Scraping a Pass

I received the results from one of my modules from last semester. I've already had my results from two other modules and I was looking at a possible first if everything else went well, realistically though I was probably looking to get a solid 2:1.

Then I got this grade back. Wow, it really ruined my day, I did a little better than expected on the assignment but bombed the test. Thankfully my assignment marks put me over the pass mark but just barely. I'm not happy at all with this grade.

Part of me wants to rage at the system. This was a level 6 module and a hard one at that. I'm currently taking the level 5 module that's supposed to build up to this one. This is the result of years of scheduling and re-scheduling the modules until this was the only fit, it's a major fault of the school, and one that they're rectifying next year, but I can't really blame the school. These things happen with teachers and awards coming and going over the years. However having taken these modules out of order I feel has undermined me, and everyone else on the award. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the basics of the subject while being taught about the much, much more advanced applications and techniques. It was very frustrating.

All in all though I had plenty of help. I plagued my tutors during this module and I was just happy to have a working application to submit for my assignment in the end.

My study technique failed me tremendously for the exam. The module covered a lot of very complicated subjects over a a fairly short period of time. I didn't understand a lot of the basic stuff so I focused on those for my general study and then looked to the past exam papers for my more focused revision. I revised for two days solid and was fairly confident when I sat down to take the exam. However, the tutors went for a complete re-write on the exam this year and virtually nothing that had been on any of the past papers appeared on this exam. So I basically sat the exam almost completely unprepared.

Worst case scenario this bumps my degree down to a third class, which is horrifying. If I get solid firsts this semester I can maybe scrape a 2:1 which would be fine. So far I'm doing extremely well in two modules and not as well in the other two so I'll just have to wait and see how it goes but I'm optimistic but this is going to be hanging over my head for for the next two months, especially come exam time.