Examinations

Mathematics students take most of their university examinations in Term 3 of each academic year. The scripts are marked, and, together with the marks for assessed work, the marks are processed to produce a Seymour percentage for each student. An examination board for each year makes recommendations and decisions based on these marks and other information. This section aims to inform students of the procedures used by the Mathematics Department and their effect.

Assessed Work

Most science modules at Warwick are assessed by written examination in Term 3 (although some examinations take place earlier) and an increasing number now have an assessed component too. A small number are assessed entirely by coursework. For example, the computing option MA117 Programming for Scientists and the third term applied option MA112 Experimental Maths are entirely assessed.

There is a University regulation about the number of modules containing an assessed component a student may take: At most 50% of a student's final degree total marks may accrue from methods of assessment other than conventional (that is, formally invigilated) examination. However, in practice, the Mathematics course structure makes it virtually impossible for students to infringe this rule.

(Pre-)Registration and Deregistration

Registering and deregistering is done on-line via the University's MMR (Online Module Registration) - see the link from the undergraduate web pages. Core , List A and list B options will be approved immediately on line. For unusual options you must register on-line and also fill in the unusual option form as described in section .

Each student is required to make a preliminary registration (or pre-registration) in advance for modules he or she wishes to take. First year students pre-register for the first time in Term 1, Week 3; all other students have already pre-registered during the third term of the previous year. The university uses data from pre-registration during the year to assess demand for particular modules and to assist in timetabling.

You have several opportunities to fine-tune your current selection of modules: there are registration sessions in Term 1, Week 3 and Term 2, Week 13 at which you can add or remove modules. For the final opportunity to deregister, see below.

All students (but especially those who scored less than 55% last year) are encouraged to discuss their choice of modules with their tutor. Where a low-scoring student submits an ambitious registration the Department may require further such discussion with a view to focusing the student's attention on a manageable programme.

Deregistration: You may deregister from an optional module, up to the deadline:

End of the last week of Term 2 for modules examined in April,
End of the second week of Term 3 for modules examined in May/June.

The Academic Office will not accept deregistration beyond the deadline except on medical or compassionate grounds approved by the chair of the department. (Note that this rule is agreed with other university departments, and we enforce it strictly.)

Note, you may not be allowed to deregister from a module for which you have submitted (or should have submitted) work counting for more than 10% of the credit for that module.This is particularly true for modules from departments other than Mathematics, and, in particular, if an exam occurs after deregistration has closed you will almost certainly have to sit that exam and have it count.

Taking the Examinations

Most University examinations take place in Term 3, normally

Weeks 6-8 of Term 3 for first years;

Weeks 7-9 of Term 3 for second years;

Weeks 5-7 of Term 3 for third and fourth years.

Third year and fourth year modules taught in Term 1 and the second year modules Algebra I, Analysis III, Combinatorics Geometry and Vector Analysis are examined in the first week of Term 3.

Examinations are held in Rootes Hall, Panorama Room and in the Arts Centre, Butterworth Hall, and in a number of other venues such as Engineering F110 or the Westwood Sports Hall. It's your responsibility to find out when and where the examination takes place; if you forget to go to an examination, your score is automatically zero.

Use of Calculators: Programmable and graphics calculators are prohibited in all Maths examinations. Moreover the default position is that NO calculators are allowed in Mathematics exams, unless the lecturer has specifically requested that they be allowed for the module that they are teaching, and then the only calculators permitted are those with a display consisting of a single row of digits.

Calculators are not permitted in exams or tests organised by the Mathematics Department unless you are explicitly told otherwise. Calculators with a display consisting of a single row of digits are permitted in exams run by other Departments (for example Statistics and Physics).

The Examination Boards and Degree Classes

The examination boards for the 3 or 4 years are somewhat different in composition and function. The first year board is a committee of the subfaculty of science, which considers maths students together with other science students. The subfaculty enforces resits, and meets again in September to consider the results of the resit examinations. The second year board is an internal Mathematics Department committee. The first year examination board divides students up into honours classes, but this is mainly as a guideline for students and their tutors, and has no bearing on the class of your final honours degree. The second year board does not divide the honours class. The third year board, which in practice awards University of Warwick degrees (legally speaking, it ``recommends'' the awards), is a Mathematics Department committee plus external examiners from other universities, who are there to ensure fair play and to see that academic standards are maintained.

