Major college failure dilemma!!

LegacyUser

Hi I've just heard some really bad news about my college course tonight and I don't know what to do. Sorry if this goes on a bit.

I'm almost finished a year long masters course in a practical subject that I have been planning my career in since I was 14. I've been working so hard at this and doing really well all year long (top of my class) and on course for a good merit at the end (which I need for my Doctorate in a very competitive field).

I've been worried all year about how competitive the application procedure for the doctorate is, but my supervisor has assured me that with a merit I will stand a good chance. I am already carrying a pass grade in the very first module (of 5) - and nobody in the course achieved any higher. I have merits in the next two modules and was on course for a merit as long as I kept my final two grades up.

I have recently moved house and called over to the old house tonight to pick up my post. I opened an envelope from college to find that I had FAILED the second part of Module 4 - an essay which I handed in over four months ago and that had just been marked. I already had a merit in the first part and so overall it works out as a pass, but I have no idea of the actual percentage as these aren't revealed to us until the external examiners confirm them.

The problem with my essay was, that I had interpreted a very open question, in a way that minutely differed from what the examiner had wanted. Basically the question asked what I would prioritise in a certain situation of which there were many options and to back up my question with current evidence. I did this, by choosing the practice that I would prioritise and giving my reasons why. As it turns out, the essay actually required that I answer with the variety of practices that I would prioritise i.e. more than one.

This was completely unclear in the question and now I've been given a zero, even being marked as a fail on my presentation, literacy and clarity of expression - I am presuming, based on my good track record with essays, that I have not suddenly become illiterate and incoherent.

Basically this entirely messes up my grade for the entire year and I don't know what to do. I feel so helpless. I can see my entire career going up in smoke over something so unfair. I don't know who to turn to because it's a very close knit teaching unit and the marker was the director of the whole course. He didn't even bother to comment on the essay other than to say he was "perplexed" as to why I'd focused on one priority. When to me, a priority meant one thing.

I'm so upset because I've worked so hard. Apart from depending on the grade, I am also depending on my supervisor for references and he was distinctly unfriendly to me at the start of the year until the good grades started coming in.

Is this fair? If a question is so open to interpretation and the answer that I give is good,can I really be failed?

Any feedback would be appreciated cos I'm going to go and talk to the secretary of the department tomorrow to plead my case. Plus I'm terrified that I'm going to burst into tears at the mere sight of her!!

Aaargh!! Sorry again about the length of this, but I feel like I'm going mad tonight and needed to vent.

fits

Just talk to your supervisor and the people in charge of the course. They will really be able to advise you best.

If that gets you nowhere, and you really feel you have been hard done by, there should be a formal appeals procedure you can pursue.

Try not to worry about it too much until you have spoken to the relevant people about it.

Sarn

Speaking from my experience of correcting scripts, the examiner has to take a step back and look at possible interpretations of the question. We used to have our questions looked over by the external examiner beforehand to try and minimise this.

If it is a case that a large number of the class made the same mistake then the phrasing of the question is fundamentally flawed and needs to be addressed. I have seen situations where this has happened. Invariably the scripts are regraded.

Giving a zero would seem to me very harsh assuming that your misinterpretation is valid. I understand where the examiner is coming from, they are looking for a particular answer and expect to get it, sometimes it can be difficult (especially if the course is broad) to see all the angles. There must be a mechanism in place that will allow you to appeal this grade? Sometimes the external examiner will look over scripts. Have you spoken to any other class mates to see if they had a similar issue?