Exam Boards for Maths Students
This year the exam board conventions are largely back to normal, and so the information in the Exams section of the Course Handbook should be consulted for more detail. The main points however are still replicated below for convenience.
NOTE: those of you on G101 are considered as 3rd year finalists in the below, similarly G105 4th years as 3rd year MMath, and G105 5th years/G106 4th years as final year MMath. Sorry, not trying to discriminate, but easier to do this than have to keep adding caveats everywhere.
Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB)
The department hopes to minimise disruption from the current UCU action, especially for finalists. For first and second years you may only receive partial results, or provisional decisions on the dates above. As this is a fast moving situation please see emails and central information for updates, this page will not be frequently updated to reflect changes.
Exam Results 2023
Exam results and progression/classification decisions will be released centrally this year through Tabula on the following dates:
First Years: Thursday 13th July
Intermediate Years: Thursday 20th July*
Finalists: Wednesday 5th July
Your Personal Tutors have been told to be available to be contacted by you if you need to consult with them over your results.
*Note that 3rd year MMath students are officially "intermediate years" but as a department are actually considered by our Finals Exam Board (since for a small number we will be awarding BSc degrees), so please bear this in mind for the information below.
3rd year MMath students should check Tabula on the 5th July since if you have been graduated with a BSc it will appear there. If you are a 3rd year MMath and your results are not yet visible then it means that you are almost certainly progressing to Year 4 and will be able to see your exam results on the 20th.
Introduction to Exam Boards Recordings
The recordings of the Introduction to Exam Boards sessions that were run can be found at the below links. Please note that some of these will be "on the fly", if there is a discrepancy between what is said in these videos and what appears on Course Handbook pages or University regulations then they take precedence.
Year 1 Introduction to Exam Boards
Year 3/4 Introduction to Exam Boards
Year 1 Results
Year 1 is all about progression to Year 2 and whether we think you are prepared for it. The University regulations are that you need at least 40% overall, pass at least 90 CATS (at 40%) and pass all the "required core modules", which for us are MA139 Analysis 2, MA146 Methods of Mathematical Modelling 1, MA144 Methods of Mathematical Modelling 2 and MA150 Algebra 2. You need to pass each module as a whole, so for example can fail the exam, but if your assessed work when added to it brings your overall module mark above 40% then you have passed the module.
You will only be asked by the exam board to resit modules if you have failed to achieve the above, or sometimes we may offer an optional chance to resit some of them if you have mitigation. If you have failed modules, but passed overall then you do have the option to "remedy failure" by taking a resit, and if you are asked to resit in order to progress, or resit to remedy failure, then your module mark for those resat are capped at 40%. I.e. you are asked to resit to demonstrate that you are ready to progress, not to increase your marks
Note, you will not be able to remedy failure in 100% assessed modules such as MA124 or MA117.
Year 2 Results
Again, these are largely all about progression, and progression whilst staying on the MMath (for those of you on the MMath). We do not classify students as first, 2.1 etc, but if you are applying for an internship or something you would be free to call 61% a 2.1 and your tutor would also do so in references.
For the second year the bar to progression is lower than the first, you need at least 40% overall and pass at least 90 CATS at 40%. There are no required cores, but if you do get over 40% and pass at least 90 CATS but fail too many core modules, we may still not allow you to progress and ask for resits. As before, we want to make sure that you are prepared for your 3rd year, and if you get over 40% and pass at least 90 CATS based on, say, WBS modules then you are not prepared.
To remain on the MMath, and not be transferred to the BSc at the end of your second year, we would normally require at least 65.0% in the best 90 CATS of maths modules. The exam board will look carefully at students that just miss out on this hurdle on a case by case basis, so if you score 64.2% on the best 90 CATS of maths but have been transferred to the BSc you can rest assured that the exam board has looked at your marks in detail and used academic judgement to come to a decision.
This year second years can also "remedy failure" with resits in September capped at 40%.
Year 3/4 Results
This is where the classification decisions are made, roughly speaking over 70.0% across all three or four years a first, over 60% a 2.1 and so on. If you are between e.g. 68.0 and 70.0 then you are borderline, and for us to promote you to a first we require your final year to be above 70% and at least 3 MA3/4 modules (BSc) or at least 3 MA4 modules (MMath) above 70% (with similar rules for lower borderlines, but only requiring two modules at above the borderline). For the MMath the project counts as one of these modules (even though it is worth 30 CATS not 15). Similarly at other borderlines but we require only 2 MA3/4 modules to be above the borderline in question.
