Hello, yes I’m stupid

[bottleofbeer]

Ok. Maths goes way over my head. My degree is the usual 25/75 weighting for 2nd and 3rd year. 2nd year I got 67% and my personal tutor thinks I’m on for the first.

Can someone tell me the minimum
% I need this year to get an overall first?

Thanks!

[aibutohavethisusername]

What % do you need overall for a first? Is it 70%?

[bottleofbeer]

Yes 🙂

[clary]

71%

[bottleofbeer]

Thank you!

[Bodear]

Agree with @clary

[Jano69]

yep 71%

[Lougle]

71% is correct. Your current 67% is only worth 25% of your grade, so is worth 16.75%. To make 70% overall, you'll need 53.25% in year 3. However, that 53.25% will have to come from 75% of your mark, so 53.25 ÷ 3 × 4 = 71%

[SirTobyBelch]

Depends which university you're at. Many don't include marks from all modules in the calculation. Also, most will round up module marks of 68.5% to 70%, and many will also round up the average. So the average module mark you need in final year could actually be quite a bit less than 70%, depending on how rigourous the classification algorithm is.

[Bodear]

OP, sorry, what we all should have said is that you’re not stupid at all. Plenty of people struggle with fractions and percentages. I work in an international accountancy firm and there’s a good few of my colleagues that would struggle with this.

[MeTheCoolOne]

I think many Universities award a First if you are a little below 70.
You should double check your Unis rules on degree classification.

[bottleofbeer]

Oh yes actually, they drop our two lowest grades over 2 years if that makes any difference? Thanks for all the help x

[bottleofbeer]

Ah and I have always noticed that when grades are formally ratified by the board of examiners, they’re often a couple of percent higher than I was given originally.

[bottleofbeer]

Drop my lowest grade last year and it’s 69% from my second year 25%

[KamikazeIdiot]

So you could average below 65% in final year and still get a first, depending on the distribution of grades across modules. This is why nobody should take any notice of degree classes. Obviously it's important to you because employers will look at the classification of your degree. But employers shouldn't be looking at it because it gives no indication of how you compare with a graduate from another university. You could have a first while someone with better marks from a university with a more rigorous algorithm only has a 2i.

[bottleofbeer]

My worst grade from last year being dropped it poetic justice!

[bottleofbeer]

Right so, I got a fair split of 70+ and 60+ apart from one grade (that went to appeal etc..and the appeal was upheld) but this one grade way down in the 50s was what prevented an overall first last year.

So lowest grade module dropping is, as far as I can see compensating for outliers that are not indicative of your general standard and unfairly bring overall end of year grades down.