Understanding your marksheet

1. Assessment Criteria

The OCA assessment criteria is used by assessors to ‘grade’ the work a student submits for assessment, utilising the grade bandings and range statements to do this.

1.1. Grade bandings

Below are the bandings used across all undergraduate courses nationally:

• First (1)
• 90 - 100
• 80 - 89
• 70 - 79
• Upper Second (2.1)
• 60 - 69
• Lower Second (2.2)
• 50 - 59
• Third (3)
• 40 - 49
• Fail
• 30 - 39
• 0 - 29

1.2. Range statements

• 90–100 Exceptional, extensive, deep level
• 80–89 Outstanding, accomplished, in-depth level, highly confident
• 70–79 Excellent, confident, comprehensive level
• 60-69 Very good, thorough, strong level
• 50-59 Good, sound, competent, growing level
• 40-49 Reasonable, adequate, basic, broad level
• 30-39 Limited, rudimentary, surface level, narrow, incomplete
• 0-29 Inadequate, poor, little or no level

2. Summative mark

Assessors will award a number for each of the assessment criteria, which will then be added together and averaged to establish an overall summative assessment mark for the unit.

This mark at Stages One (HE4) and Two (HE5) will help to give an indication of the progress a student is making and indicate the potential they have for their final degree classification.

Only the summative marks awarded at Stage Three (HE6) will affect the final degree classification, and the mark for each unit has equal weighting.

Moving to The Open University, the way in which degree classifications work is changing.

The Open University uses a different system of classification to UCA, with Stage 2 (HE5) results counting towards overall degree classifications as well as Stage 3 (HE6) results. This is at a 1:2 ratio, so in other words, results at Stage 3 are worth twice as much towards your overall mark as Stage 2 results. 

2.1. Passing

All work needs to have met the learning outcomes to pass. A summative mark of 40 or above is required to pass.

2.2. Failing

If assessment outcomes are incomplete or the work has not met one or more of the learning outcomes, then a student can fail.

A mark of 30-39 represents a partial fail, in which specific elements are missing or below the standard to pass. A mark of 30 or below represents a more fundamental fail in which a considerable amount of work is missing or below standard; this is also called an irretrievable fail.

Ordinarily, if you do fail at assessment you will be offered the opportunity to resubmit for a capped mark. This means that the maximum mark you could then achieve is 40, or a pass mark. If the Board of Examiners consider that you have an irretrievable fail at assessment, you will not be offered an opportunity to resubmit. 

If you do have an opportunity to resubmit for assessment this must happen at the next available assessment event. 

3. Summative feedback

Summative feedback is an important concluding point to the end of your course. It is there to help reflect on what has been assessed, and provide pointers to how you might progress. Summative feedback should be well-grounded, constructive, and challenging.

• Well-grounded - your feedback should reference the work presented for assessment.
• Challenging - it should provide clear and achievable pointers on how you can develop beyond the course through your feedforward.
• Constructive - your feedback needs to balance a supportive tone of voice with honest scrutiny of the work. It is important to receive a critique of your work alongside a clear sense of what you can do to improve.

3.1. Exercise: Making use of your assessment feedback

1. Undertake your own self-evaluation of your work. You may want to re-read your reflective presentation or evaluation to help you. How would you mark yourself against the assessment criteria?
2. Take some time to compare your summative feedback with your own self-evaluation; what are the similarities and differences?
3. Do you understand the feedback? Consider sharing your feedback with a fellow student on the forums to help unpack it together.
4. What are you taking from your summative feedback and self-evaluation? Draw up a set of key themes or aims you would like to develop. You may want to share these with the tutor on your next course unit.

4. The new marksheet

This guidance is specifically for students who have been assessed at the OCA prior to the start of the academic year 2021/22.

Following the introduction of the new OCA assessment criteria, our marksheets have been reformatted into one standard form that can be used across all undergraduate stages regardless of level and course unit. This differs to the previous marksheets given the use of multiple assessment criteria across various OCA course units.

The new marksheet still contains aspects that were present in the previous form:

• A personal details table which confirms the details of the submission that was assessed, such as student name and number, course unit being assessed, degree programme enrolled to, confirmation of resubmission etc.
• An overall comments and feedforward table.

Aspects that have changed in the new marksheet form include:

• The table that contained the assessment criteria, range statements, weighted summative marks and final mark has been replaced by a new set of tables.
• As the new OCA assessment criteria no longer makes use of weighted marks per criteria, the column for these marks has been removed.
• References to the different assessment criteria's informing the final mark are no longer used as the new OCA assessment criteria is used across the board.

We hope that this clarifies what has changed in the marksheet and what has remained the same.