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What do university transcripts look like?

Hello,

I was wondering whether anyone here who's already on an MA course could briefly describe to me the undergraduate record transcript that they had to send to the graduate school for application.

1. Are the first year exam marks shown at all? Or are they just shown as
either "Passed" or "Failed"?

2. They're not going to write down every mark you achieved for every single
essay you wrote throughout the year, are they? Just the average marks
of all your courseworks and the exam marks next to them, right?

3. For the second year record, would they give an overall result of all the
course units you've taken, in the form of degree classification? (eg. 2:1,
2:2)


Thank you!

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Reply 1
Transcripts are breakdowns of all the modules you did and the grades you were awarded for those modules (in percentage terms). I cant remember if my first degree had all my modules, or minus the 3 I could choose to disregard from my top 27(?) modules (or something like that). Ive never known a student to get a transcript for each year at uni - just at the end as a summary - but i could be wrong.
Reply 2
you should get a transcript through the post when you graduate - maybe before you get your degree certificate.
I think it varies slightly from university to university but mine has this sort of format:

Year
course code | course name| mark in percent | class

e.g.
2005
CAS406Z, Public Culture in Africa, 77, 1

and then at the end of the transcript it lists distinction for degree and some prizes I won and a a thing saying Conduct Satisfactory.

So it basically goes year for year and lists all the courses for all your degrees at that university (so I have 6 years of courses)
Thanks for the reply..
But I meant, for example, if I wanted to apply for a Masters during my 3rd year (way before graduating), and the admission office wanted me to send them a transcript of "all marks achieved so far", what exactly would that document look like? Because obviously there will only be those marks from the 1st and the 2nd year... would they look at the 1st year marks at all?
Reply 5
no idea then - my masters all required a 2:1 or above and i dont think i had to send my transcript in just show my degree during admissions in freshers week.
Reply 6
salt - 6 years? explain! :smile: :smile:
To the OP: So then your transcript would have your first year courses under 2005 and second year under 2006. If you've already registered for your 3rd year courses then they might be listed but without any marks. Also, this is a big thing with a transcript (and why the uni's want them) is that they also list if you've been registered more than once for the same course, like say you fail Maths 101 and then pass it the next term, you end up with two slots and two marks.
To the Boosh: Call me the professional student.... 3 years of undergrad bachelors followed by that academic anomaly the graduate bachelors seasoned with a thesis and a half finished MPhil... A recipe for a ticket to Oxford to complete the set, so I'm not complaining!
Reply 9
hehehehe nice :smile: sounds familiar
oh_sweet_surrey
Hello,

I was wondering whether anyone here who's already on an MA course could briefly describe to me the undergraduate record transcript that they had to send to the graduate school for application.


All my exam marks and coursework marks for every assessed piece of work I ever did at uni was shown on my transcripts... from 1st year to 3rd year. They do also give the classification gained each year... i.e. 1st year 2:1, 2nd year 1st, and so on.

I did however, get a transcript every year unlike some of the others.

It would also be a good idead to get your personal tutor to make a comment re your likely degree result, if you feel it needs some clarification, in the reference which s/he will write for you (well, hopefully, they will!). Supportive references go a long when when making post-grad applications!
Reply 11
The unis look at all your marks so far. They are trying to work out your chances of getting a 2:1 or 2:2 or whatever because they might offer you a conditional place. They could offer you a place on the basis of say 2:1 even though the transcript shows you could only get a 2:2. But there are other things they want to know like what modules you have covered, like if you want to do Marketing they might want to know whether you have any modules in marketing. For overseas students they can also work out the GPA from the transcript rather than take your word for it. Some degree certificates don't show the GPA, although English ones do.
"All the marks so far", meaning, "every single mark" you got on every single 'essay' you wrote during the past two years? Is that possible?? Or does it mean the "annual average mark" (the sum of all essay marks divided by the number of essays) of each module?

And some courses aren't coursework-assessed; would they still show all the marks of the non-assessed essays??? or would they just show the exam marks???

Sorry I'm being a pest!
My transcripts show the marks of all assessed work. If it's not officially assessed, then it definatley won't be on your transcript.
All the marks so far would be your final course mark (however that particular course works out its marks) for each course.

So say you do 2 essays and an exam and each essay is worth 10% of the total and the exam 80%. If you get 70 for each essay and 50% on your exam your final mark (that appears on your transcript against that course/module) would be 54%.

And before you ask - it depends course to course and you'd have to ask your uni what percentages they use for coursework and exam to find the final mark.
My transcript only reports the mark of each module - not of each essay or exam, only the final module grade.

You said: "Or does it mean the "annual average mark" (the sum of all essay marks divided by the number of essays) of each module?" - ive never come across a system like that in the UK (does it exist???)
Reply 16
Yeh. Transcripts show the overall average for each module with the number of credits for that module. Some show the number of study hours as well. Overseas transcripts show the overall point score so far like 2.6 out of 4 or something. The UK ones usually show the overall average percentage. That's generally what the admissions tutors look at. They do show resits and compensation where that's happened. So it shows if you did a resit, or failed a resit and the Board let you off.
Reply 17
Jazzza
Yeh. Transcripts show the overall average for each module with the number of credits for that module. Some show the number of study hours as well. Overseas transcripts show the overall point score so far like 2.6 out of 4 or something. The UK ones usually show the overall average percentage. That's generally what the admissions tutors look at. They do show resits and compensation where that's happened. So it shows if you did a resit, or failed a resit and the Board let you off.


Thats not so good about resits:frown:
Reply 18
so how will your transcript look like if you are a transfer student?
like if gt into a university in the second year?will we have to keep our first yr transcript from the univ i took it from or will i gt a new one from the university i am admitted to ?
Reply 19
You know, my transcript isn't remotely like any of yours.

It lists all the papers I took (that is, modules, I suppose, if that's what you kids are calling them these days). For none of these does it supply individual grades.

It also supplies the class mark I got at the end of second year (that is, for two years' work), and the class mark I got at the end of third year (for the final year's work). In neither of those cases is the average percentage given.

So there. I have absolutely no official record of the marks I got for individual papers. Which is kind of a bummer, given that my grades were all over the place, including some rather good ones, and the 2:1 average on the transcript doesn't go a long way to demonstrating this.

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