school of materials induction – week 5. today’s session assessment learning outcomes...
TRANSCRIPT
School of Materials
Induction – week 5
Today’s session
• Assessment• Learning outcomes• Examinations• Past papers• Coursework• Deadlines • Feedback • Results• Resits• External examiners• Appeals and complaints• Progression
• Students are assessed by examining their performance in each programme unit taken.
• In each programme, students take a different combination of units which are made up of a mixture of lectures, practical work and tutorials.
• Students are assessed by a combination of formal examinations and coursework.
• Coursework and exams will be assessed by a range of criteria as appropriate to the subject and type of work being assessed.
• It is important that you read and understand what you have to do and how you will be assessed so you get the most out of your programme and are able to perform to the best of your ability.
• If you have any queries concerning assessment of coursework or exams do ask your Programme Director or a member of School professional support service staff for advice and assistance.
Learning outcomes
• At each stage of the programme, it is important that we make sure that you are acquiring knowledge of the subject and that you are able to apply this knowledge to solve problems with which you may be confronted.
• All examination and coursework is marked in relation to learning outcomes and these can be found in each programme unit specification.
• Programme unit specifications are available via Blackboard.
• The learning outcomes are a statement of what you should be able to do on completion of the unit – in other words what you should have learnt.
Examinations
• Lecture content will normally be examined by an hour and a half or a two hour written examination held at the end of the semester in which the unit is taken.
• Examinations are held for the prime purpose of assessing the progress of students through their programme of study and ultimately to assist the examiners in deciding the class of degree to be awarded.
• You will be notified of the exact format of particular examination papers.
• The resulting mark for a unit will be composed of written
examination paper and course work as appropriate.
• Normally examination questions are based on the lectures given in a unit.
• HOWEVER - clearly, material learned in an earlier pre-requisite unit may sometimes be needed to answer a particular question even though that material may not have been discussed in the specific programme unit being examined.
• You will get your own individual examination timetable via the Student Portal. This is accessed via the StudentNet at http://www.studentnet.manchester.ac.uk/ with your University username and password.
• The University Examinations Office will email you with instructions on how to do this.
• It is important that you obtain your own copy of your timetable as it will give all the relevant details of your exams, including your own personal seat number in each exam room.
• 2,000 examinations happen throughout the academic year all over the University campus in a very short time-span.
• Please check that you are familiar with all your venues and know where you are going BEFORE the day of your exam.
• It is your responsibility to ensure that you arrive at the exam venues in good time. Not knowing where your venue is will not be considered grounds for mitigating circumstances.
• You may have more than one exam on any given day and you may have several examinations over a short period of time. This also is not ground for mitigation.
Past papers
• You can see past papers via the web at
http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/ssc/pastpapers/
Check you have been given the correct paper.
Check what you are meant to do and how you have been asked to submit your answers.
Exam room conduct and regulations
http://www.studentnet.manchester.ac.uk/crucial-guide/academic-life/exams/conduct/
• You will need to arrive at least 15 minutes before the exam starts. If you do arrive late you will be admitted up to 30 minutes after the timed start and will not be given any extra time. If you are more than 30 minutes late you will not be admitted, and you should then report immediately to your School Office.
• If you have been given a particular seat number for an examination you must sit in the seat that has been assigned to you. Seat numbers are given on your individual student examination timetable.
• You must write your registration number (the 7 or 8 figure number on the front of your student id card) on every examination answer-book you use. Remember to fill in all the other information asked for.
• You must write all your answers legibly. If your work is deemed illegible by the examiners you will normally be required to pay for it to be converted to typescript. You must write in blue or black ink. Pencil is not allowed, except for graphs and diagrams.
• Examinations are marked anonymously. At the end of the examination make sure you fold over and seal the gummed edge of the panel on the top corner of each of your answer-books, before they are collected from you.
• You must write only in the examination answer-books provided (including any rough work) and not tear pages out of answer books. Any work that you do not wish to submit for marking must be clearly crossed out, but must not be removed from the answer book.
