Practical Assessments: Marks are awarded for completing the practical units, the end of unit examination (BIOL10401/10412/10422) and for completing written coursework.

Satisfactory attendance is also required. For both practical units BIOL10401 and BIOL10412/10422, this is defined as attending at least 80% of the practical sessions (which includes completing prelab work online). Penalties will be applied for unsatisfactory attendance (under 80%) and attendance of less than 50%, for any reason, will result in automatic failure of these units, resulting in a referral practical exam during the May/June exam period. For the EDM practical units, each unmitigated absence will incur a penalty of 10%. If you miss part of this assessment through illness (see Section Absence due to illness affecting attendance at compulsory classes/tutorials), the examiners may base your overall mark for the unit on the marks for the remaining pieces of work that you did complete.

Failure to complete the Writing and Referencing Skills module BIOL10741 satisfactorily (>70%) will result in a failure of BIOL10000 and will require a re-sit assessment (online) to be completed during the summer vacation.

RSM Attendance guidelines

Students are expected to attend all scheduled RSM sessions on time (N.B. Health and safety information will be delivered at the start of practical sessions, and students who are not present at the start may be asked to leave the lab). Students who arrive late will be marked as absent for that session.

Failure to attend a session (an unauthorised absence) will result in a 10% (i.e. 10 mark) penalty being applied to the overall RSM mark (i.e. a student obtaining a mark of 65% overall will instead receive a mark of 55%). Furthermore, any students who miss a practical session will not receive a mark for any associated post-lab assessment (N.B. this mark will be removed before calculating the average post-lab mark to avoid a student being penalised twice).

Further absences will result in further penalties (i.e. 2 absences = a penalty of 20% (as described above)).

Mitigation for absences

If there is a good reason for not attending a session then students should contact the Student Support Office (and RSM coordinator) at the earliest opportunity (and ideally before the session has commenced). Please see Work and Attendance regulations in the Level 2 handbook (https://handbooks.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/2019-20/sbs/undergraduate/level-2/). Any permitted absences will NOT be subject to a penalty, but students who miss a practical session will not be expected to complete the post-lab assessment (this mark will be removed from their overall average mark).

N.B. An absence may be permitted in advance of the session if it has been agreed with the RSM coordinator. However, if an absence is not reported until after the session then it is up to the mitigating circumstances panel to decide whether or not it is permitted.