ATAR Notes: Forum

Uni Stuff => Universities - Victoria => University of Melbourne => Topic started by: Faith-PoweR on April 17, 2014, 05:12:03 pm

Title: Fail rate
Post by: Faith-PoweR on April 17, 2014, 05:12:03 pm
Hi guys, are we able to find out the fail rates for the subjects?
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: hobbitle on April 17, 2014, 05:15:51 pm
I'm interested in why this information matters so much to students? Sorry I can't help you though.
Sometimes lecturers have given stats on the subject at the start of the course but not always.
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: simpak on April 17, 2014, 09:57:07 pm
If you're worried about the fail rate (enough to seek this info) you generally don't really have to worry about failing...trust me.
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: charmanderp on April 24, 2014, 05:41:25 pm
If you're worried about the fail rate (enough to seek this info) you generally don't really have to worry about failing...trust me.
Unless it's Chem 2. I know so many people that spent too much time worrying about the obscene Chem 2 fail rate and not enough time studying...
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: simpak on April 25, 2014, 06:58:22 pm
But it's not even that obscene when you consider that the typical fail rate for most Sci subs is like around 20%.
So like, 33% for Chem 2 or whatever they say it is seems ridiculous but it's only a moderate increase.

I feel like I have answered OPs question now rather than just making some annoying witty remark, darn.
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: charmanderp on April 25, 2014, 08:44:57 pm
But it's not even that obscene when you consider that the typical fail rate for most Sci subs is like around 20%.
So like, 33% for Chem 2 or whatever they say it is seems ridiculous but it's only a moderate increase.

I feel like I have answered OPs question now rather than just making some annoying witty remark, darn.
Yeah 33% really isn't that bad, I'd heard it was much worse. All the hype around it probably inflates the numbers from story to story...
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: LeviLamp on April 25, 2014, 09:41:43 pm
A prac demonstrator in Chem 2 told a student that the "50% fail rate" story was "complete bullshit", and that only something over 20% of students usually fail, but nothing close to 50%. It's way less than some of the first year maths subjects last year, I'd be more worried about them personally :v >50% of people failing Calculus 2 in Semester One was crazy, I'm glad I didn't take it.

To address the OP, if you just study hard, you're not going to fail :) Easy peasy (well, not really, but straightforward)!
Title: Fail rate
Post by: hobbitle on April 26, 2014, 12:41:30 am
Wtf where did you hear this????

It's true. It happened when they stopped the MST component of calculus 2. I think both students and lecturers didn't quite realise how dramatic effect getting rid of the MST would have on the pass/fail rate. The following semester was better (when I took it) because the lecturers were on our backs more.
Literally half my tute was repeating and two guys were on their third attempt.
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: ChickenCh0wM1en on April 26, 2014, 12:46:34 am
It's true. It happened when they stopped the MST component of calculus 2. I think both students and lecturers didn't quite realise how dramatic effect getting rid of the MST would have on the pass/fail rate. The following semester was better (when I took it) because the lecturers were on our backs more.
Literally half my tute was repeating and two guys were on their third attempt.

It definitely doesn't help that the exam was 80% of the total mark. And sem 2's exam was quite the killer!
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: LeviLamp on April 26, 2014, 12:58:27 am
First year maths in general has a really weirdly high failure rate, especially the two calculus subjects. You'd think they might consider restructuring the subject to motivate students more and/or make it more straightforward. Even Calculus 1's exam was really, really hard in comparison to the assignments/tutorial questions/problem book.
#retrospectivegriping
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: vox nihili on April 26, 2014, 01:08:49 am
One of the coords told me that if they get a fail rate over 20, they get really pissy with the coordinator and any fail rate over 15 is too high.
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: Special At Specialist on April 26, 2014, 01:11:43 am
Meanwhile, maths at RMIT is a joke. The exams are never worth more than 50% of the overall mark, and one subject doesn't even have an exam or tests. It's all just assignments and weekly labwork.
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: simpak on April 26, 2014, 01:40:50 am
Yeah but it's RMIT so what were we/you expecting?
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: LeviLamp on April 26, 2014, 01:48:32 am
simpak laying down the sick burns
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: sluu001 on April 26, 2014, 01:57:46 am
RMIT Commercial Law - Fail Rate 54% (2011)
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: Special At Specialist on April 26, 2014, 02:37:59 am
RMIT Commercial Law - Fail Rate 54% (2011)

