Voting for TSRs Ultimate Study Playlist is NOW OPEN >>

How to boost grades in third year?

My overall degree classification is 25% of my second year and 75% of my third year. I've just finished my second year.

I've been aiming to get a first, but it looks like I'm gonna get a 2:1 overall for my second year (not a bad grade, I know, but I'm hoping for higher). I haven't had all marks back yet (marking strikes lmao), but I've roughly gotten mid- to high-60s in most modules.

How can I improve my third year grades so that I average 70+? I'm aware that I'll have to get 72+ in most third year modules to average out at 70. There's a 40:60 dissertation to assessed module weighting for my third year (6 modules total).

Should I focus on my diss or my modules more? Any tips?

Thanks

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

Original post by lukeag

Well, the dissertation does make up quite a chunk of your grade, so yeah.

Other tips include (where applicable because I don't know what you're studying and where):

•

Pick the easier modules as your options where possible (a bit of a copout, but hey)

•

Pick the quantitative modules over the qualitative ones, as there's more scope for you to score above 70% more easily (provided maths is a strong suit of yours and they are available for your course)

•

Should you want to, do a beginner's language module as part of your degree

•

If there's any reason why you're consistenly hitting the 2:1 mark in your second year, I would look into that e.g. not using critical thinking, not using research journals as much

•

Learn from the people who score the highest marks

•

Revise frequently and revise early

•

Do practice and mock exam questions - form questions that are likely to come up based on your unit outline and any possible past papers

•

Get regular feedback on your assignments, irrespective of whether you have done well or badly

•

Understand the assignment brief thoroughly and ask the tutors for clarification if necessary (not likely going to apply to you if you're getting 2:1 marks)

•

Look through the unit outlines and look through as much of the recommended reading material where possible, especially the highlighted journal articles

•

Go through the material and make sure you are crystal clear on the content - you can revise with study buddies and bounce off ideas/teach each other to make sure you know what you're talking about (Feyman's technique)

•

Do further reading; always do further reading - let me know if you need tips on this

•

For open book exams, revise as if they're closed book exams and only refer to the material when you need to be specific or to double check

•

If it's an exam/test that lasts for less than 1 hour, approach with scepticism - write fast and write like crazy

•

For maths questions, practice often unless they're particularly easy and straightforward

Reply 2

martin7

Original post by Anonymous

Other tips include (where applicable because I don't know what you're studying and where):

•

Should you want to, do a beginner's language module as part of your degree

You need to be careful with this advice to do a beginner's language module.

First, a beginner's language module is likely to be a level-4 module (where level 4 is "first-year undergraduate level"). A programme structure is likely to require a certain number of credits to have been obtained at each of levels 4, 5, and 6. Doing a first-year module in the third-year might lead to a student not having sufficient credits at the right level to be awarded an honours degree.

Second, the fact that a language module is at beginner's level doesn't necessarily equate to being easy. If someone has studied similar languages before then doing another language might be "easy marks" -- for example, I did "beginner's Italian" and did well in it -- though it helped a lot that I'd done A-levels in French and Latin plus GCSE German and Ancient Greek. But I suspect I'd have struggled if I'd done a beginners module in (for example) Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.

Third, you'd need to commit the same level of time and effort to the language unit as you do to the other third-year units, and treat it as being something just as important. It's very tempting to put in less effort to something that's not related to the primary field(s) of your degree.