Appealing a thesis grade.

Misticles

I am really unhappy with the grade I was given on my masters thesis.

For one: The people inputting on the grade, 2 lecturers (1 a "supervisor on the thesis that I had no dealings with throughout the thesis), another lecturer and an external examiner.

The guy who was another supervisor and proposed the thesis that I did had more contact with me as I had to liase with him, he has more knowledge then the two lecturers on the thesis subject and will be using it for his own research- he had no input on the grade.
He told me he was "excited" about it and was very happy with the project

I don't wanna toot my own horn, but my thesis was very good and has a worthwhile purpose.

Yet I was given the lowest grade a 2.6 gpa.

Anyone know how I would go about appealing this and possibly getting the other supervisor to be allowed contribute the grade?

convert

It's normal that there would be 2 examiners on a masters thesis: and internal (usually your supervisor) and an external examiner.

I've liased with numerous staff members regarding my thesis, but as the two examiners had been allocated they will not have be grading my thesis. It happens quite frequently, and is not at all unusual.

How was your supervisor chosen? Did the department appoint them or did you approach them and ask them to be your supervisor? I.e. why was he your supervisor and not the other person? Was the other lecturer with whom you liased on leave of absence for the year or a semester? If the second lecturer was more suitable, why wasn't he appointed as your supervisor?

Although liasing with other staff members is quite common, it is always a good idea to chat with your official supervisor as much as possible as they will be signing off on your thesis and ultimately grading it. Just because another lecturer says they're happy with the project does not necessarily mean that it's absolutely 'perfect' and to the same standard required by another lecturer. Each has their own preferences, and unfortunately if a thesis doesn't tick all their boxes, it may not get the grade expected by the student.

On another note, did your thesis read smoothly and logically, with each sentence constructed correctly with the necessary punctuation, etc.? And were your references consistent throughout? Was the bibliography adequate? Often something like this can drag down a thesis a grade or two.

Regarding challenging the grade:
The appeals office would be a good place to start. As far as I can remember, an external examiner is required to make a report on the thesis which is retained by the school. Under FoI you are entitled to see this report, so perhaps before you appeal the grade, you could ask to see the extern's comments and then take it for there.

Have you tried contacting your supervisor to chat with him about the grade?

Misticles

Thanks for the reply.

There were 3 contributing the grade.

1 external examiner
1 Lecturer
1 Lecturer (also supervisor)

The 2nd supervisor is in charge of the place where I got all of my data and would be the chief scientist of that area. He put forward the thesis topic and I chose it.

The other supervisor was on holidays for a fair portion of the summer.

The thesis was good like, a few typos maybe but ya cant get them all.

All in all, is was very practical and laid out.

It was alot better than some of the rest of them! Anyone could see that.

parker kent

I thought most departments had 2 people read it before it is sent to an external examiner? They did with all of ours anyway. With supervisors, it is pot luck whether you get an attentive one or not. Mine disappeared from April to September so I was lucky I had already started during the second semester and had asked him a fair few questions.

Misticles

Nope, the external examiner was there on the day that I presented it.

I started mine after the exams in May and about a month was spent learning how to code etc so I didn't need to meet with him.

Then when I came back from getting data, he was gone on holidays and did not return untill about 4 days before the hand up date

Gae

Did you get any feedback? This is the first thing you need to do - ask for information about how exactly they came to that grade. If the examiners wrote reports, ask for copies. You also need to see how the grade is broken down. Some Schools give part of the grade for the original thesis proposal, presentations etc. If you haven't been in touch with them about the grade, can you even be sure that it's not just a mistake?

This other lecturer that said he was excited etc., did you discuss the grade with him? Does he think the thesis was worth more?

If the grade is correct (i.e. not a typo) then your options are limited. You can appeal, but the grounds for appeal are: 1. you had extenuating circumstances the examiners were not aware of at the time (i.e. illness), 2. there was a mistake (i.e. they accidentally inputted the wrong grade), 3. there was an irregularity in the way the examination was conducted.

From what you are saying, 1. doesn't apply. You need to check 2. and make sure there were no clerical errors or anything like that. For 3., if two interns and an extern read the thesis and agreed the grade, it will be very difficult to argue that they weren't thorough.

Misticles

Gae wrote: »

Did you get any feedback? This is the first thing you need to do - ask for information about how exactly they came to that grade. If the examiners wrote reports, ask for copies. You also need to see how the grade is broken down. Some Schools give part of the grade for the original thesis proposal, presentations etc. If you haven't been in touch with them about the grade, can you even be sure that it's not just a mistake?

This other lecturer that said he was excited etc., did you discuss the grade with him? Does he think the thesis was worth more?

If the grade is correct (i.e. not a typo) then your options are limited. You can appeal, but the grounds for appeal are: 1. you had extenuating circumstances the examiners were not aware of at the time (i.e. illness), 2. there was a mistake (i.e. they accidentally inputted the wrong grade), 3. there was an irregularity in the way the examination was conducted.

From what you are saying, 1. doesn't apply. You need to check 2. and make sure there were no clerical errors or anything like that. For 3., if two interns and an extern read the thesis and agreed the grade, it will be very difficult to argue that they weren't thorough.

I did get feedback today.

There was a report from the external examiner and the other supervisor who I thought had no input on the grade. He never discussed a grade with me, as far as I was aware then he would have no input on the marking.

The lecturer agreed to bring it up to a 2.8 which I am still not happy with!

The grade wasn't entered wrong, is a 2.6.

The presentation which is 12mins long was worth 20% of the overall mark.

I have requested to see all of these reports that were made about my project.

I am actually really unhappy with this grade, it was the lowest and I'm not being cocky but it does deserve more.

convert

What's a 2.6 or 2.8 grade point in 'old money' - i.e., A, B, C, D?

Gae

convert wrote: »

What's a 2.6 or 2.8 grade point in 'old money' - i.e., A, B, C, D?

C- and C respectively I believe

dudara

Misticles wrote: »

The presentation which is 12mins long was worth 20% of the overall mark.

Just 12 mins for a masters' thesis? That seems quite short. I had to do several one-hour presentations during the course of my PhD followed by a day-long session for the viva.

Gae

dudara wrote: »

Just 12 mins for a masters' thesis? That seems quite short. I had to do several one-hour presentations during the course of my PhD followed by a day-long session for the viva.

There's no comparison between a masters and a PhD really. A lot of courses don't even have vivas/presentations for masters theses.

Misticles

Spoke to my lecturer:

It lacked originality ie I did not go beyond what was required to do (time was not on my side so I couldn't)

The writing style was not "top class" yet the supervisor who looked at my drafts failed to mention this.

That was all that was said on the matter.

I know for a fact others did not go beyond what was required, in fact barely covered what was asked.

I was read a part of the letter from one supervisor... apparently I "struggled" to grasp a concept at first.. I'm not an effing genius, I can't just pick up things straight away. He also went on that it took me a long time to convert files.... there was over 5000 that had to be done one by one in the same monotonous way!!

The lecturer said I can appeal but it's very unlikely that it will change.