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If I fail an assignment, does that mean I fail the year?

I have just started univeristy and checked the course handbook, which does not answer my question.
If you fail an assignment, what generally happens? Does it mean I fail the module, or do I do the assignment again receiving a lower grade?

Reply 1

Persipan

I think you're going to need to check this with the departmental staff within your uni - I don't believe there's one single answer to this across the board. They could approach it in a lot of different ways, and it'll depend in any case on what the module assessment is made up of (e.g. how many assignments/exams and what proportion of the mark each of them counts for), whether they specify that you need to obtain a pass mark for each part of the module or whether they just aggregate your marks together at the end, stuff like that.

Reply 2

edjunkie

Odd that the handbook did not cover the situation of not achieving the passmark for an assignment. Check that the course handbook does not refer you the general university policy, which may cover how failing an assignment is treated.

My experience at various universities is if you submitted a piece of work that did not achieve the passmark but was submitted within the rules, you get one further submission attempt (the rules can be more draconian for work that submitted late). But the maximum mark may be capped at the minimum pass. So if your work was marked at 60% and the pass mark was 40%, you woud only be awarded 40%. If there an assignment forms part of the final mark for the module, then each element has to be passed regardless of the percentage that the assignment contributes to the overall mark - this can be department, course and institution dependent.

Reply 3

aha!

I would imagine all of the universities have their own set of rules on that, but I would say that you'd probably get a chance to resit the assessment if you narrowly failed it. The uni i'm at allows you to resit automatically if you achieve between 30%-39%, but if you get lower than that then it goes to a subject panel who decide.

Reply 4

ByronicHero

This varies massively from university to university in various different ways. You will just get confused asking on here. Email someone relevant on your course and ask for clarification which they will happily provide.