Assessments and examinations
Final Year
1. BSc degrees
For students who registered in September 2013 the award of an Honours Degree in the School of Biological Sciences involves assessment of first year units (10% of total), second year units (30% of total), and final year lecture/practical units, project/practicals and examinations specific to a particular Degree Programme. For examination purposes, all your final year work is divided into 12 units, each contributing 5% (total 60%) to the final degree marks. The precise allocation of these units to different types of work will vary between Degree Programmes but will fall within specific guidelines. The allocation of marks is as follows:
| First year | 10% |
| Second year: | 30% |
| Final year: | |
| Special Programme Problem/Essay papers | 10% (2 units = 20 credits) |
| Lecture/Practical units | 30% (6 units = 60 credits) |
| Research Project and literature review | 20% (4 units = 40 credits) |
(See Section Degree Programme requirements)
Note: For students who first registered in September 2012, the split of assessment will be 33% of the total for second year units and 67% of the total for final year units. This will give a split of 11.7% for special programme problem/essay papers, 33.50% for lecture/practical units, and 22.33% for the research project and literature review.
a) Students on four-year BSc degrees (with industrial/professional experience or with a language) are assessed on their work in the year away from the University. This contributes an additional 10% to make a total out of 110% i.e. the placement report is calculated as contributing 10 marks out of 110 (10 from yr1 + 30 from yr2 +60 from final yr +10 from placement report); this is then scaled down to 100 to give a percentage.
For example: the calculation for a student who achieved the following marks in each year would be:
Yr1 = overall mark of 67
Yr2 = overall mark of 65
Placement report = overall mark of 71
Final yr = overall mark of 72
(10% of 67) + (30% of 65) + (60% of 72) + (10% of 71) = 76.5/110 * 100 = 69.5%
If the mark for the report is anywhere below 40%, this does not mean that transfer back to the three year degree will occur since all credits for the placement year are awarded for the successful completion of the placement. A referral for a failed report is also not possible since the assessment is at final level. Reversion to the three year honours programme will only occur in the exceptional circumstances where a placement could not be completed to the satisfaction of the examiners, or other reasons such as illness.
b) Combined honours degrees
For all students on a combined honours programme (i.e. Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology and Biological Science degrees with a language) who commenced their studies on or after September 2012, their psychology or language units are combined with their biological sciences units.
Master of Neuroscience degree (registered prior to September 2015)
Master of Neuroscience students must gain an overall average of no less than 50% and marks of at least 40% in 2/3 of total credits including all non-compensated units and at least 35% in the remaining 1/3 credits. A student who fails to progress to the final year of the programme will not be reassessed but instead will be considered forthwith for the award of the Degree of Bachelor of Science.
| First year | 6% |
| Second year: | 19% |
| Final year: | |
| Special Programme Problem/Essay papers | 6.25% (2 units = 20 credits) |
| Lecture/Practical units | 21.875% (7 units = 70 credits) |
| BIOL30822 & BIOL31661 | 9.375% (3 units = 30 credits) |
| Fourth Year | 37.5% |