C. Instructions to Examiners

These instructions describe the general procedures to be adopted in the preparation of marks for return to the Board of Examiners, and the procedures to be followed by the Board of Examiners. The procedures are in accord with the University Regulations 2001/2002. Details of modules may be found in the Handbooks for First Year Students, Second, Third and Fourth Year Students and in the booklet on Modules Offered to Students taking Degrees outside the School. Spare copies of the handbooks are available from the General Office. Marking allocations will be notified in a separate document for each Semester.

1. Responsibility

The Board will decide the final examination marks for all undergraduate examinations for which it is responsible, namely all MAS modules except MAS003, MAS161, MAS162, MAS163, MAS164, MAS165, MAS182, MAS184, MAS185, MAS186, MAS218 and MAS618. The Board will decide the final examination results for all students registered for degrees offered by the School of Mathematics and Statistics, including classifying final year students.

All School of Mathematics and Statistics teaching staff will be considered to be examiners for each module. Responsibility for processing and initial scaling of marks will be delegated to at least two examiners for each module, usually all the markers for the module, or, if there is a single marker, the marker and checker.

The Chairman of Examiners and two Heads of Department shall meet, once all the marks are available, to discuss the marks on each module. Where necessary, marks may be referred back to individual examiners.

2. The Return Mark

(a) The mark which is returned to the Board of Examiners, for each module, will be on the University-agreed common scale:

See Section E for meanings of the various mark ranges.

All examiners are reminded that

(A) the performances of all candidates are to be adjusted (i.e. scaled), as appropriate, to bring the marks of each component (see 2(b)) on to this scale;

(B) marks above 85 will be awarded only in very exceptional circumstances;

(C) Stage 0 and 1 modules are to have their marks adjusted, as necessary, to bring them on to the non-Honours scale (remember that these marks may be used, in other degree programmes, to contribute to the Honours classification).

See Section F for guidelines on scaling. In particular, please note the arrangements for MAS102, MAS111, MAS121 and MAS131 (where scaling is discussed at a meeting convened by the Stage 1 Team Leader).

(b) The examination mark, the in-course assessment mark and any test mark(s) or project mark are each separately adjusted (as in 2(a)) to bring them on to the common scale. These marks are then combined in the agreed ratios, as given in the various handbooks.

Note In MAS003, MAS102, MAS111, MAS121, MAS131, MAS211, MAS221 and MAS231 a mark is obtained for each Semester. In the case of MAS003, the final returned mark for the course should be obtained as a simple average of the Semester 1 and Semester 2 marks.

For the other courses listed, the final returned mark is a simple average of the Semester 1 and Semester 2 marks, provided that the Semester 1 and 2 marks are each at least 30; if either of the Semester 1 and Semester 2 marks is below 30, then the final returned mark is the lesser of 34 and the average of the Semester 1 and Semester 2 marks.

3. Resit Examinations

Except for the Statistics components of MAS003/052/055/161/162 it is our practice not to include in the calculation of final marks for resit exams: ICA, Test or Project marks. However, if the inclusion of a combined coursework mark would improve the overall mark, it should be so used; examiners should indicate clearly on the list of return marks how coursework marks have been used. Some courses (listed above) have a Statistics component examined entirely by coursework (including tests). In these cases students may opt to carry forward their coursework and test marks, or they may take the appropriate resit test (in which case the Statistics component will be based entirely on the test).

A student who sits an Extraordinary examination, which is therefore not a resit because of failure, normally has a final return mark based on the original ICA, Test or Project marks.

In January and June, external candidates can usually be identified by an "E" next to their name on the Candidates' list from the exam room; an unexpected candidate with a student number from earlier years may well be an unregistered external candidate. Please ask OHK if you require help identifying external candidates or locating coursework marks from previous exams.

4. Arrangements for Marking

As a general principle, at least two members of staff will be involved in the processing of marks for each paper.

Category 1: Most papers have a single setter. For most of these (but there are exceptions) the setter will be responsible for marking the paper, collating marks in accordance with the instructions above, and returning marks in the prescribed format to Jill. The person who checked the paper when it was set will often be the checker here too : responsible for checking the marked scripts (to ensure that all material is marked and the marks are correctly transcribed to the front of the script), for checking the totalling, checking the scaling (if any) and, in consultation with the marker agree the return mark for each candidate.

Category 2: Some papers have more than one setter. Here each setter is often responsible for marking their own questions, but some variations are indicated. The starred setter is also the starred examiner and responsible for collating marks and returning marks to Jill. The starred examiner should ask another examiner to check the marked scripts (to ensure that all material is marked and the marks are correctly transcribed to the front of the script) and to check the totalling of marks. All the examiners on the paper should agree the scaling.

Category 3: Some papers have a single setter but a large number of candidates. Here the setter is the starred examiner and a colleague is allocated to help with the marking. It is envisaged that the assistant marker will undertake the proportion of marking indicated (default: ½) but examiners are free to make their own arrangements and consult Heads of Departments if necessary. Responsibilities are then as in Category 2.