by Iolo Savill

Created on: March 26, 2007   Last Updated: May 02, 2007

I just wanted to point out a couple of things about the #1 article on this topic by Laura Claire-Wales. Firstly, it's "honours" or "honors" not "honour's" nor "honor's". I'm quite surprised that an English and American Literature BA (Hons) graduate didn't know this. In fact I think knowing this should be one of the criteria to receive a degree with honours. Secondly I think your understanding of the system used in England is, at the least, confused. At the university I went to (University of Nottingham) an honours degree was just awarded to those students who didn't have to retake any modules. As I studied two subjects equally at university I was given a Joint Honours (Jt Hons). Whether you had to retake any modules depended on your overall average for the year and whether the fail(s) was(were) 'hard' (0-29) or 'soft' (30-39). You could afford more 'soft' than 'hard' fails. Whether your degree was honours or not did not affect your degree classification which could be a first, a two-one, a two-two or a third, and was primarily based on your overall average from each module. The approximate boundaries for these grades at Nottingham were 70+ (first), 60-69 (two-one), 50-59 (two-two), 40-49 (third), and 0-39 (fail). If you got just below or above the boundary then your degree classification could be changed at the university's discretion. Sometimes this would involve an oral examination (a 'viva voce') or just the opinion(s) of your tutor(s). In my experience people only had their classification improved. It is common for the first year of your degree not to count towards your degree classification (a pass is all that is required), your second year to make up 30-40% and your final year the rest. There is a lot of local variation in this, however. I believe this system of classification is present at almost every British university. One other thing to mention is that for many subjects (particularly arty subjects) full marks is equal to 80 not 100. Half of my degree (the physics part) was marked out of 100, the other half (the philosophy part) out of 80. This is just a tradition.

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