Msc Dissertation failed

Original post by T-Zee

Hey guys i just checked my results online and ive failed my dissertation got 30% so gutted right now needed 40 to pass! Ive passed all my other modules, now ive got the option to do a resit but i dont feel i can do another disso again for jan 2013 hand in. Can i still pass my course? Totally gutted right now! Worked so hard on the damn thing

Hope somebody can reply

I'm very sorry to hear that. Have you received any feedback? What did your supervisor say?
I know you must be feeling terrible at the moment; could you take a leave from study and resit it some other time?

Reply 2

paladimathoz

Book a meeting with the course leader or something, you need to find out where you went wrong. Resit the module in January, you have done more than half the work towards 40% I'm pretty sure if you drop out now you will get a postgraduate diploma. Though we are talking about January which is pretty close, if this were a July hand in id understand but just suck it in and submit in Jan. Good luck

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my HTC Hero

Reply 3

SebCross

14

Original post by T-Zee

Hey guys i just checked my results online and ive failed my dissertation got 30% so gutted right now needed 40 to pass! Ive passed all my other modules, now ive got the option to do a resit but i dont feel i can do another disso again for jan 2013 hand in. Can i still pass my course? Totally gutted right now! Worked so hard on the damn thing

Hope somebody can reply

Sorry to hear about your plight. Talk to your supervisor to see what options might be available to you; it could be possible for you to re-submit your current dissertation with some changes, maybe?

Reply 4

Klix88

17

You need to contact your dissertation supervisor as soon as possible. If you've been submitting draft chapters as you work and they've been supervising you properly, then a fail will be of major concern to them. You need to understand where you've gone wrong and they will know whether you have to write another from scratch (which seems unlikely given the timescale) or whether you can resubmit your current one with corrections.

On my Masters, a failed dissertation would mean a failed course. We would be allowed to resub the same one with substantial corrections in January, but the mark would be capped at the pass mark (50% for us). However, each university and course will manage this situation differently, so you need to contact someone in charge on your course as soon as possible and find out how to proceed in your specific situation.

Reply 5

omg, I know exactly how you feel!! I received my unofficial grades and found out that I received a 49 on my dissertation. A 50 is needed to pass. I literally missed it by one point!! :mad:

I have the option to either resit or to take what I have and get a post-graduate diploma with a Pass-Merit, but it's pointless because I already have a diploma at a pass-merit.

This was my first dissertation ever and I even spent a couple of weeks reading up on how to write a dissertation which turned out to be futile. A couple of friends asked if I had a good supervisor, but I don't know what a 'good' supervisor is.

I sent her one email in July and when she didn't reply back two weeks later I sent another one and cc'd my post-graduate tutor. She did give me feedback but there was no discussion. She left my draft at home on the day I was supposed to meet with her to pick up her comments and she never dropped it off the following day, so she sent me everything via email. I'm not used to the British education system so I have/had no idea if that was normal or not. I just wish they could've given me the 1 point I needed to make it a pass. Now I'm debating on whether or not I want to continue on with my Ph.D. in the future...

Reply 6

Original post by teily

omg, I know exactly how you feel!! I received my unofficial grades and found out that I received a 49 on my dissertation. A 50 is needed to pass. I literally missed it by one point!! :mad:

I have the option to either resit or to take what I have and get a post-graduate diploma with a Pass-Merit, but it's pointless because I already have a diploma at a pass-merit.

One freaking point!? :eek:

This was my first dissertation ever and I even spent a couple of weeks reading up on how to write a dissertation which turned out to be futile. A couple of friends asked if I had a good supervisor, but I don't know what a 'good' supervisor is.

Well, did she give you any advice, check you paper, give you any guidance, etc?

I sent her one email in July and when she didn't reply back two weeks later I sent another one and cc'd my post-graduate tutor. She did give me feedback but there was no discussion. She left my draft at home on the day I was supposed to meet with her to pick up her comments and she never dropped it off the following day, so she sent me everything via email. I'm not used to the British education system so I have/had no idea if that was normal or not. I just wish they could've given me the 1 point I needed to make it a pass. Now I'm debating on whether or not I want to continue on with my Ph.D. in the future...

