Assessment

For most SoMaS Level 1 modules, you are examined by a written examination held at the end of the appropriate semester and, in some cases, also by assessed coursework. Details of the form of assessment to be used in each module, how much work is involved and the proportion each part counts towards the final mark will be announced in the first week of the course. Nearer the time of the examinations you will be given advanced notice of the examination rubric in each module and told how to access examples of past papers. Marking of examinations is done anonymously.

You will be given your grade for each of your modules on a scale from 0 to 100. The results of first semester assessments will be given to you as early as possible in the second semester. The results of your second semester assessments will be available probably around the middle of July. The way the grades on the 100–point scale correspond to degree classes is as follows:

70–100 : Class I

60–69 : Class II(i)

50–59 : Class II(ii)

45–49 : Class III

40–44 : Pass

1–39 : Fail

You receive credits for each module that you pass (that is, on which you receive a grade of 40 or more).

Typical examinations in SoMaS involve several questions each of which will have components of at least some of the following types:

• explanation of theory developed in the module;

• standard problems solvable using methods seen in the module;

• more difficult unseen problems requiring knowledge of the module but also requiring some original thought.

Students’ scripts are assessed using a strict and detailed marking scheme, usually based on method and accuracy marks. The primary criterion is correctness, whether it be of calculation, method or explanation. This produces a set of raw marks, which is then scaled, using the judgement of the examiner, to the University’s 100 point reporting scale. The scaling is subjected to a scrutiny process.

Examination papers, including the past papers to which the students have access in advance, carry the distribution of marks between parts of questions.

The internal checker (and, for modules at Level Two and above, the appropriate External Examiner) for each examination paper are provided with copies of the module’s objectives/learning outcomes, and these are also distributed to students. The internal checker is asked to complete a proforma indicating how well the paper assesses the learning outcomes.

Examiners are required to follow procedures to ensure the completeness of marking and the accuracy of addition on scripts. The School conducts checks to see that these procedures have been adhered to.

Before the Final Year Examiners’ Meetings, final year scripts of border-band candidates are often looked at by the appropriate External Examiner.

Students have the right to see their examination scripts after they are marked; this generally takes place around Week 3 of Semester 1 (for the previous session’s June exams) and Week 6 of Semester 2 (for the January exams).

Failure to attend an examination without adequate reason will result in a grade 0 being awarded. If you have good reason to miss an exam due to circumstances beyond your control, you need to fill in an Extenuating Circumstances Form (see information here on how to fill out this form). If the circumstances are medical and you are registered with the University Health Service (UHS), note what it says about filling in the electronic (or mobile app) version of the form and submitting it for UHS to add the documentation, and also that the doctor needs to have seen you while you are ill. In all other cases, please take the completed form and any other supporting documentation to SoMaS Reception in F10 as soon as you reasonably can.

If you become ill during an exam, please tell an invigilator.

Excuses such as misreading the timetable or oversleeping are not acceptable as reasons for absence, but any student who misses an exam for such a reason should report to SoMaS Reception in F10 as soon as possible.

All unauthorized material (such as revision notes, books, etc.) must be left outside the examination hall. This includes notes on scraps of paper. Students should ensure that their pockets are empty of such notes before entering the examination room. Students must also ensure that there are no written notes on their hands when they enter the examination hall and must not write on their hands during an examination. For further details of examination procedures, students should consult the General Regulations relating to Examinations, available here.

Failure to hand in assessed coursework on time without good reason will result in the imposition of a penalty in accordance with the University’s Penalties Policy. Late submission of a major piece of assessed coursework, such as a project dissertation, will usually result in the deduction of 5% of the total mark awarded for each of the first 5 ‘University Working Days’ by which the submission is late; work submitted even later than that will receive a mark of 0. For pieces of assessed coursework that contribute only a small percentage of the overall assessment, the Faculty of Science has given the School approval to operate a policy of ‘zero tolerance’, under which any late submission receives a mark of 0.

Module leaders have the power to award dispensations in cases where the lateness was caused by certifiable medical problems or severe personal circumstances; requests for such dispensations should be made as soon as the problem is known, in writing or by e-mail to the module leader; students making such requests must also complete an ‘Extenuating Circumstances Form’ and hand it in at SoMaS Reception (F10). See information here relating to requesting extensions.

