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do people actually fail exams ? (2 Viewers)

BigDk

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lots of people do courses they are not cut out to do, thus the reason for fail.

i know people who put in 1 day of study before the exam and they end up with pass and credits.

others studied, and struggled throughout the semester and they failed.
 

Templar

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if the subjects are 3 credit points, how do you work out GPA?
For calculation purposes halve the GPA.

More accurately (and assuming there is no year weighting),



GPA is really useless unless you want to transfer or do grad med though. WAM is a more widely used one.
 

piitb

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at least 20% has to fail in the subject. its bell curve.

so if you do the maths there is prob a 80% chance you will fail at least 1 subect during 3 years
 

Templar

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at least 20% has to fail in the subject. its bell curve.

so if you do the maths there is prob a 80% chance you will fail at least 1 subect during 3 years
That is definitely not true. I know how the maths marks are derived, and that's not how it works.
 

decypher

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at least 20% has to fail in the subject. its bell curve.

so if you do the maths there is prob a 80% chance you will fail at least 1 subect during 3 years
One of my mates thinks that. He believes that so long as he is not in the bottom 20% of the course he'll pass. I can't see this as being true as subjects are marked to a standard, either you achieve, or better the standard and get a pass or higher or you don't meet the standard and fail.

In some subjects it may coincidently turn out that 20% fail. In my own experience I've encountered subjects with failure rates both well above, and well below 20% so in my mind there is absolutely no way this can be true. In regards to bell curve marking, most subject coordinators set assessments to produce a certain set of marks (e.g. average, standard deviation etc). However this doesn't always work for them.
 

piitb

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That is definitely not true. I know how the maths marks are derived, and that's not how it works.
well 10 to 40% fails in the subject.... its a fact really.

how they are derived can be many factors, may involves scaling up or down, and how many they allow to pass depends on the uni/subject co-ordinator, end of the day they do fail a certain %
 

Templar

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well 10 to 40% fails in the subject.... its a fact really.

how they are derived can be many factors, may involves scaling up or down, and how many they allow to pass depends on the uni/subject co-ordinator, end of the day they do fail a certain %
It's not a fact that 10-40% fails. It is a result of the process used rather than a set criterion. At the end of the day the department is happy to have everyone in the course pass if they deem that the exam was difficult enough and everyone obtained good marks.

If you have seen the raw marks of maths, you would be questioning why more people haven't failed. The adjustment is simply to take the difficulty of the exam and what level is required for passing, rather than failing a set percentage.
 
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piitb

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It's not a fact that 10-40% fails. It is a result of the process used rather than a set criterion. At the end of the day the department is happy to have everyone in the course pass if they deem that the exam was difficult enough and everyone obtained good marks.

If you have seen the raw marks of maths, you would be questioning why more people haven't failed. The adjustment is simply to take the difficulty of the exam and what level is required for passing, rather than failing a set percentage.

the critera set along with the process will determine that x% will always fail.

you can change words all u want to explain it, end of day a certain % will fail a subject.

you just have to make certain you are not in the botton x%, and not necessaryily needing to get over 50% mark
 

Templar

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the critera set along with the process will determine that x% will always fail.

you can change words all u want to explain it, end of day a certain % will fail a subject.
No, the criterion is most likely a standard, rather than "only x% will pass this course". It is possible under the current system for everyone to pass the course.

I am not disagreeing that there will be people who fail a (maths) subject, but rather there is no guideline that a certain percentage must, or should, fail. Any claim that the maths department will fail a set percentage is untrue.
 

piitb

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No, the criterion is most likely a standard, rather than "only x% will pass this course". It is possible under the current system for everyone to pass the course.

I am not disagreeing that there will be people who fail a (maths) subject, but rather there is no guideline that a certain percentage must, or should, fail. Any claim that the maths department will fail a set percentage is untrue.

end of day, they manipulate the marks based upon how goood/bad the cohort goes for that year.
 

Templar

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end of day, they manipulate the marks based upon how goood/bad the cohort goes for that year.
I never denied that. If the marks are not adjusted and raw mark is used instead my estimate is >40% of people will fail in the normal units. I just said that there was no rule in the maths department that must fail.
 

piitb

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I never denied that. If the marks are not adjusted and raw mark is used instead my estimate is >40% of people will fail in the normal units. I just said that there was no rule in the maths department that must fail.

they have a rough figure....
 

Templar

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they have a rough figure....
I have said many times that no, they don't have a figure on how many people should or need to fail. A standard is set, based on the cohort, and everyone who achieve this standard passes. This standard is more generous than just using raw marks. If everyone meets the standard, then everyone passes. The same method is used in intermediate and senior subjects and some course do have 100% pass rate.

Unless you can back your claims by something more substantial than just what you feel, then they are just your feelings about how it works, which is not how the maths department works.
 

piitb

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going around in circles, u pretty much agree with what i have to say but can't aknowledge it.
 

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