Failing an examination

If you fail an exam, you should discuss your situation with your Personal Tutor.

Failing an examination at the second attempt, after the opportunity for further work over the summer, is likely to affect your course choices and progression for the following year. The normal number of courses for a year represents a full load, and it is hard to compensate for a failure in one year by taking an extra course in another.

Examinations: Appeals procedure

If you wish to appeal against a decision made by a Board of Examiners you will find the procedure described on the university website.

You will see that a formal appeal against a decision of a Board of Examiners should be addressed to the Secretary to the University, and the grounds for appeal can be either that, for good reason (which was beyond your control) the examiners were not made aware of relevant information that affected your performance or that you have reason to believe that the University did not conduct the examination properly (this includes the procedures followed during meetings of Boards of Examiners).

The appeals procedure, therefore, cannot be invoked simply on the grounds that you got a mark of 39%, just short of a pass mark, and would like us to reconsider your scripts.

Appeals

If you would like feedback

If you are surprised by your exam result and would like to have guidance, we recommend you approach the Course Organiser or Course Administrator and request to see your exam scripts with an aim of identifying those parts of the examination in which you under-performed. The Course Organiser or their nominated representative can provide feedback about your scripts and the examination process. Your Personal Tutor can provide you with more general advice on study skills and improving your academic performance.

Not surprisingly, the most common reason why students consider making an appeal is that they obtained a mark of 38 or 39%, just below the pass level. However, it is worth noting that an External Examiner will have looked at the scripts, to see if there is any possibility that the marking was either harsh or lenient, prior to confirming the marks as fair and accurate. It is the responsibility of the Board of Examiners to ensure that all marks have been calculated correctly and, if requested, we would ask the relevant people to check this. In the unlikely event that an error had been made we would immediately correct it.