Can anyone explain how second/third year degree weighting works?

Hey everyone, I've just started my second year at university and am working out worst and best case scenarios for future grades (I was very lazy with my revision for the exams I've just finished so prospects aren't looking fantastic). My degree weighting is 40/60, so if I passed with a low to mid 2:2 this year (50-55 average in assessments) what marks would I need to still be able to pass with a 2:1 overall? I apologise if this is coming off slightly idiotic, but I've been struggling to work this out

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Original post by Monkey D Dragon

Hey everyone, I've just started my second year at university and am working out worst and best case scenarios for future grades (I was very lazy with my revision for the exams I've just finished so prospects aren't looking fantastic). My degreeweighting is 40/60, so if I passed with a low to mid 2:2 this year (50-55 average in assessments) what marks would I need to still be able to pass with a 2:1 overall? I apologise if this is coming off slightly idiotic, but I've been struggling to work this out

so let's start of by saying over the course of your second and third year, you need to accumulate 60 "marks" to get a 2.1.

let's work at an underestimate and say you got an average of 50 this year which contributed 40%.
therefore 50 x 0.4 = 20 (50 is your grade, x0.4 is because it's worth only 40% of your degree)
so in the end, you would have 20 "marks" out of your required 60, leaving 40 remaining for your third year.

so to work out what you would need next year, the equation is: ? x 0.6 = 40
if you work it out, ? = 66.7
so in the end if you got 50 this year, you'd need 66.7 next year to reach your 60% target of a 2.1 grade.

now let's look at an overestimate; say if you got 55 this year.
55 x 0.4 = 22.
as a result, ? x 0.6 = 38
? = 63.3

so there you go; if your range this year lies somewhere within 50-55, your target range next year to get a 2.1 would be 66.7-63.3 respectively.

P.S: this is coming from a psychology student - it would've been easier to explain in person, so if there's anything you need verifying let me know :smile: