Review of college award

catlaw

so as I posted here, after studying studying, stressing, not sleeping, reliving exams over and over I got honours law degree G.2, feeling bit disappointed... what I felt was one bad exam actually returned a 60 I was so delighted, our lecturer is A1 and we have been privileged to have him lecture us. I believe he wanted to see we understood the core area of law he was teaching us. I felt I didn't do a great paper but he could see I understood the concept ad I believe he marked very fairly. On the other hand 2 subjects came in at 54 and 58, this is difficult for me to accept, I worked so hard this year and I KNOW my work was better but the lecturers are new to lecturing, it seems they are friends and it soon became obvious they were putting their heads together and students were placed into a category and no matter what I did I was'nt moving up......favourites were made, people who couldn't spell or construct a sentence without grammatical error, now have a first in law !!!

I may sound bitter, but I have lived this past year, witnessed the high grades 80+ being handed out to only select few, it seems I worked hard for little reward.......so I decide to get a recheck on two subjects, my average of 57.5 is so near a 2.1, I just wanted to avail of the review procedure available to me.
I paid the fee and visited the college to chat to someone before I handed in my review application. I got a guy who sat down with me despite me not having an appointment which was descent.

I started explaining why I was there, during this time he is not looking at me but at something going on over my shoulder.....then he focuses on me and states, so your at 57.5, pity its not 58, look I'd say 'move on' forget it, its unlikely the marks are there on the papers unless there is a miscalculation in the marks, the board are unlikely to review it in your favour and upgrade to 2.1, then he proceeds to ask me how my grades were over the 4 years !!!
I was appalled as the college tell you the award subjects are what determine the category of degree you are awarded, basically he was dismissive and rude and made me feel like a bigger failure than I already felt......oh but he will support the making of the application since it is available to me !!!! He asked me to email him of my decision ......not likely !!!

overall, I think this is disgraceful attitude....i believed a student / mature student would be encouraged in every way and come away feeling a sense of achievement after 4 years..why is there no point to a recheck??, is it already decided that the marker doesn't make mistakes !!!, or marked very hard but thats ok??, it could only be a miscalculation at the very most !!!

I slapped my application in with a cover note explaining the importance of review for me,........I await the review decision.

Feeling so angry............I thought I would be finished college to move on to next chapter with my degree......the anxiety continues ...!!!

Zoinks

As I said in your earlier thread, do not feel deflated by your grade, which remains a second class honours--this is something you should be proud of. If you desire, you can build on this through postgraduate degrees (which might also be an opportunity to go to another university where you might have a preferable experience). An undergraduate degree, especially in AHSS, is often the first milestone in the journey, which continues for many through to the masters level. In law in particular it is only part of the journey, as you will later consider FE1s too.

Frankly, 2.5% can represent a fairly high margin in terms of absolute marks (where I did my undergrad, 2.5% of the overall score would have been 30+ marks). Do those two papers account for 100% of the grade for their modules, or was there continuous assessment? Did you score 60%+ in every other module? Was the degree class based entirely on your performance in your final year? This can be a difficult situation to flip.

Do you have the option of viewing the papers in question yourself?

catlaw

Thank you for replying..again !!.....I am actually proud I know the work i put in and I have an honours law degree...I wrote the earlier post after talking to someone who rang me off the course, i congratulated them on their result but i got silence....its so bad..it put me back down again.....

We had continued assessments x 2 of 20% each and 1 final exam of 60%.....I'm not good at all at working out after the 20% so in fear i have not worked out what actually got in the exams.......I think it may be too late to view my scripts.....I did not do this as i really dont know what i should be looking for or what the examiner is looking for.

I am looking at postgrad in GCD, it is blended course.....in mediation which is the area I hope to get into.

I fear age may be against me for FE1's but maybe not......intern position seems attractive as I have lots of office / admin experience behind me if I were to go trainee solicitor route.......

Tom Dunne

Zoinks wrote: »

Frankly, 2.5% can represent a fairly high margin in terms of absolute marks (where I did my undergrad, 2.5% of the overall score would have been 30+ marks). Do those two papers account for 100% of the grade for their modules, or was there continuous assessment? Did you score 60%+ in every other module? Was the degree class based entirely on your performance in your final year? This can be a difficult situation to flip.

I think this is the biggest issue.

It's not as simple as looking for 2.5%, it may be a case of a number of marks across a number of subjects, which, by the sounds of it, does not appear possible in your case.

And I really think you need to forget about what marks other students get. Different students, different abilities, different situation. It will only further add to your angst. So for your own sanity, let it go.

catlaw

Thank you Tom, I am feeling so confused, the months of hard study seem to have not done much to improve the grades in the final exams, the award is based across 4 award subjects.....in 3 of those subjects I had assignments x 2 in each subject which returned average 65 but one subject I could not seem to give back what the lecturer wanted and clearly again in the final exam. I feel it is worth getting the review done, only then I feel i can leave it and move on......I know a 2.2 is not to be sniffed at, but I was working towards higher.

evolving_doors

catlaw wrote: »

Thank you Tom, I am feeling so confused, the months of hard study seem to have not done much to improve the grades in the final exams, the award is based across 4 award subjects.....in 3 of those subjects I had assignments x 2 in each subject which returned average 65 but one subject I could not seem to give back what the lecturer wanted and clearly again in the final exam. I feel it is worth getting the review done, only then I feel i can leave it and move on......I know a 2.2 is not to be sniffed at, but I was working towards higher.

If you have the option of a review why would you not do it?

catlaw

Gebgbegb wrote: »

If you have the option of a review why would you not do it?

Thank you for the reply .... My application is gone to the faculty I was going to withdraw it but today I decided to let it go ahead I hope the worst will be that the award remains as is then I'll move on with options of further study with what I have achieved