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Student at the Open University
Open University
Milton Keynes

LLB - What percent coursework v. exams?

I'm considering studying for an LLB at the OU. I have read the prospectus, however, one piece of information I cannot seem to find is what percentage of the degree comes from coursework submitted and what percentage from exams sat?

Also, how often are the exams? At the end of every module?
The OU work in a slightly odd way on this front. Each module will tell you in the module description how many TMAs it has and whether there's an exam or an EMA (another assignment in place of an exam); but in terms of how they then grade the module, it's usually the case that your overall mark is whichever band you get the lower score in of the two elements of the module. So if, say, you got 85% (a first) in your assignments, but 55% (a 2:2) for the exam, it's not the case that these are averaged out to give you 70% (a 2:1) overall for that module; you'd get a Pass 3 (2:2) for the whole module. So, there's not really an answer to your question in the sense of x% comes from the assignments and y% from the exam, it sort of all comes from both. The Assessment Handbook might make more sense than me, though!
Student at the Open University
Open University
Milton Keynes
In the LLB, you get a score for your assignments (perhaps six in the year) and then another score for your end-of-year exam. As Persipan said, you essentially end up with the lowest of the two scores as your overall result for the module. There appears to be some wiggle room, e.g. I had 86% for my assignments and 83% for the exam but the exam board awarded a Pass 1 (Distinction) overall for the module, even though that would technically have been a Pass 2 (85% being the Pass 1 threshold).

Once you have all your individual module scores, there is some horrendous formula that works out what your degree classification is overall. You essentially need X number of module credits overall at a given score and then at least X module credits from level 3 (your final year) at that score to be awarded any given grade. You could look this formula up if you wanted but I wouldn't bother.

The short answer is that it's 50/50 coursework/exam but you can't get away with a very low score in either component as that's the result you'll be awarded overall.

I hope that helps but realise that it might not !!

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