On grades

[davidn]

Rough Grade Guide
Range	Result
19-20	Astronomical
17-19	Great
14-17	Fairly great
12-14	Passable
9-12	A bit mince
5-9	Mince
0-5	Total mince

I am most impressed with myself, in that I've managed to resist checking my exam results for three full days. Just a week and a half to go now until there's actually a chance of them being visible.

During my three and a half years at St Andrews, I have been continually mystified by the entire grading system and what my results actually mean. Grades are awarded on a curved scale from 0 (useless) to 20 (amazing), with 5 being a pass. That's simple enough, but even though a 5 is a pass it's still a pretty poor grade, and an 11 is apparently the minimum that most people should be aiming for.

The grade conversion table provided a while ago by e_to_the_ipi helps a little. I wouldn't rely on it too much, mostly because it varies from department to department anyway, but more worryingly because it notes that getting a lower second class grade requires a reasonable degree of "presision".

More seriously, at the moment I am on a 16.3 average - this is a rather awkward place to be as there are only a couple of fractions of grades between getting a 1st and a 2:1 at the end of it all. There are two weeks until I find out just how hard I need to work next semester, and it looks like the grade system is forever going to remain a mystery.

Comments

[adararose-2.livejournal.com]

Even more annoying is that some of the departments (like modern history, for example) use a completely different score (out of 80) that you then have to convert. And if you're an American like me, none of it manages to make sense.

[scellanis.livejournal.com]

That makes me mostly...a bit mince

Mind you did get some passables, don't think I was any higher than fairly great during honours years...did get a 20 in first year though :D

*gasps*

Oh...my last ever exam...I definately got a mince grade for that.... *squeaks*

[davidn]

I have a feeling I've just terribly insulted a lot of people with 12s.

[scellanis.livejournal.com]

probably...but mince is better than failing which is what I expected to get for that....is my own fault for taking the courses and not doing the tutorials I imagine mind you some subjects I wouldn't get no matter what I tried.

[davidn]

You should have seen my Chemistry grades. Suffice to say that my advisor changed my course to Computer Science without even asking to meet with me.

[e-to-the-ipi.livejournal.com]

What's really stupid is that that table doesn't work for maths honours, because there's a narrower percentage distribution in maths. But they seem to follow that, more or less, for subhonours, but never actually let you try their honours grading system before the first honours exam. I think.

[zephyr-pie.livejournal.com]

Your grading scale should be used in the new DDR Supernova.

[davidn]

I don't understand why they got rid of the old one - Simple, Beginner, Ordinary, Something, Something, Genuine, Paramount, Exorbitant, Catastrophic, Apocalyptic. That's all I can remember.