Did I fail before I sat my exams?

rob234

first year arts student here, so it possible to fail the year due to poor attendance?
My grades are good and I study, but I have less than 40% attendance in a module that says it needs over 80% attendance to sit the summer exam. Surely I can't fail the year if my grades are up to scratch but my attendance is awful? :eek:

maguic24

rob234 wrote: »

first year arts student here, so it possible to fail the year due to poor attendance?
My grades are good and I study, but I have less than 40% attendance in a module that says it needs over 80% attendance to sit the summer exam. Surely I can't fail the year if my grades are up to scratch but my attendance is awful? :eek:

It really depends. Do you know how much % wise is going for attendance? It's says you have to attend 80% of lectures but this probably only accounts for 20% of the overall marks. I went to DCU, our compulsory lectures accounted for 20% of the marks. If you didn't go you lost that 20%.

I am not sure how it works in other colleges. I have always attended all my compulsory lectures, they are compulsory for a reason! What are ya playing at son?

Your best bet is contact the lecturer of that module, however, don't expect them to be too sympathetic. You could also ask the head of your course.

Bannasidhe

Look in the book of modules to see the breakdown of allocated marks - this varies from module to module. If there are marks for attendance - how much trouble you are in depends on the percentage - if it's 80% you are in trouble. If it's 20% - not so much.

What happens after the exams is all of your marks are totted up - not by the lecturers or dept - there is a centralised system which takes care of that. All the dept does is input the various results to the system.

Your exam results are anonymous until all student results for each module is in the system which will then generate the final results.

Would need to know what it says in the Book of Modules for your specific module before I could comment further.

rob234

I looked up my subject in the book of modules and no marks are given for attendance apparently, just continuous assessment, oral exam and written summer exam. My marks are good so there isn't a hope in hell i'll fail if it's just marks that count. But I got an email about a month ago informing me that the department "requires 80% attendance"? Asking my lecturer really isn't an option.

maguic24

rob234 wrote: »

I looked up my subject in the book of modules and no marks are given for attendance apparently, just continuous assessment, oral exam and written summer exam. My marks are good so there isn't a hope in hell i'll fail if it's just marks that count. But I got an email about a month ago informing me that the department "requires 80% attendance"? Asking my lecturer really isn't an option.

Contact the head of your course, if you don't know who this is ask your class representative. Your class rep may even be able to answer your question. Just look for a breakdown of the marks for your module, don't mention the attendance at all.

Class reps are usually chosen at the start of the year so you will have received an email from them. Check back through your emails. You can ask them to contact the lecturer on your behalf, so you remain anonymous. All you need is a breakdown of the marks.

rob234

maguic24 wrote: »

Class reps are usually chosen at the start of the year so you will have received an email from them. Check back through your emails. You can ask them to contact the lecturer on your behalf, so you remain anonymous. All you need is a breakdown of the marks.

That's a good idea, I'll give it a go and let you know how I get on. In the breakdown of the marks in the book of modules there's no mention of any marks going for attendance so it's a bit confusing.
Thanks so much for your help!

Bannasidhe

rob234 wrote: »

I looked up my subject in the book of modules and no marks are given for attendance apparently, just continuous assessment, oral exam and written summer exam. My marks are good so there isn't a hope in hell i'll fail if it's just marks that count. But I got an email about a month ago informing me that the department "requires 80% attendance"? Asking my lecturer really isn't an option.

I don't know what dept it is but in my dept the continuous assessment portion sometimes has an attendance component depending on how the module is structured - oral exam would also come under this. It's usually (but not always) 20% = C.A. (attendance plus oral) and 80% = exam.

Did you do the Oral exam as some modules have that as compulsory with a 'fail' if you didn't do it - although in my dept the lecturer does have the option of getting you to do an additional essay.

Was the email only sent to you or was it sent to the whole class?

If it is the latter my reading of this based on the info you have given is attendance has generally been bad and the dept is firing a general shot across the bow.

Did the lecturer(s) keep an attendance roll?

rob234

Bannasidhe wrote: »

I don't know what dept it is but in my dept the continuous assessment portion sometimes has an attendance component depending on how the module is structured - oral exam would also come under this. It's usually (but not always) 20% = C.A. (attendance plus oral) and 80% = exam.

Did you do the Oral exam as some modules have that as compulsory with a 'fail' if you didn't do it - although in my dept the lecturer does have the option of getting you to do an additional essay.

Was the email only sent to you or was it sent to the whole class?

If it is the latter my reading of this based on the info you have given is attendance has generally been bad and the dept is firing a general shot across the bow.

