4th year weigthing

cagefan

hey everyone,

Can someone tell me how 4th year is weighted? I keep hearing that its double what 3rd year is worth but how does this work in practice? If I get a qca 2.0 it works out at 4.0?

Cheers

Stephen

sceptre

Hey Stephen

No, it just means that... oh bleh, I'll explain it a different way. I could explain this with a whole load of acronyms and formulas but I'll try to do it simply (though obviously I'm going to use the "QCA" abbreviation).

Each term has its own individual QCA, based on how you do that term. And there's also a cumulative QCA, based on the average of all the QCAs you've achieved so far (technically this isn't how it's worked out but it's pretty much the same thing in practice). And obviously first year doesn't count - and if I remember rightly there are one or two degree programmes where second year doesn't count either but I can't remember which ones.

In some cases, fourth year is weighted doubly for the purposes of working out that average. In some cases, both third year and fourth year are weighted doubly for the purposes of working out that average. Which of these applies to you depends on what degree programme you're doing.

So your term QCA is whatever it would normally be. A C3 average will give you a QCA of 2.00, an A1 average will give you a QCA of 4.00 in the normal way.

But when they're working out your cumulative QCA (which in the case of a fourth year student is your final QCA) they multiply the figure they use (which as it happens is the QCA you had for each term) for the final year (or final two years, depending) by 2. Note that your term QCA hasn't changed, you can't suddenly get a QCA of 8. And when they're dividing, they add on a figure of 1 below the line for each term they've done that for.

Example where the final two years are double weighted and the student is on co-op in third year:

Second year term 1: 2.5
Second year term 2: 3.0
Third year term 1: 3.0
Fourth year term 1: 2.0
Fourth year term 2: 3.8

Final QCA is (2.5 + 3.0 + (2*3.0) + (2*2.0) + (2*3.8))/1+1+2+2+2
=2.89

As you can see, in this case it makes performance in second year count as 25% of the final award. Where the final two years are double weighted and the student goes on co-op in second year, second year counts as 11% of the final award. That's really simplistic by the way, assuming that each term has the same number of equally-weighted modules and that the final year project doesn't skew the figures. In practice, for cumulative QCA, the calculation is bigger, working on the basis of single modules. You can work it out in your head precisely but there are computing machines to do it (which because of the complication involved sometimes get it wrong for various reasons, though the core reason is that the student records system that does it is incredibly badly designed).

That's the answer to your first question (how it works in practice). it's not as simple as I'd like the explanation to be but I think it's as simple as the explanation of it can be. The complete information on how it's calculated should be in the student handbook somewhere.

Nice simple answer to your second question ("If I get a qca 2.0 it works out at 4.0?"): no.

If parts of the above aren't clear, feel free to ask about them.

cagefan

wow, thats complicated...thanks alot for the reply....I think I'll have to print that off and try figure it out...from your experience, is it possible to go from about a QCA of about 2.36 to a 3.0 jst in the final year? I know its kinda of a vague question but jst really to figure out if its possible/feasbile?

Thanks again for your help

sceptre

cagefan wrote: »

wow, thats complicated...thanks alot for the reply....I think I'll have to print that off and try figure it out...from your experience, is it possible to go from about a QCA of about 2.36 to a 3.0 jst in the final year? I know its kinda of a vague question but jst really to figure out if its possible/feasbile?

It's almost certainly mathematically possible (I'd have to see a list of the module weightings and year weightings to be sure) but as for feasibility, it's highly improbable:) You're talking about going from roughly a C2 average over the first two counted years to probably an A2 average in the final year (I'm even assuming an extra 3 credits for an FYP there) to make it possible. That's about as precise an answer as I can make it.

cagefan

!! So I gotta lot of studying ahead of me!! May aswell enjoy co-op so! Take it easy and thanks for the all info