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I might be loosing my honours degree over a 10 minute presentation

Hello all, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

I am a third year student at NTU studying business management and marketing who just finished their course. For context of the situation, I failed one module in first year and retook it in second year, the module was made up of three parts: the exam (40% of module) which I got a Low 1st, participation (15% of module) which I got a low 3rd, and the presentation (45% of module) I missed and therefore got zero.

Overall for the module my grade was a high 3rd (which is above the low 3rd pass grade) but because I missed the presentation I failed the module the second time round and was allowed no more attempts. As a result of this i didn’t get the 20 credits and therefore have 340 credits out of 360 and my first year aggregate decision was proceed - limit of ordinary degree.

I am now extremely stressed about this as I have worked very hard for 3 years in hopes for a 1st or 2.1 honours degree and now I feel like I might not get that and get an ordinary degree becuase I missed a pretty pointless 10 minutes presentation about a business simulation game for a first year module which doesn’t even count towards my final grade.

My course leader and tutor have told me it is up to the exam board to decide whether to give me compensation and I am really worried.

As this was a first year module not counting for my final grade, and I showed I have good knowledge of the module with the low 1st in the exam as well as achieving a passable grade for the module and passed all other modules with good grades

Can anyone help me or give some advice as to how likely compensation is or am I waiting to be disappointed?

Any help is appreciated and thank you in advance
Clearly if missing it meant you failed the module and hence the degree it was not "pointless" as you say? It was also the largest component of the assessment for the module and therefore the most important part of the assessment simply numerically....

In any event, speak to your personal tutor and/or student union to understand the situation better. Unfortunately as it seems this was not a case of failing due to falling below a grade threshold but due to non-completion or a compulsory element I'm not sure what avenues may be available to you to resolve it unless you gave valid extenuating circumstances and a valid reason why you were not able to apply for these in advance.
(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 2

Original post by artful_lounger
Clearly if missing it meant you failed the module and hence the degree it was not "pointless" as you say? It was also the largest component of the assessment for the module and therefore the most important part of the assessment simply numerically....
In any event, speak to your personal tutor and/or student union to understand the situation better. Unfortunately as it seems this was not a case of failing due to falling below a grade threshold but due to non-completion or a compulsory element I'm not sure what avenues may be available to you to resolve it unless you gave valid extenuating circumstances and a valid reason why you were not able to apply for these in advance.
Hi there,

Sorry I should have clarified firstly I missed the presentation due to personal reasons (I was deeply struggling with mental health at the time) which I have told my course leader, and secondly by “pointless” I meant it was an extremely easy task that would have been difficult to fail
Original post by Anonymous
Hi there,

Sorry I should have clarified firstly I missed the presentation due to personal reasons (I was deeply struggling with mental health at the time) which I have told my course leader, and secondly by “pointless” I meant it was an extremely easy task that would have been difficult to fail


If you have valid mitigating/extenuating circumstances such as this then you need to get documentation for these (e.g. letters from GP/counselors/therapists etc) and go through whatever your unis extenuating circumstances process is - you may be allowed to progress with the module being condoned, or may be required to retake it (or they may reject it and let the original/current result stand).

It really behooves you to place first the relevant context and circumstances when outlining this situation, as if you try and approach this with the uni in the same circumspect manner as here, without forthrightly stating that you had a mental health crisis at the time or whatever the situation may have been, it's probably going to weaken your case.

I'd strongly recommend you speak with your personal tutor and student union about the extenuating circumstances process and how to approach this - only submitting now that you've received the final outcome of the module is probably not ideal to start with though so you may need to provide some rationale as to why you did not at any point until now apply for extenuating circumstances :s-smilie:

Reply 4

Original post by artful_lounger
If you have valid mitigating/extenuating circumstances such as this then you need to get documentation for these (e.g. letters from GP/counselors/therapists etc) and go through whatever your unis extenuating circumstances process is - you may be allowed to progress with the module being condoned, or may be required to retake it (or they may reject it and let the original/current result stand).
It really behooves you to place first the relevant context and circumstances when outlining this situation, as if you try and approach this with the uni in the same circumspect manner as here, without forthrightly stating that you had a mental health crisis at the time or whatever the situation may have been, it's probably going to weaken your case.
I'd strongly recommend you speak with your personal tutor and student union about the extenuating circumstances process and how to approach this - only submitting now that you've received the final outcome of the module is probably not ideal to start with though so you may need to provide some rationale as to why you did not at any point until now apply for extenuating circumstances :s-smilie:


Firstly thank you for your advice on this situation

I unfortunately didn’t see anyone (GP/ therapists) relating to my mental health due to my mental state at the time being so unhealthy that I did not allow myself to reach out. Therefore I have no documentation to “prove” the mental state I was in, I have witnesses who lived with me at the time but I doubt this factor will help so I am unsure on how to go about this.

I have stated to my course leader that I was struggling at the time and have requested to meet with her to explain further and I will ask how to approach the extenuating circumstances process. Her previous responses have been blunt in the fact that I will have to wait for the board to decide the final outcome and has not guided me to go through the process of extenuating circumstances despite me mentioning the reason for missing the presentation was due to mental health.

The interactions were the same with my tutor, who I have spoken to at length about the whole situation, and they guided me to speak directly to the course leader and she is involved in the decision making process

Reply 5

Without any evidence and years later plus the fact that you missed a second attempt too there’s little possibility that any extenuating circumstances policy would apply in this case.

Your tutor is right about compensation being decided by the exam board/awards board. You could speak to the student records/registry/academic/school/faculty office to find out more about when the board sits and what information will be presented to them to inform their decision. Your tutor is unlikely to have ever attended the board in question so doesn’t want to discuss it because they’re concerned that they might mislead you.
Hi there,

I would echo the advice above that its important to speak to your personal tutor and your module leader and explain to them clearly what happened and why you were not able to attend the presentation.

That being said, considering that your degree classification is an aggregate of 3 years worth of work, it would be mathematically unlikely for one failed module in first year to bring your overall grade down by a significant amount. Assuming you have done well and passed everything since then, then you can still get your 2:1 and perhaps a 1st at the end of it. If you are worried about this, then again I would ask your personal tutor about what impact this could have on your overall classification.

I hope this helps, best of luck and please try not to worry 🙂

University of Bath
Original post by University of Bath
That being said, considering that your degree classification is an aggregate of 3 years worth of work, it would be mathematically unlikely for one failed module in first year to bring your overall grade down by a significant amount. Assuming you have done well and passed everything since then, then you can still get your 2:1 and perhaps a 1st at the end of it. If you are worried about this, then again I would ask your personal tutor about what impact this could have on your overall classification.


It's not really a grading/classification issue. If they haven't completed enough credits then the uni can't award them an honours degree.

Reply 8

Hi, i am also at NTU. please make an appointment with student services and you can see someone from your school, i had a advisor and she wrote me a letter as my mental health was very bad, i got a statement of access put in place, you can do this in retrospect and that will be evidence for when you apply for a NEC. or you can appeal, students union can help you navigate the NEC process Student’s Union Information and Advice Service. they helped me alot after i needed to request for reconsideration for the exam board to let me retake a second year module but still carry on to third year.

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