Compensation Pass if Failed 3

cb

Hello

I cant seem to find any definitive answer so hoping someone can put my mind at rest!

In summer exams my son took 12 modules (5 credits for each) he failed 3. the pass mark is 40% for the each exam and he scored 27%, 35% and 38%.( his overall score for the 9 he passed was around the 60% mark) They are only allowed to pass 2 by compensation if they scored over 30% in them so because he failed three he has had to resit all 3.

The one he got the lowest score for was by his own admission a subject he disliked and didnt apply himself too - it's not one that carries through the course, but over summer he has worked hard, taken on extra tuition from an ex teacher of the subject friend of ours and he sat the exam last week and came out fairly confident of a pass.

Although he has been studying for the remaining 2 and seems sure he will pass, he has been told as long as he gets over 40% for exam 1( that he got less than the 30% for)he will be able to accept a compensation pass for the other 2. I am not sure if this is correct, I thought I read that he has to get 40% in all 3 in the repeats but he is convinced that is not the case.

The information on the marks and standards isn't very clear on this, I have said he should maybe talk to one of his tutors but he has his repeats this week and I think he just wants to concentrate on them. I am just a bit concerned he might not go into the exam with the determination to pass that he did with the first repeat.

Thanks for any information (apologies for bringing up this subject again)

dragon5678

Hey

Your son must pass one of the subjects in the repeat and can fail the other two but the results must be above 30% to pass by compensation. UCC Exams office will count his autumn results as final, even if they are lower than his summer results. Had a friend in my course that this happened to.

Hope this helps

cb

thanks for that, that's kind of what I thought but he has himself convinced that as long as he passes the first exam it doesnt matter about the 2 he already scored over 30% in.
( I did point out if that was the case why would he need to resit them)

dragon5678

cb wrote: »

thanks for that, that's kind of what I thought but he has himself convinced that as long as he passes the first exam it doesnt matter about the 2 he already scored over 30% in.
( I did point out if that was the case why would he need to resit them)

No problem. I had the same thing with me last year, had three exams to repeat and had to repeat all three. I passed all of them a 2nd time round. He does have to matriculate and the repeat results will overrule the summer results, no matter what he gets in them.

However the guy it happened to in my year battled with UCC when he would have matriculated with summer results but not repeat results and they eventually gave in.

cb

Thanks for that update!

We just hope that he gets the 40% minimum needed in all 3 so we dont have to deal with any more issues. I have said he should have a casual "what if" conversation with the one of the course co ordinators or even the student counsellors.

Its a very tight deadline, only 10 days between his results and the start of his academic year.

cb

Updated - he managed to get well over the 40% in the latter 2 and 38% in the first one which was his weak subject so he passed that by compensation.

A friend of his had 5 resits but failed one of them and got under 30% so he is now faced with asking the college if he can progress using either an aggregate of his summer and autumn scores or use the summer score where he got over the 30% not looking good for him!

dragon5678

cb wrote: »

Updated - he managed to get well over the 40% in the latter 2 and 38% in the first one which was his weak subject so he passed that by compensation.

A friend of his had 5 resits but failed one of them and got under 30% so he is now faced with asking the college if he can progress using either an aggregate of his summer and autumn scores or use the summer score where he got over the 30% not looking good for him!

Hi cb

Apologies with the delay in responding. Hope it hasn't affected anything

Congratulations to your son passing his repeats. I know the worry it causes with the expectation to repeat a year with only a few modules and what a waste of time it is.

Unfortunately I do not know hot to advise for your son's friend. I kn ow of a case in my year where a classmate challenged the exams office on the Autumn results overriding the summer ones and he was eventually allowed progress to 2nd year. Its an unusual system alright!

Hopefully UCC can correct their issues when they move over to semester-based teaching next year that apply to first years that enter in 2014.

More info on semesterisation if you're interested: http://www.ucc.ie/en/semesterisation/

cb

No problem at all. It was a stressful day as Eircom phone lines were down so we had no internet and he couldnt access the portal via his phone so he had to ring a friend to log in and check for him! He moves back Friday, starts classes Monday.

I am not sure what will happen with his friend, it would be harsh to force him to resit the year for 1, 5 credit module ( which does not even feature again in his degree)

The semester thing is interesting, I can see the benefits but as my son pointed out, in his course as it stands a lot of the material crosses over and there are a couple of modules he would not have passed without the other so I suppose it depends on how they structure the course too. Thankfully it shouldnt affect him anyway.

thanks for your advices, they were much appreciated.

dragon5678

I could imagine. I used to sit on the laptop on the dat of the results constantly refreshing the page to see if they're up

Oh I'm the same. I'm in my final year. Coming from placement in Galway on Saturday and back in college on Mon without a break!

Its not really worth to repeat the year for 5 credits. Its a wast of time in my opinion just having 2/3hrs max per week for one term.

UCC plan to pilot it next year to see how it goes. They're going to restructure the curriculums of the courses to make them work

I'm glad i could be of help