UOL Honours Degree Classification

Today I’m going to write a post about how UOL classify their honours degree. I just received my results and graduated successfully (thankfully), but I do not understand how my results are calculated. So I thought of writing this post for my own knowledge and to benefit future/current students taking the UOL external programme. Beware, this post will be extremely wordy.

Award of Marks:

This is for students who enrolled before 2012 and are not affected by the new regulations.

First Class Honours                              70 - 100
Upper Second Class Honours               60 - 69
Lower Second Class Honours               50 - 59
Third Class Honours                              40 - 49
Pass                                                      34 - 40

Fail                                                         0 - 33

But do not be too happy, the 34% pass mark will continue only until summer 2016. If you fail to graduate or complete the programme (*touch wood!*), the new regulations will automatically apply to you which means you’ll have to get a 40 marks to pass.

On the other hand, for new students who enroll in 2012 and after, the pass mark will be changed from 34% to 40%.

First Class Honours                               70 - 100
Upper Second Class Honours                 60 - 69
Lower Second Class Honours                 50 - 59
Third Class Honours                              40 - 49
Fail                                                       0 - 39

Therefore, you notice that there is no longer a Pass category in the marking scheme. All students will be required to get 40 marks in order to pass and also to achieve a third class honours. LSE stated that this is to encourage and help students to achieve at least an honours standard in their examinations. Sounds more like an excuse to increase their standards to me.

Degree Classification:

For first class honours: Five first class marks; or four first class marks and an aggregate of at least 590.

For upper second class honours: Five upper second class marks (or above); or four upper second class marks (or above) and an aggregate of at least 515.

For lower second class honours: Five lower second class marks (or above); or four lower second class marks (or above) and an aggregate of at least 440.

For third class honours: Eight third class marks (or above).

For a pass degree: For a candidate who went through a three year course without exemptions, will be given a pass degree if s/he has failed not more than three papers in the final year. (half-unit courses are not considered as “a paper”!)

However, this does not apply to second-year direct entry candidates and they did not specify clearly how many papers a second-year direct entry student can fail in order to get a pass degree. In my opinion, I think it should be not more than two failed papers because being a second-year direct entry student myself, I failed one paper in my finals but was still given a second lower honours degree.

Please take note that a drop of one class in the award classification will result where a candidate has failed two papers.

Calculation of Aggregate Marks:

The classification of each candidate will be based on their nine best mark courses which UOL call it nine classification marks. It comprises,

a) the marks achieved in all eight papers taken in second and third year;

b) The ninth mark will be the average of the best three marks in first year papers. So don’t be too happy/discourage when you score extremely well/poor in your first year because they will only select the best three.

For second-year direct entry candidates, the ninth mark will be the average of all eight papers taken in second and third year.

For half unit courses, as they are not considered as a full paper, UOL will pair up two half-units(taken within the same year) with the highest marks and take the average. For example, if you did extremely well for Introduction to Economics and Maths1 during your 1^st year, like 60 and 70 respectively, the average of the two marks will be 65 marks and it will be one of your best three used in the ninth mark(refer to point b above).

The aggregate for each candidate is the sum of the nine 'classification marks'. In all cases, the 'classification marks' shall be based on the marks obtained by the candidate in her/his latest attempt at each element of assessment for each course. If you failed and re-take a paper, don’t think they’ll take the higher score between the two, they’ll take the latest result. So better score higher during the 2^nd attempt.

Appeals:

If you failed your papers, you can make an appeal to UOL by paying $60(i forgot in Pounds or SGD). I don't encourage you to make appeals unless you failed only by 1 or 2 marks and you are really 看不开 about it. Heard from my lecturer that the examiners WILL NOT RE-MARK your paper and neither will they let you see the paper. What they do is just re-calculate the marks. I think the possibility of them counting the marks wrongly is quite low as there are two examiners marking the papers. If you fail by three marks or more, that only proves that you really don't deserve a pass. Don't be so bull-headed. lols. Ok la, but if you have the money, you can try your luck.

Alright, finally done with this post! Its been a long time since I write such information-filled stuff ever since I graduated from poly. If, unfortunately, after reading this post you are like,

 Lols. You can click the links below, I got all my information there.

http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/calendar/academicRegulations/BA-BScDegrees.htm

http://externalstudy.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/40-pass-mark/

I hope this is useful for my beloved UOL schoolmates. All the best for your studies in UOL!