• You must not remove answer books (used or unused) from examination rooms. Any other materials that have been provided for the examination must not be removed. Students found doing any of these things will be subject to disciplinary action. Question papers may be taken away unless you are specifically told verbally or in writing not to do so.
• You must remain seated at all times. You must raise your hand to summon the attention of an invigilator for whatever purpose. If you wish to leave the examination room temporarily you may only do so if accompanied by an invigilator.
• If you wish to leave the examination before the allotted finishing time you must remain seated and raise your hand: an invigilator will come to collect your answer book, after which you may leave, silently.
• You are not permitted to leave during the last 15 minutes of the examination. At the end of the examination you must stop writing immediately when you are told to do so and remain seated and silent until all answer books have been collected and you are instructed that you may leave.
• You must maintain silence throughout the time you are in the examination room. You must not cause any kind of disturbance or distraction, or attempt to communicate with other candidates, by any means.
Policy on calculators
• Students may bring into the examination room any calculator, provided that it does not have any means of inputting or storing text, alphabetical or other symbolic information, or any means of transmitting or receiving information.
• In particular, these rules preclude the use of mobile phones, PDAs (personal digital assistants), and portable computers as calculators.
• The full policy can be found at
http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/tlso/map/teachinglearningassessment/assessment/sectiond-theprocessofassessment/useofcalculatorsinexaminations
Coursework
Coursework may be:
• collected in at the end of a class; • submitted via Blackboard; • handed into the relevant School Office before the deadline
specified.
• When you submit your work via a School Office, you must complete a submission receipt slip.
• A completed copy of the slip – signed by a member of professional support service staff - MUST be attached to your work otherwise it will NOT be accepted.
• Your name must be clearly marked on each individual piece of work that you hand in.
• School offices can only accept coursework submissions at the following times: – 9.00 – 4.30 pm Monday to Thursday – 9.00am – 4.00pm Fridays.
• Work cannot be accepted outside these times.
• Please note you must also sign to declare any coursework you submit is your own work, and for group work that the work is the sole work of the group members.
Deadlines
• Deadlines for the submission of work are set for your benefit as well as ours.
• Handing in work regularly also allows us to mark work more quickly and provide you with the necessary ongoing feedback.
• Failure to complete coursework in a satisfactory manner can lead to your having to resubmit work over the summer to progress to the next level of your programme.
• You must note that for some programmes this is not an option.
Late submission and extensions
• up to one week after the deadline - 10% off mark;• more than one week after the deadline - zero mark applied.
• If you need to request an extension to any deadline for submission of coursework because of any mitigating circumstances you should ask for an extension in advance of the deadline - both the member of staff who set the course work and the Programme Director need to approve the extension.
• In cases where an extension has been agreed, penalties for late submission of work will be calculated from the new deadline.
Academic malpractice
• To ensure you all have understanding of what academic malpractice is we are setting up a mandatory Blackboard course - Academic Malpractice Awareness MATS18000. This is compulsory and must be completed by the end of week 10 Friday 4th December.
Feedback
• Feedback on your performance via coursework and tutorial sessions will be a regular feature of your studies here and may be verbal or written.
• Feedback may be summative (have marks attached) or formative – no marks but comments which aim to help you.
• Feedback may be specific or more general
• As well as feedback by staff you will have opportunities to give feedback to and receive feedback from your peers.
Results
• Results will be made available via the Student Services Web Portal one week after relevant exam board.
• You will need to access your results as soon as possible so you are aware of any resits/reworks you may have.
• Your academic results for the year as a whole will also be sent to your home address after the end of year meeting of the Board of Examiners.
• Please do not phone the School Offices with any queries regarding your results.
• Queries about results should be addressed to your Programme Director or the School Teaching and Learning Manager.
• The decision as to whether a student passes or fails is made at the end of the second semester by the School Board of Examiners and is endorsed by External Examiners.
• The decision is taken on the basis of the combined marks from the results gained in the programme units in both semesters.
