Failed!

[Super Jock]

What happens if you fail a module in third year? I know you can't get re-sits. If my career as a physicist is over in my third year who do we go to make the most of the two years wasted here running up a large student loan debt, remotely productive?

The reason for my misery is this years thermal and statistical exam. I feel cheated that i studied constantly even at christmas and we were given a paper like that.


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http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37104907

[Duggeh]

My understanding is that as long as you score at least 5 for a module (perhaps even as low as 1) you keep churning through honours, and that grade just drags your classification down.

If your results are poor for multiple modules and work though, you'll probably be asked to see your supervisor, honours co-ordinator, department head or the dean. Situation depending.

Policy may also vary between departments.

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IMAGE:www.thismanwillkillyou.com/avatars/tb3-100.jpg
Duggeh: Master Of Ceremonies

[Super Jock]

Thanks, my director of studies has got back to me and said similar. Also that depending on circumstance, you can do an oral exam.




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http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37104907

[lts2]

Advice from a 5th year physicist: Try not to worry too much for now, everyone I've spoken to found the thermal impossible so they will have to average it all and you might find that you have done a lot better than you think. In my QM1 exam I only actually answered 50% of the marks and ended up with 17, physics is weird about setting hard exams then bumping up the grades. Just try to concentrate on the rest and do you best and don't worry about it until you see the damage.

They almost never fail anyone and give the person who did the worst a 5. I think in physics if you get between a 3 and 5 you can do an oral exam and they will give you a 5 if you pass. Otherwise you can always do the module again next year if you really have to...

[maenad]

Is it ever possible to do an extra module during your Honours years to replace one you did terribly on?

Not planning to do it, just wondering.

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Tommy can you hear me?

[Super Jock]

Yeah, you can do it again in senior honors. But it's a required module. I may not have failed, turns out the pass mark isn't 50% It's 25%

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http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37104907

[Lid]

I know someone that failed Thermal last year.

Basically, you get a re-sit in second semester that is more-often-than-not the question you didn't attempt in the exam. If you can't do that one to a sufficient standard, you fail and have to re-sit it in SH.

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Mathematical Anti Telharsic Harfatum Septomin

[fatboy]

I got like a 7 or something in that exam a couple years ago when i was pretty sure i hadnt answered enough to get 25%.

[Black Rose]

Quoting Duggeh from 13:57, 14th Jan 2008
My understanding is that as long as you score at least 5 for a module (perhaps even as low as 1) you keep churning through honours, and that grade just drags your classification down.

Actually if its clearly lower than the grades you have achieved in other exams they just don't count it towards your classification

[Frank]

Quoting fatboy from 17:56, 14th Jan 2008
I got like a 7 or something in that exam a couple years ago when i was pretty sure i hadnt answered enough to get 25%.

Indeed, I'd done miserably that semester too (though this time last year). Thermal & Statistical came out with a 6.4 and I'd done terribly on the continuous assessment too. Still, a 6.4 wasn't as bad as it got...that was Vector Calculus (a 5, whayhey...). I didn't realise that the tutorial questions were assessed and had only handed in 1/3 of them (which was half-done)...

But then that was a terrible semester for me, and it's been uphill ever since. Not only that, but I was convinced they'd be shipping me home with a general, yet I'm still going strong...

Always have hope. And study hard all through the semester. But hope too...

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."
Also, some years later:
"here we are arguing about a few uppity troublemakers with a bee in their bonnet and a conspiracy theory."

[Duggeh]

Quoting Black Rose from 18:16, 14th Jan 2008

Quoting Duggeh from 13:57, 14th Jan 2008
My understanding is that as long as you score at least 5 for a module (perhaps even as low as 1) you keep churning through honours, and that grade just drags your classification down.

Actually if its clearly lower than the grades you have achieved in other exams they just don't count it towards your classification

Surely there would also have to be some kind of extenuating circumstances for that?

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IMAGE:www.thismanwillkillyou.com/avatars/tb3-100.jpg
Duggeh: Master Of Ceremonies

[fluffy]

student support told me you can screw up the grades for one semester of your last two years and have the entire grades for that semester discounted but there have to be extenuating circumstances, ie depression, illness, death etc.

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dev ksereis, alla eimai trella erotebmevei mazi sou..

[Lid]

Quoting fluffy from 19:12, 14th Jan 2008
student support told me you can screw up the grades for one semester of your last two years and have the entire grades for that semester discounted but there have to be extenuating circumstances, ie depression, illness, death etc.

Providing you have said circumstances, yes, you can get S-coded. They run the degree algorithm with all the modules and then again with all modules not S-coded. If you did better on the second run, your case goes to a special circumstances board where they decide whether to award you the better classification or not.

[hr]

Mathematical Anti Telharsic Harfatum Septomin

[Colin]

I got a 5 in QM in 3rd year but still finished with a good 2:1 degree at the end (and now have a PhD and a good post-doc job), so I wouldn't worry too much. Nearly everyone has one really bad exam.

[floatingonmycloud]

Providing you have said circumstances, yes, you can get S-coded. They run the degree algorithm with all the modules and then again with all modules not S-coded. If you did better on the second run, your case goes to a special circumstances board where they decide whether to award you the better classification or not.

Does anyone know who the 'special circumstances board' are? Module co-ordinators from your course, supervisor, etc?

[James Shield]

According to minutes of a meeting of the Teaching, Learning & Assessment Committee in 2006,

"The Special Circumstances Board comprises the Deans of Arts and Science, the Academic Registrar and a specially appointed external examiner, and receives recommendations from Boards of Examiners where special circumstances have impacted upon a degree classification, and where anomalies have arisen."

This may have changed though, as that meeting was calling for "a revised remit and reconsideration of the scope of the Board".

[Mehmsy]

This year's T&SP exam really was a delicious little chunk of misery!

Oh well, live & learn.

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http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37106593

[lts2]

Nearly everyone has one really bad exam.

*cough* Supercon *cough* *cough*

[Guest]

Damn I wish I had known about this in 2005. My 14 dropped to a 12.5ish thanks to 1 module.

[schmod]

Agreed. The T&S exam was cruel and sadistic

A whole third of the exam was on a topic that the lecturer *explicitly* said (on multiple occasions) was non-examinable, most recently in a review session this past Friday.

Another third (that weird DNA problem) didn't even remotely resemble anything we did during the module.

It also didn't help that the entire exam followed the format of "using the results of the previous problem, now calculate...."


And now we've got QM1, which is going to be another beast of an exam. Things are not looking good right now......