The classes handed out by the examination boards are Pass, Honours Class 3 (III); Honours Class 2, division 2 (II.2); Honours Class 2, division 1 (II.1); and First Class Honours (I). Which class a student falls in is decided by a number of factors, and is sometimes only decided after complicated deliberations, but rough borderlines between the classes are 35, 40, 50, 60 and 70, so that (to first approximation)

Fail ,	Pass ,	III ,
II.2 ,	II.1 ,	I .

Don't take the numerical values literally. The examination boards are entitled to redraw the borderlines, students close to each borderline are carefully considered according to a number of different criteria, and every student in the pass and fail categories, and every student with a documented medical condition, is discussed as an individual case. In borderline cases, the examiners often check out the student's individual papers.

Results

Examination results are posted as a Class List in University House shortly before the end of Term 3. The information given on these published lists is the class (Pass Degree, or Honours Class III, II.1, II.2, or I) of the overall examination performance for finalists. In the second year you are just listed as

the latter indicating students who have not failed, but who have not achieved the honours standard. First year students are listed with a class except when required to resit certain papers in September. You may obtain your Seymour percentage and your marks on individual papers, together with advice on the next year's course, by going to see your personal tutor after theÊ Class List has appeared, or, if you leave before the end of the term, byÊ telephoning your personal tutor, or by leaving a stamped addressed envelope. SomeÊ tutors may send a report by reply to email.

Appeals: A student dissatisfied with the class awarded by the finals examination board may appeal through his/her Personal Tutor to the Chair of the Mathematics Department. Such an appeal must be based on information not available to the examination board (for example, a serious error of arithmetic, or a medical note made available to the Department but not passed on to the examination board). If you have cumulative credit 58.6% in your final year and think you deserve a II.1, then you can be quite sure that the examination board has already seriously discussed the merits of your case. Appeals may also be made to the University in certain circumstances - see Regulation 8.12 in the University Calendar.

As described in the University Regulations, a student required to withdraw has the right to appeal formally to the Appeals Committee of the Board of the Faculty, in writing, within 10 days of the publication of the examination results.

Resits for failed students

First year:

The first year examination board requires first year students with inadequate performance in the June examinations to resit certain papers in September. The intention of the resits is to ensure that students are adequately prepared for second year work. For each module the honours mark is 40%, and students may be required to resit any module in which an honours mark is not attained. Resits are normally required only in the Core modules (in fact usually a subset of the core, deisgnated as "main" subjects). Consideration of individual cases is complicated, and we cannot list here the rules the examination board works to. The overall performance of the candidate is crucial, in both the June and September exams.

Details of which papers students are required to resit are sent in July to the official home address registered by the student with the University. Make sure the address is correct.

In cases of extremely poor performance in the June examinations, there may be a recommendation to withdraw from the University. Our experience is that students performing at this level have very little chance of success, and encouraging withdrawal may be kinder than raising false hopes. However, it is only a recommendation, and a student in this position has a right to resit the examinations in September.

The three possible outcomes of the September resits are:

For the student who continues, the credit carried forward (the value of ) is the mark in the June examination (but with failed modules subsequently passed awarded 40%) and not the September resit mark. ( only accounts for 10% of the cumulative credit for the degree.)

There is a page specific to first year exam boards on the Academic Office's pages http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/academicoffice/examinations/fyboe/

Second year:

A student who fails the second year examinations has the right to resit the failed modules the following year. Resitting students spend a whole year out of residence and resit their exams in June of the following year. The mark carried forward for cumulative credit is that obtained at the first attempt (but with failed modules subsequently passed awarded 40%); therefore the function of the resit is to ensure that the student knows enough to cope with third year modules.

Third year:

A student who fails the final year examinations has the right to resit the failed modules the following year in an attempt to obtain a pass degree, without residence at the University. In this case, special papers will be set whenever module changes from one year to the next make this necessary.

