How is Access graded?

The teacher was talking about Access being changed this year. Something about Pass,Merit or Distinction.

So we don't get the raw marks or percentage. How will people know if I have been very,very good or good enough to pass but not great?

Reply 1

Aspiring

1

On my course last year, there were two marks: pass/fail.

A few of us felt this was a tad unfair because some people literally scraped by with a pass when others worked hard and there was nothing to distinguish between them. There were no percentages given or "raw marks".

We were informed that from this year, people would be graded with a pass, merit, distinction, which seemed more reflective of the effort and work which into obtaining those passes. If you would like to know which % equates to a pass and which to a merit or distinction, do ask your tutor.

Reply 2

DougLTFC

8

Ours was a pass/fail situation too. I don't see a reason to change it tbh, you apply to a Uni and they ask you to pass. Surely if you pass, it doesn't matter if you have a Distinction or a Merit?

Reply 3

AshMcD

12

I've just started an access course and yes, they are now graded as pass, merit and distinction.

Doug, it's a way to distinguish between calibre of applicant. Someone could put in double the effort of someone else and get exactly the same grade, personally I don't think that's fair and I'm happy it's working like this now in my year of access.

Reply 4

kiss_me_now9

16

It's Distinction, Merit, Pass, Fail.

We were told that if you don't hand in your assignment on time, or it's not good enough the first time, you can't get a distinction.

Reply 5

DougLTFC

8

Fair enough, i just feel that it's something else to worry about. Last year, and in previous years, you just had to get 45 credits at Level 3 and the rest at Level 2 to pass, if you don't put a lot of effort in, you're not going to pass anyway. Just my opinion i guess. Good luck to those starting their Access Course this year, keep an open mind about all the subjects and you'll enjoy it. :smile:

Reply 6

Aspiring

1

AshMcD

I've just started an access course and yes, they are now graded as pass, merit and distinction.

Doug, it's a way to distinguish between calibre of applicant. Someone could put in double the effort of someone else and get exactly the same grade, personally I don't think that's fair and I'm happy it's working like this now in my year of access.

Precisely this!

As I said in my previous post, two students could "pass" and yet there could be a huge difference between effort and quality. The only way a distinction could be made between two students would lay with the tutor's reference, I suppose.

Likewise, if people go to university, would they really want a pass/fail only ranking of degree? :confused:

There is a sense of pride, achievement and, from an employer's point of view, a lot to be said between an individual who obtains a "pass" at degree level and one who achieves a "first".

University places are in high demand, I believe it is only fair and proper that those who work hard are given suitable academic acknowledgement. If that means it falls into categories such as pass, merit, distinction - fine by me :biggrin:

Reply 7

stellatommo20

7

the acess course i passed in july was kind of a mix :

A certain amount of credits were needed to pass.

A minimum pass was 45 credits at level 3, 15 at level 2 - 60 credits overall. Once you have these creditys under your belt, you have passed.

however there was an exam, but the exam was purely so they could teach 'exam skills' - revising methods etc, so the actual exam wasnt important although you did have to pass it - 51% :biggrin:

easy.

Each assignment is worth 3 credits etc with a couple worth 6.

So yes, if you just have the minimum cresdits to pass then its just a pass, but if you get over the amount needed, then you can say you passed with 66 credits at level 3 and 12 at level 2 - like i did :biggrin:

Just to clarify, alot of unis request a certain amount of credits you need to obtain, eg reading wanted me to pass with 66 credits overall. which means i could have got a minimum pass, 45 @ lvl 3 & 15 @ lvl 2, plus an extra 6 credits at either lvl 2 or 3 to get the 60 overall, OR as in my case, get as many credits as possible.

This credit system is benfeicial because it allows you to drop an assignment if you dont need the credits, ie i scrapped 2 psych assignments cos i hated psych and didnt need the credits to pass!!!

*sighs* jesus....

Reply 8

Aspiring

1

DougLTFC

Fair enough, i just feel that it's something else to worry about. Last year, and in previous years, you just had to get 45 credits at Level 3 and the rest at Level 2 to pass, if you don't put a lot of effort in, you're not going to pass anyway. Just my opinion i guess. Good luck to those starting their Access Course this year, keep an open mind about all the subjects and you'll enjoy it. :smile:

Interesting point Doug.

Thing is, it's all about attitude: you call it "something else to worry about" - I call it "something to aim for" :wink:

Glass half empty/full syndrome I suppose :wink:

There were people on my Access course who put in the bare minimum effort and were awarded a "pass". Only two people on my course successfully complete all 23 modules at L3. Most chose to complete just enough at L3 to qualify and made up the rest with L2. (Ok, there were also 3 who failed miserably :wink:

) Now, already, you can see that there is a wealth of difference in calibre between those who were deemed as "passed" :smile:

Reply 9

AshMcD

12

Aspiring

Precisely this!

As I said in my previous post, two students could "pass" and yet there could be a huge difference between effort and quality. The only way a distinction could be made between two students would lay with the tutor's reference, I suppose.

