ATAR Notes: Forum

Uni Stuff => Universities - Victoria => University of Melbourne => Topic started by: xdecay on July 03, 2013, 06:32:01 pm

Title: Appealing a subject result
Post by: xdecay on July 03, 2013, 06:32:01 pm
Hi there,

I would like to know more about the process of appealing for a subject result and was hoping this forum would help.

The result for this subject came out just today and I'm incredibly disappointed about it. I've been a H1 student for this subject since my first semester of taking it and my effort and performance on other assessable aspects for this subject were no different than previous semesters.

What riles me is that I'm aware that there are other students who achieved lower results in the midsem, tute participation marks and oral yet they attained a far higher mark in the end.

My concern is that there may be some error in academic judgement within the assessment, and I've heard that this occurs quite often in UOM. So far I've emailed the subject coordinator about making an appointment to review my exam. I've read some information on ask.unimelb regarding the issue but would like your input on how I should approach this. Also, if there are any firsthand experiences please do share.

Thanks in advance. :)
Title: Re: Appealing a subject result
Post by: Peedles on July 03, 2013, 07:15:37 pm
Hi there,

I would like to know more about the process of appealing for a subject result and was hoping this forum would help.

The result for this subject came out just today and I'm incredibly disappointed about it. I've been a H1 student for this subject since my first semester of taking it and my effort and performance on other assessable aspects for this subject were no different than previous semesters.

What riles me is that I'm aware that there are other students who achieved lower results in the midsem, tute participation marks and oral yet they attained a far higher mark in the end.

My concern is that there may be some error in academic judgement within the assessment, and I've heard that this occurs quite often in UOM. So far I've emailed the subject coordinator about making an appointment to review my exam. I've read some information on ask.unimelb regarding the issue but would like your input on how I should approach this. Also, if there are any firsthand experiences please do share.

Thanks in advance. :)

See how you go with the feedback at the appointment first before you think of appealing a subject result (if you are not happy with their feedback then ask them to further clarify). 9/10 you may have found that you just didn't perform as well on the day. Yes, mistakes can happen, but rarely. I totally understand the disappointment of getting H1's and then having it broken by a H3 during my undergraduate degree.  However, comparing yourself to other students who have received lower marks before/previously and implying that you should have done better than them in their exams because of it is not cool.

You've emailed them and that's all you can do for now.

Title: Re: Appealing a subject result
Post by: Russ on July 03, 2013, 07:34:31 pm
In my experience, errors of academic judgement are generally gross errors where the wrong box has been ticked and a mark is falsely recorded (eg 55 rather than 85). If your mark was only slightly below what you expected, I would personally be extremely surprised to find it is because there was an error in assessment, where appealing will be beneficial. This is especially true for subjects that have subjective assessment (orals etc.)
Title: Re: Appealing a subject result
Post by: xdecay on July 12, 2013, 04:41:45 pm
See how you go with the feedback at the appointment first before you think of appealing a subject result (if you are not happy with their feedback then ask them to further clarify). 9/10 you may have found that you just didn't perform as well on the day. Yes, mistakes can happen, but rarely. I totally understand the disappointment of getting H1's and then having it broken by a H3 during my undergraduate degree.  However, comparing yourself to other students who have received lower marks before/previously and implying that you should have done better than them in their exams because of it is not cool.

You've emailed them and that's all you can do for now.



Thanks for your rational analysis, Peedles.

I was wrong being 'not cool' for comparing myself with other students, but in a tight cohort like mine it isn't difficult to judge others' abilities and predicting what marks we'll get, especially since it's a language subject.

Unfortunately, I was indeed the 1/10 students who were wrongly marked and my suspicion was indeed warranted since my mark was rectified from a H3 to a H1 after I discovered that they accidentally marked my essay out of 20 when it was supposed to be out of 10 in an exam viewing session.

The disappointment of getting H1's and then having it broken by a H3 is pale in comparison to the disappointment when you know you were suppose to get a H1. ^_^
Title: Re: Appealing a subject result
Post by: psyxwar on July 12, 2013, 04:59:44 pm
Thanks for your rational analysis, Peedles.

I was wrong being 'not cool' for comparing myself with other students, but in a tight cohort like mine it isn't difficult to judge others' abilities and predicting what marks we'll get, especially since it's a language subject.

Unfortunately, I was indeed the 1/10 students who were wrongly marked and my suspicion was indeed warranted since my mark was rectified from a H3 to a H1 after I discovered that they accidentally marked my essay out of 20 when it was supposed to be out of 10 in an exam viewing session.

The disappointment of getting H1's and then having it broken by a H3 is pale in comparison to the disappointment when you know you were suppose to get a H1. ^_^
Woah gratz. Pretty amazing how you were able to continue believing in yourself!
Title: Re: Appealing a subject result
Post by: MJRomeo81 on July 12, 2013, 05:15:46 pm
Always appeal if you feel you have a legitimate case :)

Well done xdecay on the H1 :D
Title: Re: Appealing a subject result
Post by: Peedles on July 12, 2013, 07:52:36 pm
Thanks for your rational analysis, Peedles.

I was wrong being 'not cool' for comparing myself with other students, but in a tight cohort like mine it isn't difficult to judge others' abilities and predicting what marks we'll get, especially since it's a language subject.

Unfortunately, I was indeed the 1/10 students who were wrongly marked and my suspicion was indeed warranted since my mark was rectified from a H3 to a H1 after I discovered that they accidentally marked my essay out of 20 when it was supposed to be out of 10 in an exam viewing session.

The disappointment of getting H1's and then having it broken by a H3 is pale in comparison to the disappointment when you know you were suppose to get a H1. ^_^

Glad everything worked out in the end :)


Title: Re: Appealing a subject result
Post by: pi on July 13, 2013, 01:43:53 am
Split random misc chat misc chat split

Please, this is an educational forum lol
Title: Re: Appealing a subject result
Post by: xdecay on July 14, 2013, 12:56:18 am
Thanks guys, appreciate the support. :)

Unfortunately this wasn't the first time experiencing a major error at UoM. D:

I applied for a mid-year transfer in 2012 from Arts to Commerce since I hadn't met the BCom pre-req of methods (regrettably didn't take methods in VCE) and had to do an equivalent subject during the first semester. I was sure that I was going to get an offer since not only that I passed the maths subject but also obtained a high average, though unfortunately I didn't receive one during the offer round. After contacting several admins and finally reaching someone who was in position to check the issue and provide help, I was told that there was a mistake and my uni results for the first semester wasn't recorded in the VTAC system, meaning that I was deemed a school leaver and never started uni under student number, or something ridiculous along those lines, so I couldn't be transferred since it would've seemed as if the maths pre-req was still unmet. Anyway, I was lucky I had someone who promptly solved the issue and received the offer before the semester started. :)



tl;dr: As prestigious as UoM may seem, mistakes can happen. Always follow up and double check on things if you feel the need to. Also, I hope these types of errors don't occur to anyone ever, nobody deserves to be unnecessarily agitated over this stuff haha.
Title: Re: Appealing a subject result
Post by: simpak on July 14, 2013, 02:36:35 pm
UoM admin = awful at all times, just as a general rule.