Ergh. I hope she apologizes at least.

What do you mean she gave you feedback but no discussion?

I'm very sorry to hear of your situation too; must be frustrating! :angry:

Reply 7

Original post by kka25

One freaking point!? :eek:

Well, did she give you any advice, check you paper, give you any guidance, etc?

Ergh. I hope she apologizes at least.

What do you mean she gave you feedback but no discussion?

I'm very sorry to hear of your situation too; must be frustrating! :angry:

She did give me some advice and checked my paper but when I asked (via email) if she could had any sources she could recommend I did not receive a response.

The feedback I got was via email, there was no face-to-face discussion where I could sit and ask questions. I had wanted to make another appointment with her to pick up my draft comments but she wasn't going to be in (I later found out that she was away all summer...), so she said that I could email her my questions instead. However when she didn't respond to my email about recommending sources I thought it was useless to send another email. (I know that she received the email because I had asked her two questions and she answered one of them and did not answer the other.)

She also did not apologize for the delayed response...

It is frustrating! I'm currently applying to teaching jobs in South Korea and I need to figure out how I'm going to teach and resubmit my dissertation by 1 June 2013.

Reply 8

Klix88

17

I sent her one email in July and when she didn't reply back two weeks later I sent another one and cc'd my post-graduate tutor. She did give me feedback but there was no discussion. She left my draft at home on the day I was supposed to meet with her to pick up her comments and she never dropped it off the following day, so she sent me everything via email. I'm not used to the British education system so I have/had no idea if that was normal or not. I just wish they could've given me the 1 point I needed to make it a pass. Now I'm debating on whether or not I want to continue on with my Ph.D. in the future...

The majority of my supervision was done via email over the summer, but I was expecting that when he took me on. My supervisor and I worked well that way. I sent him updates once a week on my progress - sometimes he asked questions about what I was doing or how, but mainly he just replied with "Sounds good - keep going" or similar. When I sent him draft chapters, he emailed me with useful feedback. We only met face-to-face twice in the whole process.

So I'd say that in some fields, supervision via email is pretty normal in the UK and it can work well. However the student has to be very proactive and instigate/manage communication. One person in my wider Masters cohort had an unresponsive supervisor and raised it with the course leader who prompted more reaction from the supervisor. Sometimes you have to shop around to get a supervisor who'll actually do the job. I gave up on my first one six months into the process, as I could see I was flogging a dead horse - they just weren't interested in my topic. My second one was brilliant - albeit via email.

Reply 9

Original post by Klix88

The majority of my supervision was done via email over the summer, but I was expecting that when he took me on. My supervisor and I worked well that way. I sent him updates once a week on my progress - sometimes he asked questions about what I was doing or how, but mainly he just replied with "Sounds good - keep going" or similar. When I sent him draft chapters, he emailed me with useful feedback.

Well, this is similar to what I'm doing right now; but my supervisors and I do meet, at least once a month.

One person in my wider Masters cohort had an unresponsive supervisor and raised it with the course leader who prompted more reaction from the supervisor.

Should ask these type of supervisors for our money back :erm:

Sometimes you have to shop around to get a supervisor who'll actually do the job.

What were your expectations with the supervisor(s) when starting with the PG study if you don't mind?

Reply 10

paladimathoz

Tbh in regards to a supervisor the only thing i would look from them is re assurance that my chosen subject is worth while. The rest id feel comfortable doing alone.

This was posted from The Student Room's Android Ap on my HTC Hero

Reply 11

Original post by Klix88

The majority of my supervision was done via email over the summer, but I was expecting that when he took me on. My supervisor and I worked well that way. I sent him updates once a week on my progress - sometimes he asked questions about what I was doing or how, but mainly he just replied with "Sounds good - keep going" or similar. When I sent him draft chapters, he emailed me with useful feedback. We only met face-to-face twice in the whole process.

So I'd say that in some fields, supervision via email is pretty normal in the UK and it can work well. However the student has to be very proactive and instigate/manage communication. One person in my wider Masters cohort had an unresponsive supervisor and raised it with the course leader who prompted more reaction from the supervisor. Sometimes you have to shop around to get a supervisor who'll actually do the job. I gave up on my first one six months into the process, as I could see I was flogging a dead horse - they just weren't interested in my topic. My second one was brilliant - albeit via email.