• In all years, final marks can only be made available to students following the final decision of the Board of Examiners.
• Please note the raw marks or marks taken from scripts will not be revealed nor will scripts be returned.
• Please bear in mind that any marks you are given before the Board of Examiners meeting in June each year are provisional; final marks can only be ratified by the Board of Examiners meeting in June.
• The honours degree classification system and its linking to marks is shown below.
Honours Degree Classification
• equal or >70% first class (1) • equal or >60% but < 70% upper second (2.1) • equal or >50% but < 60% lower second (2.2) • equal or >40% but < 50% third class (3) • < 40% fail
Resits
• If the decision of the examination board is that you have to retake any failed exams you will normally have to resit these under examination conditions during the resit period in August.
• If you have resits you must make sure that you are available to take these examinations in this period.
• You will be sent your resit examination timetable by the university’s central examinations team by the end of July.
Resitting coursework
• If you fail coursework you will normally have to complete an alternative assignment over the summer
• Please not a few core course units cannot be retaken and must be passed at the first attempt.
• Any coursework which has to be completed over the summer will be posted to you.
• You will be given a deadline to return this by and you must send it back to us by recorded delivery.
Resit marks are capped
• It should be noted that resit and rework marks are capped at 40% this is to ensure– that students resitting do not have an unfair advantage
over those who only have one attempt at assessment.
External examiners
• External Examiners are academic staff from other universities.
• They are involved in all stages of the examination and assessment process at all levels.
• The principal role of the External Examiners is to see that examiners are fair to students, that a student receives just reward for his/her performance and is not dealt with more severely or more generously than comparable students elsewhere.
Setting of examination papers
• Examination papers are sent to the external examiners after they have been discussed and agreed by the School's examiners.
• The external examiners may suggest modifications to questions or papers.
• Their comments are passed to the examiners concerned and the suggested modifications are either carried out or the original questions justified.
• In this context the external examiner’s role is to ensure fairness and uniformity of examinations throughout the UK.
Marking and vivas
• The external examiners’ principal role is to ensure uniformity of standards and fairness in the marking of examination scripts and coursework.
• Although the major part of the external examiners' work is concerned with final year students, external examiners are appointed to consider work from all years.
• They may ask any student to attend a short interview otherwise known as an oral examination or viva.
• All students must ensure they are available to meet with the external examiners if required
Appeals and complaints
• Regulation XIX ‘Academic Appeals’ can be found at:
http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/ssc/sscforms/pdfdocuments/regulationxix/thefile,19770,en.pdf
• The purpose of this Regulation is to safeguard the interests of all students. It may be used only when there are adequate grounds for doing so and may not be used simply because a student is dissatisfied with the outcome of his or her assessment or other decision concerning their academic position or progress.
• Full details of how to make a complaint can be found at
http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/ssc/appealspolicies/studentcomplaintprocedures/
Progression
• The University regulations for undergraduate awards can be found at
http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/medialibrary/tlao/MAP07/ug-regulations-07.pdf
• To progress from one year of a BSc programme to the next, a student must: – reach the minimum pass mark (40%) overall;– reach the pass mark (40%) in individual units totalling at
least two thirds of the credits for that year; – reach the compensatable fail mark (30%)in all remaining
units.
BUT there are additional requirements for some programmes in the School -
• TDDM students must achieve a minimum of 40% in Design Projects 1 and 2 to progress to the next year.
• To progress onto a programme with a placement year there are minimum marks that have to be achieved.
• BMS and MSE have a detailed set of progression rules in the School handbook.
• Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security in thinking your first year marks don’t count towards your degree and end up with resits – aim to get at least 50% in every exam or piece of coursework!!!!!
In summary
• Exams and coursework• What to do in an exam• Past papers• Deadlines – manage your time• Feedback – there’s lots of it both formal and summative
and less formal but formative, specific and general• Results• Resits• External examiners• Appeals and complaints• Progression – make it easy for yourselves and aim to get at
least 40% for every unit
