The Student Room Group

University Grade Penalty's?

I am just curious as to how other universities penalise retakes. As i thought my university's method was the norm. Not something I have to worry about since the end of my appeal but i am still curious as many would describe mine as too harsh.

Basically If you retake any exam/coursework in the summer your capped at 40% for the module.
If you re en-role on the same module the following year your grade is also capped at 40%, if you do a different module then you are also capped at 40%. Your only allowed to re en-role on the same module once, making you potentially short on credit if you fail 4 times, including the 2 summers.

But my climbing instructor told me something interesting he told me he had a 2.1 despite the fact he always had to redo the entire year during the summer, and never learned his lesson but regrets not spending more time on his work during the year as he could have got higher. I wondered how he could achieve that at all because at my university you would not get higher than a 3rd class for doing that. Its first time or nothing basically.

many describe this as pretty harsh. I don't believe in the absence of a penalty, or limiting the number of attempts. But somebody who failed there first year and there 2nd year, having re-enrolled twice, would still be better off than somebody who did exceedingly well in those years and had to retake 3rd year. As thats worth more, but also more difficult as most wold know.

So it seems odd that if you fail something easy your ok but if you fail the most difficult aspect your condemned. Though i spose somebody who took 4 years to do both first and 2nd yr would struggle more in 3rd. Unless they were just drinking too much during that time.

Is this the norm everywhere. Does everywhere have the same policy?
Firstly, don't believe everything you hear. Also, perhaps the system was different when he did it years ago. Thirdly, it sounds like your instructor just did all his resits in summer, rather than retaking multiple year. It might depend on the weighting - if first year is 0% than it won't affect his degree overall but he needs to pass to progress onto 2nd year where he might have done better.

At my uni, if you fail an exam, you can do resits in summer which is capped at the pass rate for the course. If you fail a resit, you have to retake a year of uni with the modules you failed (though I'm not sure if they are capped or not, I assume they are). If you fail a year again, you're kicked off the course. Capping of marks is not carried out if you fail due to extenuating circumstances which must be proven in writing (e.g. dr's note, death certificate etc).

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