Strange/stupid overall grade (1 Viewer)

jasonml

jay son em el
Joined
Mar 6, 2008
Messages
466
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
So for BIOL1002 (principles of ecology) we had 6 asssessments throughout the semester (including mid-semester exam and final exam). my marks and weighting turned out like this:

Assessment 1 - ?/20
Assessment 2 - 4/5
Assessment 3 - 6/10
Assessment 4 - 18/15
Assessment 5 - 5/5
Assessment 6 - ?/45

for assessments 1 and 6 (which were my mid semester, and final exams), our marks were not released.

Two weeks ago, when our final grades were released I got a PASS, with no specific mark (i.e. it wasn't like "PASS, 62.00" or whatever, just "PASS")

Now, tbh I have no idea how I ended up with this grade. I studied pretty hard all semester for this subject, I went to every single lecture, tutorial and lab, I took a LOT of notes. I felt like I had a good understanding of the whole course, and always got high marks in all the tutorials, homework, etc.

For assessments 2-5 I studied pretty hard, except for assessment 3 which I did the night before. For both exams I felt as though I went just as well as I did in all of my other assessments, especially in the final exam which I put a lot of work into. Not to sound like a dickhead, but by the end of the semester I was expecting a Distinction, and at worst a Credit.




I tried to appeal the grade last week, but I got a call back from the LIC today (are they even allowed to do this?) saying "No, you got a pass. You should be happy with this blah blah, 25% of the people in this course failed. You only got 53% in your final exam."

I think this is bullshit. In that final exam, there was NO WAY I went that badly. Maybe I over-estimated how well I felt, but I seriously cant see how I would have gotten below 60%. Also, when I asked him about why he hadn't released our marks for that exam, he wouldn't give me a direct answer.


What do you guys think? What should I be doing now?
 
Last edited:

artist91

Member
Joined
May 18, 2008
Messages
273
Location
Mermaid Beach, QLD/Florida, USA
Gender
Female
HSC
2008
I tried to appeal the grade last week, but I got a call back from the LIC today (are they even allowed to do this?) saying "No, you got a pass. You should be happy with this blah blah, 25% of the people in this course failed. You only got 53% in your final exam."
Maybe the final exam was worth ALOT more than the rest of your assessments. Have you looked at the weighting from each? Because if indeed the exam was worth a large percentage of your final grade a 53% is probably only going to get you a pass or credit overall.
 

jasonml

jay son em el
Joined
Mar 6, 2008
Messages
466
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
The reason why I am particularly stressed about this, is that I am planning on transferring to USYD next year, into a course which I need a 5.00+ GPA.

If this grade remains as a PASS, my GPA will be 4.875 - below the transfer threshold.
 

jasonml

jay son em el
Joined
Mar 6, 2008
Messages
466
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
Maybe the final exam was worth ALOT more than the rest of your assessments. Have you looked at the weighting from each? Because if indeed the exam was worth a large percentage of your final grade a 53% is probably only going to get you a pass or credit overall.
Final exam was weighted 45%

Assess. 1 - 20% weighting
Assess. 2 - 5% weighting
Assess. 3 - 10% weighting
Assess. 4 - 15% weighting
Assess. 5 - 5% weighting
Assess. 6 - 45% weighting

Even if i did get 53% in the final exam, I would have had to get <50 in my 1st assessment for my overall grade to be a pass
 

LordPc

Active Member
Joined
May 17, 2007
Messages
1,370
Location
Western Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
ask around, email a few lecturers

ive never heard of marks being with held

just be sure though. you dont want to go through all of this to find out everything was above board and you just got 2/20 in your first exam
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top