Did the lecturer(s) keep an attendance roll?

My oral exam isn't until march! But I fully intend to do it so no worries there. Yeah two other people in my class got the exact same email as I did. My lecturer is the head of the course, and she's pretty uptight about punctuality and attendance anyway. She's known for making students state their reasons for missing class in front if everyone... But aside from being overly pedantic she's a great teacher, averaging at a 2:1 and I'm hoping to keep it up for the summer exams. That is if I'm 'allowed' to sit the exam for this subject as I don't have the 80% attendance.... Bit worrying. There's 300 marks overall and not one of them is going for attendance according to the book of modules, but in other levels of my subject there is a percentage for attendance.

Bannasidhe

rob234 wrote: »

My oral exam isn't until march! But I fully intend to do it so no worries there. Yeah two other people in my class got the exact same email as I did. My lecturer is the head of the course, and she's pretty uptight about punctuality and attendance anyway. She's known for making students state their reasons for missing class in front if everyone... But aside from being overly pedantic she's a great teacher, averaging at a 2:1 and I'm hoping to keep it up for the summer exams. That is if I'm 'allowed' to sit the exam for this subject as I don't have the 80% attendance.... Bit worrying. There's 300 marks overall and not one of them is going for attendance according to the book of modules, but in other levels of my subject there is a percentage for attendance.

I can completely understand the lecturer's frustration at poor attendance having 'suffered' it myself however, unless it states in the Book of Modules that there are specific sanctions against those with a poor attendance record I would be of the opinion that you cannot 'fail' for this. You would certainly have grounds for an appeal.

When you say 'Head of the Course' do you mean she is listed as the 'Course Co-ordinator'?

As I said, I don't know which dept it is and the rules do vary but in my experience of lecturing in UCC the final word is The Book of Modules.

I certainly don't see how you can legitimately be barred from sitting the exam (which would constitute a form of expulsion) as this is out of the lecturer and depts hands and is organised by Student Records and Examinations based on course/module Registration.

Each student is allocated an exam number generated within Student Records and Examinations which is anonymous and neither lecturers or dept know who is who until the after the all results for that module are submitted to the centralised system.

A word of warning - the exam questions will have already been written, checked by an extern and submitted to Student Records and Examinations by now. They will be based on the material covered in lectures so you are potentially shooting yourself in the foot by not attending.

rob234

Bannasidhe wrote: »

I can completely understand the lecturer's frustration at poor attendance having 'suffered' it myself however, unless it states in the Book of Modules that there are specific sanctions against those with a poor attendance record I would be of the opinion that you cannot 'fail' for this. You would certainly have grounds for an appeal.

When you say 'Head of the Course' do you mean she is listed as the 'Course Co-ordinator'?

As I said, I don't know which dept it is and the rules do vary but in my experience of lecturing in UCC the final word is The Book of Modules.

I certainly don't see how you can legitimately be barred from sitting the exam (which would constitute a form of expulsion) as this is out of the lecturer and depts hands and is organised by Student Records and Examinations based on course/module Registration.

Each student is allocated an exam number generated within Student Records and Examinations which is anonymous and neither lecturers or dept know who is who until the after the all results for that module are submitted to the centralised system.

A word of warning - the exam questions will have already been written, checked by an extern and submitted to Student Records and Examinations by now. They will be based on the material covered in lectures so you are potentially shooting yourself in the foot by not attending.

This sort of puts my mind at ease. It's not like me to fail something so I'm not worried about exams at all. It's just this attendance email. I've emailed my peer supporter and told them about it so hopefully they'll just reiterate what you said. Since the email I haven't missed a class and I don't find it hard to keep up, but once I can figure this out it'll be a weight off my shoulders really... Cheers for your advice!

Cian92

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Unless it states in the Book of Modules that there are specific sanctions against those with a poor attendance record I would be of the opinion that you cannot 'fail' for this. You would certainly have grounds for an appeal.

Exactly, if it doesn't state in the book of modules that you have to attend a certain amount of classes to pass then you can take it that you cannot fail for this. An email from your lecturer stating you have to attend X amount of lectures is a bit late now. It has to be communicated to you by the book of modules prior to the lectures beginning.

If I was you, I'd just send an email back to the lecturer asking why she sent you the email seeing as it wasn't stated on the book of modules (take a screen shot of the book of modules for your own records, in case they update it).

In lots of cases lecturers only add in the attendance part if they are under the impression that there lectures are very valuable, but lets be honest in alot of cases you'll get on just fine yourself covering the course. I had one lecture a few years ago and I used go to the library instead of going to it and came out with the 1.1.