Likewise, if people go to university, would they really want a pass/fail only ranking of degree? :confused:

There is a sense of pride, achievement and, from an employer's point of view, a lot to be said between an individual who obtains a "pass" at degree level and one who achieves a "first".

University places are in high demand, I believe it is only fair and proper that those who work hard are given suitable academic acknowledgement. If that means it falls into categories such as pass, merit, distinction - fine by me :biggrin:

That's a good point!

"Congratulations, you've put in 80 hour weeks for three years, you've passed your degree"

"Congratulations, you've messed about for 3 years, always put in the bare minimum and generally been an idiot and scraped through by the skin of your teeth, you've passed your degree".

Nice!

Reply 10

DougLTFC

8

Well i fail at debating and, to be fair, i didn't look at the bigger picture when i posted. You make some good points, all of which are true. I hope you all achieve a Distinction! :biggrin:

(Nothing like sucking up when you've lost an argument!)

Reply 11

AshMcD

12

DougLTFC

Well i fail at debating and, to be fair, i didn't look at the bigger picture when i posted. You make some good points, all of which are true. I hope you all achieve a Distinction! :biggrin:

(Nothing like sucking up when you've lost an argument!)

Haha, it's all good pal.

I hope I do too :biggrin:

Reply 12

Keiran0

7

Well I did my Access course last year and yeah it was still pass/fail. However, there was a way for the unis to ask you to achieve more or less than your classmates. They just asked for more or less credits in your conditional. For example, people who applied to Kingston were only asked for 45 @ 3 and 15 @ 2 but I had to do 75 @ 3 and stilll do those compulsory level 2 ones. So there was already a way of testing the calibur of the student.

Distinctions look like they'e gonne be extremely hard to get. I looked into this because my uni accidently asked me for a distinction last year before OCN was even using them and I had to get it converted to credits. The mark is calculated on average across all your assignments, each one receiving a percentage. If all your assignments receive 70% or more once calculated, you got the distinction. I think the pass mark was 40% and merit was 60%, but it was defo 70% for distinction. Thats harder than it sounds.

Good luck Access peoples!

Reply 13

Aspiring

1

DougLTFC

Well i fail at debating and, to be fair, i didn't look at the bigger picture when i posted. You make some good points, all of which are true. I hope you all achieve a Distinction! :biggrin:

(Nothing like sucking up when you've lost an argument!)

Credit where credit is due: you get a distinction for being fabulous at acknowledging that some good counter points were made :gthumb:

Brilliant post :biggrin:

Reply 14

Stettin

OP

My tutor hasn't been given the proper details yet by the people in charge of Access. She told me that in our first assignment she will grade it by last years standard.

I got a plan to get Distinction (I'm assuming thats the Access version of a A grade while Pass is C).

Basically just do really really good in the first assignment. That way I get a bit of leeway with the others.

Reply 15

ndkathleen

7

I have to get a distinction too :biggrin:

I don't think 70% is too high. The teachers on my course seem very helpful. They give tutorials after class to individual students, and this time can be used to go through the essay. Also you can hand in drafts. Some teachers said you can even hand in more than 1 draft! No teacher mentioned that you cannot get distinction if you had in drafts though.

Can anyone else confirm if it's true that you cannot get a distinction on a 2nd draft? (I only heard it by someone in this topic)

Reply 16

Pt40

We have been told that if you pass an assignment it can't be resubmitted in order to improve the grade, they are calling this "assignment polishing" and it is not allowed.

However if you fail an assignment, then you can re-submit, but the best grade you can get will be a pass. This is being done in order to stop students failing the assignment deliberatly in order to get the feedback needed for a merit or a distinction.

What you should get this year with each assignment are the "grade descriptors" that set out what you need to do in order to achieve each grade, we have already had some of these with the first History assignments.

Reply 17

ZakBrannigan

13

I wish my Access Course was graded I passed mine in 2007 and again you rather had to gain a pass or you didnt.The maxium amount of credits i obtained were 45 Credits at Level 3 and 15 at level 2 In Science.So 60 credits overall.I also of the opinion i will be penalised by some universities i am applying to as they asking for percentage marks and further info.It seems so unfair that the most of the Access Applicants who did the Access Courses before it was graded Pass,Merit and Distinction cant demonstrate that they were getting higher than a pass mark on their work whilst others will have this :yep:

Reply 18

Aspiring

1

ZakBrannigan

I wish my Access Course was graded I passed mine in 2007 and again you rather had to gain a pass or you didnt.The maxium amount of credits i obtained were 45 Credits at Level 3 and 15 at level 2 In Science.So 60 credits overall.I also of the opinion i will be penalised by some universities i am applying to as they asking for percentage marks and further info.It seems so unfair that the most of the Access Applicants who did the Access Courses before it was graded Pass,Merit and Distinction cant demonstrate that they were getting higher than a pass mark on their work whilst others will have this :yep: