I´m doing a Modern Language Studies degree (B30) right now.
The B30 degree calls for 180 points at level 2 and 120 points at level 3. Having a look at other OU named degrees, this is pretty much standard. Oh well, fair enough. I still only need the same total points.
However, it had escaped my notice until recently (and I´ve been studying for this degree since 2005) that one of the level 2 courses isn´t counted in the degree classification. And I don´t mean that they only take your best two marks, I mean that whatever individual language track you choose, you have to do a level 2 (or optionally level 3) course that right from the very start doesn´t figure in your degree.
That just rankles a bit.
Grip over, discuss.
I think the OP is griping about the fact that an Honours degree requires 300 points of study at Level 2 and 3 but only 60 points of L2 study is used in the final calculation of degree classification.
I think this is two separate issues.
Needing 360 points to complete and Honours degree is the standard across all universities. Assigning point (or credit) values to courses allows (amongst other things) easy calculation of credit transfer between degree pathways and institutions.
The actual degree classification calculation, I think, varies from institution to institution. For example, my first degree from a brick uni was classified purely on me performance in Honours year; nothing from Years 2 or 3 were counted. If it had be calculated the same way as the OU, it would´ve been better as inclusion of Y3 results would have compensated for the not so great results in Honours year (partly due to huge personal issues during that year).
So inclusion of some of L2 allowed this compensatory effect for any L3 disasters. However, how much L2 study is included has to be limited or you would have people undertaking lots of L2 and only minimal L3 study to get a degree. This may (would probably) lead to people with degrees of good classifications but which would not be truly representative as they will be based on study at a level of less depth and difficulty. Thus, limiting inclusion to the best 60 points from L2 compensates for the open nature of the OU where people can study whatever they want.
Does this make sense?
(If I´m mistaken in any of this, please do correct me. Me being wrong is nothing new!)
Moira.x
Nial, I just had a read of your degree classification, and by my interpretation what it is saying is that you require 120 points from modules in the two foreign languages that you are taking, which could be the two level 3´s or two level 2´s.
It then says that your degree class will be sorted out based on 240 of the 300 points from levels 2 and 3. It isn´t saying that English doesn´t count, but that the grade of the lowest pass of the five compulsory courses will be discarded. English would only be discarded if it happened to be the lowest scorer.
In one sense this actually gives you a safety net that I don´t have in my degree where all compulsory courses count, so if I do badly on one course I either have to retake that course, or accept the fact that my degree will suffer directly as a result. That sort of gives a little ray of sunshine, perhaps? :)
I am doing 180 points at level 2, and only 120 are being counted. Not my best 120, because one 60 point course, despite being a set course, isn´t going to be used in the calculation.