Borderline result post bereavement

[Troubleandstrifebagforlife]

Just offloading really.
Dd missed 2.1 by 2% got results yesterday.
One exam really pulled her down.
We had a very shocking and upsetting bereavement during the period immediately before her exams. She did put in for extenuating circumstances and has been told she can resist that particular exam .
As it’s such a small gap is it worth her contacting the university to discuss? Would they ever put the grade up or would this all have been taken into account of whilst they reviewed the extenuat circumstance appeal.
I know this is shallow and selfish of me but it looks like the resit dates are likely to fall in the middle of a big family holiday which has been booked and paid for ages ago. Ironically it was arranged as a big birthday do for the person who died but we all decided it would still be really nice to go for various reasons.
She will have fly back and miss most of it.
Any thoughts or advice I don’t think any of us are thinking straight really?

Doesn’t seem any harm in having a conversation with them and saying all you have here. They’d have to be pretty heartless to not even consider it!

Oh gosh, what a rotten set of circumstances, including the fact that the resit is during a holiday with such emotional connotations! As the pp says, it really can't hurt to ask. If she put in an extenuating circs form, you may well find that they already did some adjustment, but you could also check out options for other dates for the resit, perhaps, so she doesn't miss the holiday? Think through everything you want to ask them first, write it down so you don't forget anything, and call them and talk it through. Make sure you know if there's a deadline for applying for a resit. Hopefully you'll get a bit of time to sleep on it once you've got the relevant information, too. That often helps. Good luck...

I suppose she would have to do this though as she’s the adult here-she’s really not that assertive plus I think she will start crying if she’s talking about it.
Perhaps I could draft an email for her but I’m so wary of making this into some kind of sob story not at all what any of us would want.
I’m very glad of your replies as it really clarifies that it’s not an unreasonable request.

You poor dd. Actually I think you should encourage her to speak to someone. She's an adult -and it's her results - so best if she deals with it herself. You can help her practise what to say beforehand. And it doesn't matter if she cries. She's upset - which is why she's applying for extenuating circumstances - so they'll expect that and hopefully realise how much it has affected her.

Definitely talk to the university.
My dd went a long way away to university 2 days after her brother died. How she got through that first year I shall never know. She didn't do as well as she should have done that first year, but her second year has been much, much better.
Things will get easier.
I do hope the University will help. Also she should contact the students union if she hasn't already done so. I know your dd has done her final year, but I am sure her papers can be reviewed.

If she notified her department about extenuating circumstances they will already have been taken into account by the exam board. The usual adjustment is to allow the student to resit the affected assessment as a first attempt (i.e. without the mark being capped as it would usually be for a resit). It's not generally within the exam board's power to adjust marks, as marks can only be awarded based on the actual work that is produced.

I'm sorry about your bereavement but scheduling of exams is not at all flexible because we have to make sure everyone knows in advance when they will be. Obviously, everyone who sits an exam has to do so at the same time. I know that in my own department we repeatedly tell students not to advance-book holidays during resit periods, however confident they are, as they have no way of knowing what life might throw at them in the run-up to exams.

Just work out what she would need in that exam before going ahead. If it was one of 10 modules, she will need to increase her mark by 20% (i think) to get the higher grade. Is that achievable?

I'm sorry for your families loss.

Unfortunately I had a bad experience with this at uni.

My grandfather died I had to travel far for the funeral. This all fell within the week my final project was due in.

I said to them about mitigating circumstances. Was told I had 1 of 2 options.

1. do it and hand it in-would not be taken into account as they would deem it as. If I did the work I saw myself fit. I would have no chance to redo it.

2. not do the work and get an extention.

All our work that fell under mitergating circumstances went to a board. They discussed it allthe begining of July. We then got given a differant piece of work or exam to the original to do.

It may be worth looking into the universities policy for such events and things.

Work out what she would have to do. As it may well be a large ammount of work.

My course went purely on our disertation. However it was the teachers final say. So if we where way out they took an average from across the 4 years.

Our grade boundaries where also only 10% apart so 2% may not be quite as close as you think.

Sounds like she has done wonderfully though. Even more so given circumstances. So it certainly cant harm her to have a word with her tutor.

Your DD should look at her university's examination regulations. They will be easily available on the University website.

That said generally (but this can be different with each university) generally, when mitigation is applied for, there is a separate meeting - a Mitigations Committee meeting - to consider each case individually.

At my place, this is done at a Faculty level, so decisions are fair & transparent across the broad cohort. Final decisions are made with anonymised data, in a 2-part process.

1st part is that the student's case for mitigation is considered. A decision is made about level or category of the difficulty experienced so that it's proportionate (so death of a distant cousin treated differently to death of a parent etc etc). These categories are then connected to the student's ID number, so the 2nd stage is anonymised.

At the 2nd stage, and involving different committee personnel, we consider the students on an anonymised case by case basis. We look at the assessment result (eg essay mark, exam mark, presentation mark etc) and look at when the event or misadventure etc occurred, and then make a determination of whether the student's mark was affected. That's done by comparing that specific mark with the student's general run of marks across their degree.

Now, the point of explaining all this to you is that what happens quite often (more often than students thin, actually), the student's assessment has not been materially affected.

It is more rare than not that the misadventure/illness/ personal circumstance alters the class mark (which has a range of 10 marks in the 2, i, 2, ii, and 3rd categories). So, it is actually mathematically unlikely that shifting a mark for a specific assessment item (eg one exam, or a specific presentation) will affect the overall class mark.

The individual may have felt awful, but actually, they're as likely to have performed pretty much at their usual level, than not.

The students who are much more affected are those with ongoing chronic health issues, or dealing with ongoing difficult personal circumstances. Although mostly, those are the students who move heaven & earth to do as well as they can - I have sometimes had to almost force students into seeking mitigation in those circumstances.

Thankyou for all your replies.
I’ll encourage her to speak to her personal tutor and make a decision on their recommendation
A 2.2 I’m sure is not the end of the world especially seen in the context of what has happened