For 3rd year MMath students the question is progression, where we require an overall 55% for the third year plus the weighted average of best 90 CATS of MA3/4 modules over 55%. If you do not reach these figures (in absence of mitigation) then I'm afraid you are considered for a BSc, with your 3 years reweighted as 10:30:60, and classified as above.
Note that most 4th Year MMath finalists have the revised covid year weighting of 0:20:35:45 applied (see course overview page).
Graduation Benchmark (to cover Covid affected 2nd year): the University Graduation Benchmark is active this year for a very small number of 4th years who have taken a period of temporary withdrawal in the "correct" year, this essentially looks at your second year as if it was only based on assessed work up to the exam period and recalculates a new overall average based on that and the three/four years being re-weighted appropriately. If this is greater than your normally calculated overall average then it is used instead.
Resit Exams
All resit exams this year are being held in the first two weeks of September (August 30th to September 12th). If you are resitting as a first attempt due to mitigation and subsequently fail in September, or wish to defer your exams due to mitigating circumstances, then your next opportunity to take exams will be next summer, until which you would be "not in residence", so not attending University but also not paying fees.
Resit Exam Boards will be held as soon as is feasible after the resits, but for those in first and second year results will come out very close to the start of term, so please be warned.
Mitigation
All mitigation is considered by a Mitigation Panel associated to each Exam Board.
For the first year, you need to pass the first year hurdles regardless of whether you have mitigation or not (so must still pass 90 CATS of maths and all the required core). However, if the mitigation is deemed severe enough we can ask for your resit exams to be as a Further First Attempt (FFA) which means the marks you get in the September Resits are recombined with assessed work and not capped at 40%.
For the second year, again, you need to pass the hurdles for progression and can be asked to resit as a further first attempt with mitigation. It can also be taken into account for continuation on the MMath, but we would still need to see sufficient evidence of results above the 65% level.
If you have progressed/stayed on the MMath it is possible that it will look like we haven't taken your mitigation into account at all. Mitigation is not used to change individual module marks, so indeed, if there is no decision to change, the mitigation will not affect anything. However, all mitigation is carried forward to your Final's Exam Board and will be taken into account there when we are considering your classification.
For the final year mitigation is used to inform decisions on classification and the Mitigation Panel will make recommendations to the Exam Board whilst keeping details of the mitigation confidential. The most standard processes are if a student is in a borderline to decide if the mitigation warrants raising above, and if a student is not in a borderline decide if the mitigation warrants considering them as a borderline student, in which case the above rules are considered. In both cases, even with mitigation, some evidence of performance at the higher level is still required. It's difficult to go into any more detail, since at this stage, for serious mitigation, we do have to consider the merits of individual cases and look at each one in the context of the mitigation.
Appeals
Under University regulations you can only appeal the decision of the exam board under specific circumstances, and only if they have either required you to withdraw, or you want to appeal a final degree classification. I.e. you cannot appeal against being asked to resit, or having been moved to the BSc from the MMath on the basis of your results (but in the latter, you can informally appeal to the Director of Undergraduate Studies if you have mitigation, promising to work harder is not mitigation). You can also not appeal against the academic judgement of the exam board, the only reasons for an appeal to be considered is if:
a) The student is in possession of evidence relevant to their assessment performance which was not available to the Board of Examiners when their decision was reached. The student must provide evidence of good reason for not having made the Board of Examiners aware of this evidence prior to the assessment decision;
b) There is evidence of a procedural irregularity in the conduct of the examination process; or
c) There is evidence of prejudice or bias on the part of one or more of the examiners.
https://warwick.ac.uk/services/academicoffice/examinations/students/appeals
In all cases you have 10 working days once results have been released in order to lodge an appeal, but in many cases (eg you have a missing mark for an exam you know you sat) you should contact the department as soon as possible (ugmathematics@warwick.ac.uk), or contact your Personal Tutor, and we may be able to investigate and sort out a lot quicker without going through the formal appeals process.