Advice on degree results

Moto85

Hi all,

I'm new here but came across the forum on the net and thought it would be as good a place to ask as any. Im a final year Mechanical Engineering student who returned to University to finish my degree after completing a cert about 9 years ago. I've struggled a lot with the course since returning, mainly the maths, but I sorted all that over the summer between 2nd and 3rd year. In 3rd year all my course work was in high A grade or top of class and had honestly expected to get at least 3/4 A1's out of 5 in my end of term exams, but again I fell in the exams.

I just really found it hard to cram in a week before exams. Im sitting below a 2.2 degree, after going into exams with nearly 35%+ average out of 40% for all my coursework, but my exams were terrible, forgetting simply math procedures, where if I was working at home on course work or research I would just check my notes and all would be fine. I concentrated on knowing and understanding all the theory I cover, which is what stood to me in getting those better grades in course work.

My question is if I fail to get higher than a 2.2 (I'm hopeful of getting a high 2.2 as my coursework is always very strong and my FYP is worth a alot) could my career prospects be hampered even with my work experience? I do intend on doing a particular masters in the UK, which in honesty is the only reason I returned to finish my degree to get the paper to get into it.

Any input appreciated.

Mich.

CatFromHue

Have you checked how much your final year results are worth?

In some places they're worth alot.

As in first year would count nothing to your degree and then 3rd and 4th year worth more than your 2nd.

Moto85

Yeah sorry I should have mentioned, my final year is worth 50% of my degree, basically if I get an A2 average I can still get a 2.1, but my main worry is that if I yet again get great course work grades and do poorly say C grades in exams even with all my years work experience would an employer look past my ability to apply theory and get excellent course work grades and concentrate on my lack of ability to learn off reams of notes for a 3hr exam?

miss no stars

I'd be more concerned about whether you can get into the masters with only a 2.2. I'd say with experience and a 2.2 you'll find work somewhere, but a lot of masters will want 2.1 or above (some even want 65% or above 2.1).

I think you need to start being honest with yourself. Saying "oh I'd be fine if I could look at my notes" doesn't cut it, you either know how to do something or you don't. What happens if you get a slightly different problem in the real world and don't have an example in your notes? I'd also say that engineering is very little to do with learning off reams of notes, it's about learning techniques and the background to those techniques to help you solve real problems. Like maths, it's just a technique. Engineers don't learn heaps of calculus and sequences and series stuff for the sake of getting good at maths, we learn it in college because it is a tool to allow us to solve real engineering problems with better accuracy and safety than rule of thumb engineering.

Your exam technique is probably a bit lacking as well if you're falling down so badly in exams but doing fine in course work.Throughout next year you'll need to be doing plenty of past exam questions as you go along.

It's only my experience I'm basing this on, but the way you talk about your continual assessment work is ringing alarm bells. I always found that my CA and exam results were nearly identical. I also found that some of the more full on projects/reports actually detracted from my learning because I spent so much time working on them and not enough time getting to grips with what was being covered in lectures. Use your CA as a tool, a mock exam. Only look at your notes if you absolutely must - or do the work and do a second draft after looking at your notes after it's done. Otherwise it can become an exercise in transcription.

Moto85

Thanks miss no stars, I completely agree with what your saying. That's why I spent a full eight months during 2nd and 3rd year while everyone else was on placements doing maths from scratch, I dont struggle understanding new topics now or deriving equations, its just remembering it all where I fall.

I can relate to the "too much time spent at coursework". My plan was to be done with course work two weeks before reading week, but it just swallowed my time. Now Im not making excuses, it was the same for everybody, may just need to stop trying to get course work 100% correct and focus on answering Q's,

Thanks for the input

krustycustomer

Everything miss no stars said is spot on. I got a 2.2 in mech eng and did a masters to waiver the result on my cv.

im very bad at exams also, presumed if i focused all year on the coursework id be up to scratch enough to study for the exam. Simply didnt work. people got better results than me by copying all the lab reports and studyied 3 days before the exam. then again, others nailed the exam and the coursework but didnt attend enough and failed. best option is just as much as you can, coursework and study wise, but defo need to be a bit cute regarding what material to study.

DJW11

krustycustomer wrote: »

Everything miss no stars said is spot on. I got a 2.2 in mech eng and did a masters to waiver the result on my cv.

im very bad at exams also, presumed if i focused all year on the coursework id be up to scratch enough to study for the exam. Simply didnt work. people got better results than me by copying all the lab reports and studyied 3 days before the exam. then again, others nailed the exam and the coursework but didnt attend enough and failed. best option is just as much as you can, coursework and study wise, but defo need to be a bit cute regarding what material to study.

I can completely relate to your comment about some people copying labs and still doing well, I spotted a flaw in the experimental set up of a certain module, effectively making everyone's comparison of results completely wrong, it got me a great mark but did the rest get docked, no.

You need to play the game as far as I can see as much as everyone else

djpbarry

Moto85 wrote: »

I just really found it hard to cram in a week before exams.

You can't be expecting to get good grades if you're relying on cramming - it just doesn't happen. Well, for most people, at least. You need to be preparing for your exams as far in advance as you can - we're talking months here, not weeks. Practice, practice, practice.

CatFromHue

Moto85 wrote: »

Yeah sorry I should have mentioned, my final year is worth 50% of my degree, basically if I get an A2 average I can still get a 2.1, but my main worry is that if I yet again get great course work grades and do poorly say C grades in exams even with all my years work experience would an employer look past my ability to apply theory and get excellent course work grades and concentrate on my lack of ability to learn off reams of notes for a 3hr exam?

An A2 average is quite high but it sounds like you know what you need anyway.

The other thing is that, now this may have been just my course, we had one pretty hard semester and then one fairly straight forward one in our last year. The straight forward semester being the one where most of your FYP work was meant to be done.

If you're applying to a grad scheme then your grade is important as some wouldn't take applications below a certain grade, others don't mind though, but equally I've never been asked what grade of degree I finished with (I've never been on a grad scheme).

Turbulent Bill

A 2.2 should have little or no effect work - wise, especially if you have work experience and your FYP is strong. A masters might be trickier as the application requirements are more black and white, but get in contact with the course director and see what flexibility they have.

For what it's worth, I think rote learning for engineering exams is a waste of time, even though it's rewarded with better results. I've much more respect for someone who can demonstrate ability in CA, as it's a better determinant of how they'll work in industry.