Student Handbook - Moodle Book

ASSESSMENT, EXAMINATIONS AND DEGREE CLASSIFICATION

Assessment methods

There is a variety of methods of assessment in the School.  Most modules are assessed by a written examination and by coursework, which is submitted during the year and counts for a percentage of the marks. Some modules have no written examination, but are assessed by essays and projects. Class presentations or quizzes may also be part of the assessment.  A few modules have only a written examination. In all cases you should check the details with the Module Organiser and be sure that you fulfil all obligations and meet all deadlines.  Failure to complete any part of the assessment (such as by not submitting a piece of coursework, or missing a written examination) will result in a mark of 0% for that item, which may lead to failure of the whole module.

 

Language of assessment

In the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film, content modules in the language departments (e.g. modules other than the core language modules) may be taught either in English or, where appropriate, in the ‘target language’, so that a German literature module might be conducted in German, a French culture module in French, etc.

Where a module is taught in English, all coursework must be written in English.  However, you may write in English or in the ‘target language’ in examinations.

Where a module is taught in the target language, the language of assessment will be at the discretion of the Module Organiser, and you should consult him or her for guidance.

Written examinations

Attendance at all examinations is compulsory. You must ensure that you are properly registered for all your modules, including those which do not have a written examination. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are registered for the correct modules.  You have a final opportunity to make amendments at the start of Semester 2, in consultation with your adviser and the School Office.  Please note, however, that you cannot withdraw from a module which has already taken place.

You must inform the Registry if there are any dates during the Examination Term when you will not be available for religious reasons. You will have an opportunity to do this at the start of Semester 2.  You will then be able to view your individual timetable shortly before the Easter vacation via MySIS: as well as giving you the dates, times and locations of your written examinations, this is also your final opportunity to make sure that you are properly registered for all of your modules. Oral and aural examinations normally take place in the first week of the Examination Term and are timetabled by the School. You must check the relevant noticeboard before the Easter vacation for your times.

To ensure fairness, examinations at Queen Mary are taken anonymously. You must write your student number in place of your name on your examination scripts.

You must take care to follow the instructions on examination papers. If you do not do so, you will be penalised. This may lead to a mark of zero for a question inappropriately answered. In particular, you must not recycle assessed coursework in an examination answer.

 

Coursework

Coursework may take many forms: essays, projects, practical worksheets, translations, quizzes, presentations.  It can be either ‘assessed’ or ‘required’, and you should be sure that you know which applies to each piece of work.

Set work may be ‘required’, which means it will not count towards your final mark, but it is a requirement of the module that you produce it. You will find the marks and feedback that you receive for it useful in gauging your progress. Failure to submit such work may result in your being de-registered from the module. If that is a compulsory or core module, such as a language module, you may be unable to continue with your studies.

Assessed coursework can count for anything up to 100% of your final mark for a module.  Submission of all assessed coursework is compulsory and failure to do so may result in failure of the whole module. If you hand in a piece of coursework after the deadline, without an agreed extension, your mark for that piece of work will be pegged at 40%. Work handed in more than two weeks late will receive a mark of zero. Please note that any mark given for assessed coursework remains provisional until it is confirmed by the Examination Board at the end of the academic year.

Handing in coursework

Coursework should, unless you have good reason, be word-processed, and you must ensure that you keep a copy of each piece of work you submit, whether or not it is word-processed.  From 2013/14, submission of assessed coursework is via QM+ only. Only electronic submission, through QM+ can be accepted. No hard (paper) copies are required.

The submission deadline for all coursework is 4pm on Wednesdays, regardless of the day your class usually takes place.

Please ensure that you upload the correct document before the deadline when you submit coursework. Uploading the incorrect document by mistake is NOT considered as Extenuating Circumstances and if it leads to your submission being late, it will incur the usual late penalty.

Late submission will be penalised unless you have obtained permission for an extension to the deadline. Extensions must be requested before the deadline. Permission for an extension for assessed coursework can be granted ONLY by the relevant Senior Tutor (see Extensions to assessed coursework deadlines under § 4.2 EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES).

Plagiarism

The Queen Mary Regulations on Assessment Offences state that plagiarism is ‘presenting someone else’s work as one’s own irrespective of intention. Close paraphrasing, copying from the work of another person, including another student, using the ideas of another person, without proper acknowledgement or repeating work you have previously submitted without properly referencing yourself (known as ‘self plagiarism’) also constitute plagiarism.’ 

Plagiarism includes submitting the work of someone else as your own, with or without their knowledge or consent; using Essay Mills or ghost writing (getting someone else to write your coursework for you); and extensive copying from someone else’s work without proper referencing. Copying from the internet without acknowledging the source is also plagiarism. You may use brief quotes from the published or unpublished work of other persons, but you must always show that they are quotations by putting them inside quotation marks, giving the source and listing the work in the bibliography (see Writing essays under § 2.2 THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE). It is also plagiarism to summarise another person’s ideas or judgements without reference to the source. 

 

Plagiarism is not only unethical and poor academic practice, but when discovered will result in very serious consequences for you. It is often very easy for Academics to spot plagiarised work, and you should be aware that as well as relying on our own expertise, we also make use of plagiarism-detecting software. At the very least, discovery will lead to a mark of zero for the piece of work involved. It may lead to a mark of zero for the whole module, or to a more severe penalty, such as the invalidation of all examinations taken that year. Avoid it at all costs.

 

The best way to avoid the risk of plagiarism is first of all to make sure that when you take notes you write down full details of the source (author’s name, title of book or article, website address, notes you have made during lectures). You then list these in your essay, as references for particular points and as entries in the bibliography. Take care if you are cutting and pasting information between two documents, and ensure that references are not lost in the process. Be particularly careful with quotations and paraphrasing, and be sensible in referencing ideas – commonly held views that are generally accepted do not always require acknowledgment to particular sources. However, it is best to be safe to avoid plagiarism.

 

To copy an author’s words without indicating that you are quoting is the most blatant form of plagiarism. But even to put someone else’s ideas into your own words, with or without indicating where the ideas come from, can count as plagiarism. You should use other people’s ideas to develop your own views. This means that you will think actively about what you are doing, and not simply amass material in an uncritical, passive way. It will help you constantly to analyse what you are reading, deciding what material is most important for your essay and your argument.