Was this for your MA dissertation or Ph.D.? I know that there is more interaction/supervision when writing the Ph. D. dissertation. The few people that I talked to regarding MA supervision did not do weekly updates. I'm assuming it would have gotten in the way of making progress on the dissertation since we only had the summer to write our dissertation (the dissertation deadline was mid-Sept.)

Reply 12

Original post by teily

the dissertation since we only had the summer to write our dissertation (the dissertation deadline was mid-Sept.)

Kinda short for any significant findings don't you find?

Reply 13

Klix88

17

What were your expectations with the supervisor(s) when starting with the PG study if you don't mind?

I'd spent an hour with him before I applied for the Masters and we discussed my planned research in detail. So I was expecting 100% support and enthusiasm. What I got was someone who wanted my bum on the seat so I could do parts of his pet research project.

Was this for your MA dissertation or Ph.D.? I know that there is more interaction/supervision when writing the Ph. D. dissertation. The few people that I talked to regarding MA supervision did not do weekly updates. I'm assuming it would have gotten in the way of making progress on the dissertation since we only had the summer to write our dissertation (the dissertation deadline was mid-Sept.)

Masters. And the update emails took about ten minutes to write tops - no way did they interefere with making progress when I was working seven days a week on the research. Our deadline was also mid-September. It helped to keep my work in his mind. Basically, over the summer research students are competing for a supervisor's time with other research students and the supervisor's research projects (vital to bringing in the research grants which help keep them in a job). They sometimes even have the temerity to take a holiday and spend time with their families. If I just sat back and waited for him to contact me, he probably wouldn't have and I wouldn't have expected him to.

You really need to be proactive in this situation. You can't just sit back and wait to be supervised. If you don't contact your supervisor they'll either assume that a) everything's going just fine and you don't need guidance - which might come as a horrible shock when you turn in a diss that fails, or b) you don't care (so why should they).

Reply 14

T-Zee

OP

I emailed my course leader and he said the external exam board said I had to resit the dissertation, so ive booked a meeting with him for next friday for a 1hr session to look at my dissertation and what went wrong etc.... I really dont want to do this again, i feel so dis-motivated and gutted still! @teily im sorry to hear that, 1 mark and they failed you, thats just wrong!

Reply 15

gutenberg

14

Original post by kka25

Kinda short for any significant findings don't you find?

Most Master's dissertations are done over the summer are they not? :dontknow:

And with Master's dissertations, while originality and some great breakthrough is desirable, it's not essential for passing the course, unlike at PhD level.

Reply 16

Original post by kka25

Kinda short for any significant findings don't you find?

agreed! especially when I spent the summer finding and sifting through funerary inscriptions.

Reply 17

sj27

14

Original post by gutenberg

Most Master's dissertations are done over the summer are they not? :dontknow:

And with Master's dissertations, while originality and some great breakthrough is desirable, it's not essential for passing the course, unlike at PhD level.

Usually, but some do have originality as a requirement, like the course I'm applying to. And they recommend you work on your dissertation throughout the time you're doing the master's. We also have to submit a research proposal as part of the application. However, I'm aware that these requirements are considered unusual for a masters.

Reply 18

Original post by Klix88

You really need to be proactive in this situation. You can't just sit back and wait to be supervised. If you don't contact your supervisor they'll either assume that a) everything's going just fine and you don't need guidance - which might come as a horrible shock when you turn in a diss that fails, or b) you don't care (so why should they).

I'm new to all of this (dissertation included) and I guess it's different at different universities. I was told that we'd meet with the supervisor one more time during the summer. But I still had one more essay to turn in mid-June and then I spent the following two weeks reading books on how to write a dissertation since I had never written a dissertation before. Then the next two weeks were spent sifting through inscriptions for my dissertation and ended with an email to my supervisor inquiring when she would be away for the summer holiday, etc. which I never received a response to. (I did not choose my supervisor she was appointed to me and I later find out that she wasn't doing many supervisions that year and that she was away all summer. She didn't even know when the dissertations were due!!)

Reply 19