Students who have an impairment or condition that can make it difficult to undertake study-related tasks should contact the Disability and Dyslexia Support Service to explore the additional support that can be offered, such as special arrangements for examinations. This service is located in the Alfred Denny Building (see here).

It is not uncommon that illness or family difficulties of some kind will, at some point, affect your ability to complete assessed coursework on time, or your ability to revise properly for specific examinations, or your ability to even attend specific examinations. In all such cases you must:

• Complete an Extenuating Circumstances Form available online detailing the relevant dates and the coursework/examinations/modules affected and hand this in at the Hicks Student Support Office. See this page for further information on completing your form.

• If the circumstances are medical, and you are registered with the University Health Service (UHS), note what it says about filling in the electronic version of the form and submitting it for UHS to add the documentation, and also that the doctor needs to have seen you while you are ill.

• If you do follow these procedures, then we will be able to take your adverse circumstances into account for assessment purposes. For example, if you miss an examination because of your adverse personal circumstances, then you could be given the opportunity to take the examination at another time, without prejudice to the assessment process.

• If you fail to follow these procedures, then we will have no knowledge of your adverse circumstances and will not be able to take them into account in any assessment. For example, absence from an examination without an approved EC form will always result in an NC (‘Not Completed’) grade, and you cannot progress until you have taken the resit for that module.

It is essential that students suffering long-term personal difficulties complete an Extenuating Circumstances form each semester to ensure that consideration of their continuing problems is not overlooked. Any student with a disability or medical condition, for which they have a Learning Support Plan for, should still complete an Extenuating Circumstances form if assessment/exams are negatively affected by a deterioration/fluctuation of their condition(s). Students with LSPs will not routinely be considered in Extenuating Circumstances meetings if no form has been submitted.

Students studying on a Dual Degree programme should ensure that an Extenuating Circumstances Form is submitted to both of the departments involved in their programme. If you are taking unrestricted modules in another department and those modules are affected by extenuating circumstances, you should submit a form to each department where necessary."

For further information on submitted extenuating circumstances, please see this page.

Avoiding Collusion and Plagiarism

i) When preparing essays, projects or other work, you will read widely and become familiar with the work of others. You should ensure that the materials you prepare for submission would be accepted as your own original work. A lecturer or tutor who is assessing your work is interested in your understanding of an idea and you should use your own words to demonstrate your understanding. The selective quoting of material from books and articles is permissible, but the material must always be attributed to its sources by means of quotation marks. In assessed essays, a footnote or brackets naming the author and the title of the text plus the dates of publication would be required, as would a bibliography that provides full references of all the material consulted or used.

The basic principle underlying the preparation of any piece of academic work is that the work submitted must be your own original work. Plagiarism and collusion are not allowed because they go against this principle. Please note that the rules about plagiarism and collusion apply to all assessed and non–assessed work, including essays, experimental results and computer code. Cutting and pasting from web sites would also be considered unacceptable.

Plagiarism is passing of others’ work as your own, whether intentionally or unintentionally. The work can include ideas, compositions, designs, images, computer code, and, of course, words. This list is not exhaustive. The benefit accrued could be, for example, an examination grade or the award of a research degree.

1. 1. If a student submits a piece of work produced by others, or copied from another source, this is plagiarism.

   2. If a student produces a piece of work which includes sections taken from other authors, this is plagiarism, unless the source has been attributed as outlined above. The length of the copied section is not relevant, since any act of plagiarism offends against the general principle set out above. When copying sections from other authors it is not sufficient simply to list the source in the bibliography.

   3. If a student paraphrases from another source without the appropriate attribution, this is plagiarism. Paraphrasing should use a student’s own words to demonstrate an understanding and accurately convey the meaning of the original work, and should not merely reorder or change a few words or phrases of the existing text.

   4. If a student copies from or resubmits their own previous work for another assignment, this is self–plagiarism, and is not acceptable.

ii) Collusion is a form of plagiarism where two or more people work together to produce a piece of work all or part of which is then submitted by each of them as their own individual work.

1. 1. If a student gets someone else to compose the whole or part of any piece of work, this is collusion.

   2. If a student copies the whole or part of someone else’s piece of work with the knowledge and consent of the latter, then this is collusion.

   3. If a student allows another student to copy material, knowing that it will subsequently be presented as that student’s own work, then this is collusion.

