasn't aware of that.

imported_goldie

Cant remember where i read it now or if it applies to all uni's but do remember reading that if you fail five then you have to retake the year. A friends son failed last year and had to retake the year so i presume there are rules for when you do resits and when you have to retake the year?