The Pass Degree

All first year students entering the Maths Department are candidates for the honours degrees, and the majority will get honours marks in all 3 or 4 years. For some students, however, it turns out that the normal load is too heavy. The philosophy behind the pass degree is that students who fail to achieve the minimum honours target of 40% have probably overstretched their resources, and a lighter load may enable them to direct their energies more realistically towards a better understanding of fewer modules. The decision of the first or second year examination board

"Proceed to the second/third year of a pass degree course''

means that the student is compelled to take the reduced pass degree load specified in regulations. A second year pass degree student may be put back on the third year honours course as a result of the second year examination performance.

The Department may allow a pass degree student to take more than the pass load (but in any case not more that 120 CATS) if there is evidence that he or she is capable of the work; to be eligible for this, a second year student must submit at the end of Term 1 a file of work done for supervisions on the core modules. A third year student must pass the core module (for pass degree students) MA397 Consolidation.

The third year examination board may in any case award (sorry, recommend) an honours degree to a pass degree student. This decision is virtually certain if the student's cumulative credit mark (with Seymour percentage calculated on the basis of the normal honours load) is ≥40%. Similarly, a student whose average mark is ≥35% is virtually certain to get at least a pass degree, as long as they have in addition passed the required number of CATS at the 40% level.

Factors considered by the examination board

The Faculty of Science Conventions for Final Year Examination Boards may be consulted online at go.warwick.ac.uk/quality/categories/examinations/.

In coming to decisions under these Conventions about which overall degree class to award, the Mathematics Board takes the following factors into consideration:

I. The candidate's cumulative credit C and Seymour percentages during the course of his or her university career. The cumulative credit is used in drawing up the borderlines, and to determine which cases are on the borderline.

II. Any unusual circumstances, such as ill health. These normally have to be supported by documented evidence, such as a letter from a doctor.

III. Factors taken into consideration in borderline cases:

• For final degree results, candidates whose cumulative credit C is just below a borderline, but who have scored above the borderline in the final year, including above borderline performance in a sufficient number of final year mathematics papers, may be considered for promotion to the higher class.
• The relative performance in Mathematical and non-Mathematical modules.
• The `alpha count' (see below).
• To be awarded a First Class BSc degree it is normally necessary to obtain good quality marks on a number of third year Mathematics modules.

The precise Department examination guidelines and conventions for the Final Year Examination Board can be consulted here.

Alpha Count: Examiners of Maths modules give alpha marks for an outstanding answer to an examination question; an alpha is normally given for a ``substantially complete'' answer, scoring ≥19, but may apply to an answer which is not complete but shows unusual initiative or ability. A student's alpha percentage is the total number of alphas scored on final year Mathematics papers, divided by the number of final year Mathematics papers taken. A good alpha count is an indication that a candidate has learned a few things really well.

The reasoning behind points (a-d) includes considerations of the needs of research funding organisations such as the EPSRC. By giving a student a First, the examination board declares that he or she is capable of going on to a research degree (a II.1 carries the same message in other contexts), and (a-d) are relevant to this high standard.

The degree class awarded in borderline cases is not an automatic decision based in a simplistic way on any formula involving the candidate's cumulative credit, Seymour percentages, or other numerical data; thus a cumulative percentage of 70% or 60% over the 3 years does not in itself guarantee the award of a I or II.1 degree. Instead of this, the examination board uses its experience and knowledge of the course structure to award degree classes that reflect the quality of the candidate's performance, in terms of how the marks were earned.

Exam Flowchart

The figure summarises the information in the preceding paragraphs. Here the conditional branchings are inequalities involving the standard maths variables

and recommendations of the examination boards:

Prizes

Undergraduate prizes will be awarded for outstanding academic achievement. They will be judged by the appropriate Examination Boards that meet in the last week of the Summer Term.

Mathematics Department Prizes: Normally six prizes of £100 each will be awarded, two to second-year undergraduates, two to BSc finalists and two to MMath finalists. The criteria of merit will be broadly interpreted and may include a distinguished project or essay as well as an outstanding examination performance. The prizes may be shared and the prize money may be divided in other ways.

The IMA Prize: The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) offers a prize each year for excellent third-year examination performance. Preference may be given for a distinguished performance in examination papers with an applied flavour. The prize consists of free graduate membership of the IMA for one year, including the IMA journals and the choice of an IMA monograph.