   4. If two or more students work on an assignment together, produce an agreed piece of work and then copy it up for individual submission, then this is collusion. When producing a piece of work arising out of group work, students should seek the advice of the tutor setting the assigned work regarding the acceptable limits of collaboration.

iii) Both plagiarism and collusion are strictly forbidden. Students are warned that the piece of work affected may be given a grade of zero, which in some cases will entail failure in the examination for the relevant unit or research degree. The student may also be referred to the Discipline Committee.

iv) You should follow any guidance on the preparation of material given by the academic department setting the assignment. If in doubt, consult the member of academic staff responsible for the unit of study. There is unlikely to be any objection to you discussing the subject of an essay or project with fellow students in general terms, or to quoting from various sources in the work submitted. However, if you have any problems with an assignment you should always consult your tutor, who will give general advice and help.

* This has been extracted from the University's Notes for Candidates on Non–Invigilated Examinations here.

The rules for progression are given below and apply to the January and June exams taken together:

1. You may proceed to level 2 without any resit if you have obtained 120 credits in your level 1 courses.

2. If you have fewer than 120 credits but at least 100 credits and you have no mark below 30, then progression to level 2 is at the discretion of the Board of Examiners; this is unlikely to be given in the event that a core module has been failed. The examiners may, at their discretion, recommend that you be awarded a conceded pass on the basis of your overall performance in the examinations. This is a concession, not a right: if the examiners do not make this recommendation, then you must retake all the modules that you failed.

3. If you have fewer than 100 credits or have a mark below 30, then you will be required to resit ALL your failed modules.

4. If you have one or more ‘Not Assessed’ or ‘Not Completed’ modules, you will be required to resit these and any failed modules.

Students on the MMath Mathematics with a Year Abroad must obtain, at the first attempt, an average of at least 59.5 at Level 1 to be permitted to progress to Level 2 of that programme. Those who do not meet this requirement will be transferred to the MMath Mathematics.

Students on the MMath Mathematics with Study in Europe or one of the three MMath with French/German/Spanish Language degrees must obtain, at the first attempt, an average of at least 59.5 on the MAS modules at Level 1 to be permitted to progress to Level 2 of those programmes. Those who do not meet this requirement will be transferred to the BSc of their programme, to the BSc Mathematics with Study in Europe, or to the MMath Mathematics or BSc Mathematics.

Students on the MMath Mathematics with Study in Europe or one of the three MMath with French/German/Spanish Language degrees must normally obtain at least 55 in the MLT units at Level 1 to be permitted to progress to Level 2 of those programmes. Students who do not meet this requirement will be transferred to the MMath Mathematics or BSc Mathematics.

This section is included for information, though it is hoped that you will not need to refer to it.

If you are required to resit any examinations, you will be informed of the arrangements by the University at the same time as you receive your official examination results from Student Services which will be some time in July. Usually you will be required to pay a fee. If you are not obliged to resit a failed module but still wish to do so, then you must contact the Registration and Examinations Office, Level 6, University House, and ask to register for the resit examination.

Students who have failed a module at Level 1 may resit on no more than two subsequent occasions. The maximum module mark that can be obtained on resit is the pass mark of 40.

You will need a calculator for certain examinations and for tests during the semester, and you will probably need one for Problems Classes too (see Section 2). Lecturers will inform classes when this is the case. However, certain calculators — mainly those with a text retrieval facility (which includes many calculators with a graphical display) — are not permitted for use in examinations or tests. During the first semester therefore you will need to get your calculator officially approved for examinations. Approval takes the form of a check of the calculator at the Student Services Information Desk (SSiD) in the Students’ Union, and the issue of an official sticker to signify approval. You will therefore need to take the calculator to SSiD during the Autumn semester. Calculators on smartphones are not permitted in exams. Mobile phones are NOT permitted in any examination venue.

If you are thinking of buying a new calculator, it may be advisable to delay until you have had the chance to check the list of University–approved models.

Walker Prize in Mathematics

The prize was founded in 1950 through the generosity of A G Walker, FRS, Professor of Mathematics in the University from 1947 to 1952. It was named in his honour in 1958.

• Frequency of award: One annually.

• Value of prize: Books to the value of £50 selected by the prize winner and approved by the Head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics.

• Eligible candidates: Level One students taking the programmes of study in Mathematics and Statistics.

• Assessor: The Head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics.

• Criteria for assessment: Course work in Mathematical subjects and performance in the Level One Examination in Mathematics and Statistics.