Rounding Up

Twiggytwig

Hi,

Just wondering will the college round up a 69% average to a 70% or even a 69.6% average to a 70% in order to go from a 2.1 to a 1.1 degree? Same obviously with a 2.1, 2.2 etc? Or will that person be forced to live the agony of knowing they missed out by a wisker?

Cheers in advance, and sorry if this has been asked already, I'm only new to the fora......

RolandIRL

generally no, they won't round up

i know someone who got 39.5% but they wouldn't round up and she ended up repeating that exam

red_fox

You can appeal any/all exams which may get you the extra marks needed (you could also lose marks but at 69% you're not going to lose a grade).

A line has to drawn somewhere. If everyone at 39% passed because it was only 1% away, then everyone at 38% should also pass for the same reason, and so on and so on.

I hope it works out for you; it's a pain being so close yet so so far!!

gpe

whiteman19 wrote: »

generally no, they won't round up

i know someone who got 39.5% but they wouldn't round up and she ended up repeating that exam

B u l l s h i t.

39.5 = 40%.

KittyeeTrix

gpe wrote: »

B u l l s h i t.

39.5 = 40%.

Is this your personal view on this or an informed fact???

Twiggytwig

red_fox wrote: »

You can appeal any/all exams which may get you the extra marks needed (you could also lose marks but at 69% you're not going to lose a grade).

A line has to drawn somewhere. If everyone at 39% passed because it was only 1% away, then everyone at 38% should also pass for the same reason, and so on and so on.

I hope it works out for you; it's a pain being so close yet so so far!!

Cheers. Totally understand your point about a line being drawn, but the main reason I asked was because 39.6 is closer to 40 than it is to 39 (or so I was always taught in maths when rounding up! ) Hence, would they not round it up to 40 or do they leave it at the decimal?

RolandIRL

i can only say from what my friend got - but she was in a course where she had to pass every exam (ie no compensation) but you might be able to compensate, i'm not sure.

Mikey23

Yes, NUIG round up. It's not a fixed policy (varies between the different schools/colleges), but the practice is to round off to the nearest percentage. I've never encountered a 39.5% to be not rounded up though, seems extremely unlikely to me. I've known colleagues who'd consider rounding up 38.5's for instance.

That's not the only chance for grade revision though. The lecturer tots up the totals first, and may add a mark or two based on whether he/she thinks it's worth scraping into the pass or 2.1 level, for example. Once all papers are marked and externed, the exam board meets in excruciatingly long meetings to review pretty much every single student's grade. Most cases are straightforward, but in the case of a borderline student, we might look at other subjects to see if this was a blip, or very occasionally, last year's results might enter into it - believe it or not, the boards want to give students the best grade they deserve, rather than bring them down unnecessarily or ruin a summer with repeats.

That's not to say that 69% are routinely bumped up. A first is still a decent achievement, at least in my discipline. That 69% could be misleading in that it's already been rounded from 68.51%, so increasing it could be over-generous and harsh on those who earned their first.

Hope that gives you some guidance OP. Only speaking from my own experience in marking and in sitting in on exam board meetings in other disciplines where we do service teaching.

Twiggytwig

That was indeed a great help thanks a mil! Im presuming that practice is applied when calculating averages for a final degree result aswell?? Ie an overall average of 49.7 will be brought up to 50 to allow someone get a 2.2 degree rather than a pass degree??

Thanks again!!

f1dan

My housemate got 69.7 average last year, it didn't get rounded up

AJ6000

How do they calculate your overall mark? I assumed it was just your average of all your results but when I added up mine I got a different result to what they gave me overall.

I'm only saying this because I got 69.08 overall but when I add up my results to get the average I get 70.57

My results were

59
71
68
78
82
77
59

If its done by average would it be possible that they made a mistake? I got 78 in Maths & Stats but it still says I only got a pass when I thought 70+ is 1st Class Honours? Would it be worth getting a recheck seeing as I have two 59s?

Mikey23

Twiggytwig wrote: »

That was indeed a great help thanks a mil! Im presuming that practice is applied when calculating averages for a final degree result aswell?? Ie an overall average of 49.7 will be brought up to 50 to allow someone get a 2.2 degree rather than a pass degree??

Thanks again!!

Yeah, the overall totals are likewise regularly rounded up most depts - check if it's specified in the college's/school's course calendar. There are bound to be exceptions, and bear in mind that some courses might be weighted differently.

Twiggytwig

Cheers guys, ye've been a huge help!!!

f1dan

AJ6000 wrote: »

How do they calculate your overall mark? I assumed it was just your average of all your results but when I added up mine I got a different result to what they gave me overall.

I'm only saying this because I got 69.08 overall but when I add up my results to get the average I get 70.57

My results were

59
71
68
78
82
77
59

If its done by average would it be possible that they made a mistake? I got 78 in Maths & Stats but it still says I only got a pass when I thought 70+ is 1st Class Honours? Would it be worth getting a recheck seeing as I have two 59s?

It just says pass or fail for each group of subjects and then 1st class honours or whatever at the bottom. Did you get the weighted average i.e. calculate the average depending on how many credits each subject is worth?

AJ6000

f1dan wrote: »

It just says pass or fail for each group of subjects and then 1st class honours or whatever at the bottom. Did you get the weighted average i.e. calculate the average depending on how many credits each subject is worth?

Ah right I never did the weighted average and it came to 69.08 Each subject I did has what grade I got beside it ie. first class honours, second class honours grade 1/2 and they all match up to the percentage I got except for my maths&stats where I got 78 but it only says pass. Would it actually make a difference if I got my 69.08 up to a 70???

red_fox

It depends on the weighting but to get the extra .92 needed for 70 you would need an extra 6 marks somewhere (assuming the subjects are 10 credits, so one to 65 or both to 62 but if only 5 credits then you would need 12, not 6). You can view your paper(s) on student consultation day if it hasn't already passed, that could give you some idea about what you could hope for.

The most you have to lose is the price of the appeal. If it's final year then the first would be well worth it, if it's first year then probably not (although it is always nice); but that's your decision to make.