Am I not bright? 3rd in my degree.

[OnTrain]

A thread kind of about a thread. More about a post in a thread! Someone slagging off Carol Vordeman because she only got a third in her degree. Saying she wasn’t bright.

I got a third, tbh I’m just glad I passed but I also thought I was bright! Do I need a reality check? Am I a thicko?!

I got three As and a B in my A levels in 1982, and went to a top five university. I did well at first, but then suffered from what I now know was undiagnosed serious depression. I scarcely left my room in final year, and I got a third. I was devastated. I'd previously been predicted a high 2:1.
However, there was virtually no pastoral support and I really struggled. It affected me for a good few years, until I realised no one was really interested in my degree classification. I worked hard to do well for myself, and I just hope that there is more support these days for students who suffer from mental health issues.

OP if it makes you feel any better I also didn't understand my results when I got them. I'd never seen results and it took a while for me to get my head around the grading.

squee123 Thank you, it is heartening to hear that.

I have looked at graduate jobs, postgrad study and the rest. The problem seems to be that they are saturated with applicants, so thinning down the applications by weeding out anything under a 2.1 is just common sense. Consequently I never get close enough to an actual human being to explain myself and my poor old 2.2. Even if I did, it's hard to know what to say without descending into an X Factor style sob story. Anything but that!
It's a shame really. Even if I never manage to get into the career I wanted, I would love to continue studying, just for myself, but it feels very self indulgent when there is a mortgage to be paid. Maybe one day.

pooroldvashti

Please don’t give up. I’d dismiss a Third trying to teach but a H2:2 can give plenty to lots of careers. I know it might be tricker but could you try networking or connecting with disadvantage support groups? You need your CV to land on the right desk or your face to meet the right person.

@PoorOldVasa lot of forms these days have a mitigating circumstances box/additional info box designed for this. If they don't, give the graduate recruitment team a call and ask if they are prepared to consider mitigating circumstances. We definitely do and your application would certainly stand out in a good way for having proper life experience. Makes a nice change from the endless fresh out of uni identikit types that haven't worked a day in their life and don't yet have an ounce of common sense.

I got a 2.1, graduated this year. Was a bit disappointed as I got the equivalent to AAA* at A level. And my dissertation was a high first as that had staggered deadlines for each part so couldn't get away with leaving it till the last minute. Shows what I could have achieved if I worked hard all the way through.

But my baby was 5 months old when I started, we were homeless for a bit, had left an extremely abusive relationship which left me with a shitton of anxiety, was a young single mum, undiagnosed (at the time) ADHD so left every assignment to the last day or two, had to work to provide for us so turned up maybe 10 times in the last two years. I'm so excited to go back for my masters this year now I'm on medication for the ADHD and have a great boss so I'll be able to attend all lectures. Can't wait to see what I achieve

Swings and roundabouts. Education is paramount, and you should always be proud - especially if you worked your hardest and achieved your best. I'm sure that's what you teach your students to do. I guess that's why I'm a bit gutted with my grade - I really didn't do as well as I could have done.

I'd much rather have you teaching my kid than some of the nasty posters on here, OP. Of course it's something to be proud of. A third is still ranked higher than great A Level grades? And I'm sure people wouldn't call students with top A Level grades thick. Not everyone can pass a degree. You should be proud.

If you said you'd graduated in 1979 rather than 30 years later I'd think differently but I'm sorry to say a 3rd these days is not something to brag about. A much larger percentage go to uni these days and most achieve more highly than a 3rd. I agree with pp that (depending on the uni) standards are often not great. I am surprised that it has facilitated your progression on to pgce to be honest.

Whether it makes you 'thick' or not is another question. Intelligence takes different forms, not everything can be accurately measured the way a university is designed to.

I’ve not rtft. Got to page4 and it’s bedtime! So i’ll chuck this down and head for bed. My bright, intelligent and very lovely son got a third. RG Uni. STEM subject. Last summer.

He knows some areas of work will be closed to him. I thought teaching might be too but it’s encouraging that it might not be. He is looking to get into areas that require a lesser qualification such as an HND or equivalent. He’s seen a careers adviser and will see him again soon.

He got straight As in Highers and an HNC that he did instead of Advanced Highers. Scottish system. He’s got a wide range of knowledge and interests. He’s just gone upstairs to get on with writing his historical novel before he puts the light out!!

What went wrong? He struggled with time management and confidence, also got distracted by student politics. Missed home and was often depressed. I think too he didn’t work steadily enough early on and later found it was really hard/too difficult to catch up. He screwed up one whole module in the finals - in the breakdown of his results he was on a high 2:2 except for that one module which was a fail. Did a good dissertation.
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Frankly, after the last couple of years I am so glad we’ve still got him. He’s needed so much support and there are times I’ve been so worried for his mental health. We all know it’s a poor result, he most of all. I do wonder if he‘d have been better stopping with a pass degree or dropping out and catching up later. But at each turn he scraped through and somehow ended up graduating! I am so proud of him as he kept going through all the difficulties. He went to the graduation and held his head high (he is very tall!) - and it was a really lovely day. His dad tidied his beard and wore a tie! His siblings were there too - there are no
living grandparents.

It’s so easy to just flippantly assume somebody is thick or didn’t try. The whole story is always much more complex than that.

Biking Beatrix - your DS sounds great..bet he's a really sound lad.
In my workplace there are so many people who went to Oxbridge, quite a few with Firsts, that you assume almost everyone who went there has one. So I was stunned recently when I discovered that a colleague who went to Cambridge came out with a third. Spent so much time performing he got an Actors Third. And of course he's not gone down in my estimation at all..he's still the same super bright articulate guy.

I wouldn't have been happy with a first. Considering the percentage required for it, I would take someone with a 3rd class degree to be someone who either was hanging on by the finger tips, or someone who didn't put the effort in. I think a 1st class or an upper 2nd class is acceptable. I'm rather disappointed that someone could become a teacher with a 3rd class degree...it doesn't say much for the pupil when the teacher barely scraped through!

1st = 70%+ = A grades overall/average
2: i (or 2:1) = 60-69%=B grades overall/average
2.ii (or 2:2)=50-59%=C grades overall/average
3rd = 40-49%=D grades overall/average
Pass tends to mean they have passed enough units to graduate but have irretrievably failed a unit
Fail=

Lots of people get thirds but they enjoyed uni what a silly thing to say.

I enjoyed Uni. Made friends for life. Partied a lot. Played sport to a high level and was captain of the uni team and on the committee for the UK university wide committee for that sport.

Oh yeah; and came out with a first. Despite all that fun.

Oh yeah; and came out with a first. Despite all that fun.

Yet you did not come out with the ability to understand that when someone says "Lots of people get thirds but they enjoyed uni", it does not mean the same as "only people who got thirds enjoyed uni"...

Thank you, lobey, I might be biased but he’s a braw lad!

I got a first in my first uni degree, and a first (but not in the uk so a bit different) in my second.

My very best friend got a third (we've done together our first degree). I have to say she's one of the most intelligent people I've ever met (but then how do you measure intelligence if not through your personal experiences?)

I believe it has no relevance tbh.