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High First

codeLunatic

what is considered as a high first for a degree.. is it 75%, 80% or something higher?

Reply 1

Alan Smithee

100%

Any less and it's not worth having.

Reply 2

°lemontree°

be nice

...but who actually cares, I'm quite sure the percentage isn't given on your certificate (please correct me if I'm wrong)

Reply 3

lskdgjsj

codeLunatic

what is considered as a high first for a degree.. is it 75%, 80% or something higher?

It depends on the university and subject.

Reply 4

CityMonkey

Think the people topping the year in Arts/Humanities subjects are getting about 85-90% ish so anything over 75% in those subjects would be considered a "high first".

With Science subjects, it is more "doable" to get 100% (and some people do, believe it or not) and so I would say 85% or above would be a "high" first.

Reply 5

JennLlama

Charlotte (fka desemejante)

be nice

...but who actually cares, I'm quite sure the percentage isn't given on your certificate (please correct me if I'm wrong)

Only transcripts I've seen have a breakdown of percentages for every module during the whole degree, so I'm pretty sure the percentage is there! Although your overall degree certificate (the one you frame and hang on the wall) only seems to say the grade (first, 2.1, etc.) - but employers usually want the transcript not the certificate I think.
Jenn xx

Reply 6

chriswhit

If logic applies, it would be anything above about 77% as 67%-69% is a high 2.1 and 57-59% a high 2.2 and so forth. It does vary from place to place though but this should be a reasonable rule of thumb

Reply 7

Alan Smithee

A first is a first.

Anyone pretentious enough to put "I got a high first" on their cv is quite simply put; a 'dwad'...

Reply 8

codeLunatic

Platocrates

A first is a first.

Anyone pretentious enough to put "I got a high first" on their cv is quite simply put; a 'dwad'...

some post graduate courses do seem to differentiate between the two.. for example Imperial has certain post graduate programmes where the minimum requirement is a first and a high first surely makes a difference here..

Reply 9

Alan Smithee

I'd disagree; unless of course it specifies high first.

Reply 10

CamSPSer

Platocrates

A first is a first.

Anyone pretentious enough to put "I got a high first" on their cv is quite simply put; a 'dwad'...

If I got a starred first at cambridge i'd be putting it on my CV

Reply 11

silence

on the mark classification boundaries for my essay feedback sheets, it has the usual ones, i.e. 50-59 = II:ii, 60-69 = II:i, 70+ = first class, but it also has '80+ is an outstanding first'. i do english, but got that sheet back from the italian/humanities dept (did an essay on dante).. so as said above, it's rather course and uni based.

Reply 12

ChemistBoy

A high first is surely defined on how you faired compared with your peers. I would say that a high first puts you in the top few of your group.

Reply 13

silence

maybe. some unis tend to do their classifications based on performance relative to everyone else's performances. i think that mine tends to have a set standard to which they mark. looking at the way my assignments are marked (http://www.humanities.bham.ac.uk/handbook/student/ug/assessment/index.htm), there seems to be a lot more scope to score 'highly' in the first category, as it's 30/31 marks wide, in theory, unlike the other categories which are only 10. that said, looking at some of those objectives... mental.

Reply 14

Alan Smithee

CamSPSer

If I got a starred first at cambridge i'd be putting it on my CV

Touche.

Reply 15

CamSPSer

Platocrates

Touche.

So its not much different to writing I got a high first from Durham or LSE? Or I came 9th in the year? All these things further differentiate you from other talented people when going for job interviews. Getting a first is a good achievement, getting an extremely good first is an excellent achievement.