Clarification re. new grading system/honours classification

Jonny Arson

It appears to me there seems to be alot of confusion amongst some students regarding what your grade is really worth.

For example I believed the A- grade I believed I got in one of my modules was worth in percentages somewhere between 85-90% as would have been scenario last year and in previous years. According to UCD's new Modularisation and Semesterisation guidelines that A- grade is actually a percentage of 70-73.32% (in the link provided, you can see the table for grades and percentages in Assessment and Grading on Page 7). Instead of a 5% percent cut off for each grade value there is now roughly a 3.33% percent cut off for each grade value except for an A+ (76.67-100%) and anything less than a G grade (13.33%). Maybe some of you were aware of this but I certainly wasn't!

Probably more importantly, what GPA do you need to recieve an honours degree? Again, a bundle of information regarding this buried within the UCD website. According to Section 6.6 of UCD Academic Council's Modularisation and Semesterisation General Regulations on page 23 your honours degree will calculated based on your GPA by.....

GPA

Greater than or equal to 3.68 - First Class Honours
From 3.08 to 3.67 inclusive - Second Class Honours, Grade 1
From 2.48 to 3.07 inclusive - Second Class Honours, Grade 2
From 2.00 to 2.47 inclusive - Pass

Again, I'm posting this here incase anyone else is like me and didn't know what exactly their grade was worth or what exact GPA they need to get that highly sought after First Class Honours degree. The new grading system and the new GPA based honours degree awarding system work out broadly inline with the previous ''get 70% you've got a First Class Honours'' system but I'm not any great mathematician or statistics genius so there could well be flaws. I also encourage you all to read all sections of the above links carefully as different scenrios and regulations may apply to your respective course.

There was an email sent last month linking you to the S&M regulations pdf page and outlining a change in the honours system but my god it was presented poorly. I've failed to locate any communication about grading/percentages from the college authorities.

Below is an excel attachment outlining how to calculate your percentages, grade and GPA and last years Grade structure, hopefully it will make things a little less confusing! Warning: this spreadsheet is not official and may contain errors (I did proof it's figures so it should be good!) but don't blame me if it's wrong!

Waltons

Zane from MTV2 wrote:

The new grading system and the new GPA based honours degree awarding system work out broadly inline with the previous ''get 70% you've got a First Class Honours'' system but I'm not any great mathematician or statistics genius so there could well be flaws. I also encourage you all to read all sections of the above links carefully as different scenrios and regulations may apply to your repsective course

I can't remember the exact file that I found it out on (it might even be one of the ones you pointed out above) but from what I remember, 70% or above in an individual subject would correspond to a first in that subject - in most subjects anyway. The 3.68, handily enough, actually comes out at slightly less than a first average, so one doesn't have to get constant A- to A+ throughout.

Fair play to you, Zane, for putting this up. This stuff is ridiculously hard to find; it took me an hour or two to get all the details one night.

Umaro

I don't know why they make it so overly complicated :-/

Cheers Zane

Sarn

Good points to highlight.

The thing is the GPA is supposed to replace the old honours system. But I take your point that it'd be nice to see a comparison, especially when explaining it to an employer.

The percentage range also depends on whether a pass is 40 or 50%.

Grading tends to be a subjective thing (apart from MCQs and the like obviously) so if I decide to give you an A it doesn't really matter what % it is unless you're combining % and grades.

In reality what would be considered a 1st class answer would only rate in the high 70%s anyway which is why I think the A+ range is so large.

The value of your A- has not been cheapened by the apparent switch to a lower percentile as it is all relative and in theory the conversion is supposed to be from % to grades and not the other way around.

I agree though it is fairly confusing.

singingstranger

Excellent thread, Zane... Hulla? Sangre? Stickyness?

Tan Princess

singingstranger wrote:

Excellent thread, Zane... Hulla? Sangre? Stickyness?

Are we going to receive the results of our christmas exams in percentages grades like A-C or traditional 1.1 - 2.2?

Chakar

Cool thanks Zane

Jonny Arson

Here will some kind hearted human being tell me if that Excel sheet I have now attached in the opening post is coming up fine? Ta!

Sarn wrote:

The value of your A- has not been cheapened by the apparent switch to a lower percentile as it is all relative and in theory the conversion is supposed to be from % to grades and not the other way around.

Yeah, I did my Maths so I'm less worried now. I think the new grading is almost relative to the old system. I did a few mock figures, though not exact, are roughly similar to the previous however I'm sure there will be the odd few cases of someone benefiting overall degree wise and someone losing out.

Tan Princess wrote:

Are we going to receive the results of our christmas exams in percentages grades like A-C or traditional 1.1 - 2.2?

It will be in Grades and GPA, they won't use percentages so to cover up (not in a sinister fashion!) any flaws in the new grading system.

Tan Princess

So what grade/GPA do I need to get to get a 2.1? Will i get an overall grade or grades and an overall GPA?

Jonny Arson

Tan Princess wrote:

So what grade/GPA do I need to get to get a 2.1?

You did read my opening post didn't ya?

Tan Princess wrote:

Will i get an overall grade or grades and an overall GPA?

For your christmas exams you'll get overall grades for each module you did and an average weighted GPA based on those 6 modules. If your talking about you overall degree, whatever modules that count towards your degree will be wieghted in a similar fashion and you'll get your final GPA.

passive

hmm... seems my first year results have me on course for a 2.1 so... 3.68 looks difficult to get up to. *gets his studying cap on and browses boards/bebo some more*