Question about Final Mark

[grav123]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if someone could help me out with a query. I am a first year student at Monash and have finished my exams.

For one of my subjects, I was going really well during the semester in assessments (D-HD). In the exam the other day I just had a shocking day...DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED. I didn't finish and did not perform nearly as well as I should have. I am worried that I could fail the unit as a result.

I have been reading about hurdles and looking at the unit guide and cannot find anywhere where it says anything about a hurdle. Is there some rule of thumb where if you get less than 50% in an exam, you fail the unit? I hope not, because I will DEFINITELY get less than 50 due to not finishing...

I don't want to repeat the unit as a result of failing, so now I am hoping I pass. With a score of say something like 30% in the exam, would I still be able to pass the unit overall? The exam was worth 50% of our total grade...

Thank you

[AngelWings]

If it doesn't say it's a hurdle, it's simply not a hurdle. There's no "you must get 50%" implied. You'll just get the mark after weighting added to your result. Seeing as you've done well all semester up until the exam, you'll likely just need another 30% from the exam alone to pass. Don't worry yet - you'll never know what'll happen to your score yet; there are some cases where scaling happens in exams.

[grav123]

If it doesn't say it's a hurdle, it's simply not a hurdle. There's no "you must get 50%" implied. You'll just get the mark after weighting added to your result. Seeing as you've done well all semester up until the exam, you'll likely just need another 30% from the exam alone to pass. Don't worry yet - you'll never know what'll happen to your score yet; there are some cases where scaling happens in exams.

Thank you for answering...I know that the unit I am doing does marks on a bell curve, so that is what has got me worried I guess. For assessments before exam (worth 50%) I was sitting on 43%...so from what you are saying I just need another 7% from exam to pass unit overall...but I am worried that from a score I get of like 30% in the exam, because of the bell curve, I might not get 7% at the VERY LEAST added to my total...am I misunderstanding something?

Thanks so much again, appreciate it. New to all this uni stuff!

[brenden]

Thank you for answering...I know that the unit I am doing does marks on a bell curve, so that is what has got me worried I guess. For assessments before exam (worth 50%) I was sitting on 43%...so from what you are saying I just need another 7% from exam to pass unit overall...but I am worried that from a score I get of like 30% in the exam, because of the bell curve, I might not get 7% at the VERY LEAST added to my total...am I misunderstanding something?

Thanks so much again, appreciate it. New to all this uni stuff!

I think that would be theoretically possible but like, the chances of you NOT getting the 7 marks you need out of that exam worth 50% is so astronimcally low - you can relax and let yourself be utterly shocked if you actually don't pass. Don't bother bracing yourself for it - seems highly likely you'll pass (or do even better than that).

[Zlatan]

Don't worry yet - you'll never know what'll happen to your score yet; there are some cases where scaling happens in exams.

I too just had a shocker of an exam and came out hoping for a pass. What have been some instances of when exam scaling happened ?

Cheers