Wow! That's really shocking, especially given the fact that it's a compulsory subject for the most popular degree at RMIT. I don't know if the students are at fault or if the course coordinator is at fault, but that really needs to change...
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: sluu001 on April 26, 2014, 02:50:23 am
Students fault - by week 7; there were like 30 people in the lecture hall.
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: hobbitle on April 26, 2014, 10:09:55 am
I kept the pace with the workbook through semester, did about 8 practise exams and all the extra textbook questions and tute questions twice. My final grade was 75% which was not super high relative to the cohort but that exam was pretty messed up (general consensus). It is absolutely an easy to fail subject. It was only 50% that first semester - it wasn't to bad the second semester.
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: Stick on April 26, 2014, 12:19:21 pm
This makes me nervous for Mathematics for Biomedicine and Experimental Design and Data Analysis. :/
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: LeviLamp on April 26, 2014, 01:13:25 pm
I hear they're fairly easy to get H1s in, and they also apparently scaled the marks for Mathematics for Biomedicine last year???
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: EspoirTron on April 26, 2014, 01:21:18 pm
I don't know what the fail rate of Monash Maths units are; however, I do hear that there is a substantial jump between the problem set difficulty and exam difficulty. On another note, I don't know if in Calculus 1 you're allowed to bring in your notes for the semester, but they just cut that this year for the Calculus 1 equivalent unit at Monash.
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: ChickenCh0wM1en on April 26, 2014, 01:23:39 pm
I hear they're fairly easy to get H1s in, and they also apparently scaled the marks for Mathematics for Biomedicine last year???

Not just that, apparently there is a huge exam buffer ? Apparently you could get say, 100/120 and still get 100% for the exam.
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: LeviLamp on April 26, 2014, 01:33:02 pm
You were never allowed any notes. If I'd had mine available to check a spontaneously forgotten formula, I would have done so much better with my exam nerves, oh my god D:
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: golden on April 26, 2014, 02:23:55 pm
Not just that, apparently there is a huge exam buffer ? Apparently you could get say, 100/120 and still get 100% for the exam.

I know there is a 20 mark buffer for Experimental Design and Data Analysis, but I don't know about Mathematics for Biomedicine (I didn't do Mathematics for Biomedicine because that was introduced for the 2013 cohort; I did Calculus 2).

Also I think that the 20 mark buffer also has scaling on top. Eg. Those who get 99/98/97 etc probably got a higher score, but it was brought back a bit to being scaled accordingly, otherwise it would have too many people getting 100s. But without the buffer there would probably be quite a few more fails.
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: kaybee94 on April 26, 2014, 03:36:59 pm
I found maths for biomedicine a lot easier than vce maths exams (i.e. methods and specialist)
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: ChickenCh0wM1en on April 26, 2014, 03:53:50 pm
I know there is a 20 mark buffer for Experimental Design and Data Analysis, but I don't know about Mathematics for Biomedicine (I didn't do Mathematics for Biomedicine because that was introduced for the 2013 cohort; I did Calculus 2).

Also I think that the 20 mark buffer also has scaling on top. Eg. Those who get 99/98/97 etc probably got a higher score, but it was brought back a bit to being scaled accordingly, otherwise it would have too many people getting 100s. But without the buffer there would probably be quite a few more fails.

The scaling for biomedicine subjects is very interesting. For example, with first year biology subjects, there seems to be a large number of people who get 88s.

Yeh sorry, got mixed up with Maths for biomed and data :(
Title: Re: Fail rate
Post by: Shenz0r on April 26, 2014, 04:00:20 pm
This makes me nervous for Mathematics for Biomedicine and Experimental Design and Data Analysis. :/

It's actually pretty hard to fail these subjects. To fail in EDDA you need to get less than 50/120 for the exam, assuming you half-mark all of the other assessments throughout the semester. Maths doesn't have a buffer but as long as you've done the work, you should do well anyway