Withdrawing from a subject

[andy456]

Ok. So I've tried to stay with this subject but I just can't. It is draining the life out of me and to be honest I have no idea what is going on in it. I've stuffed up the assessment already and I am 100% likely to fail.
As I understand it, if I withdraw now I have 'withdrawn fail' on my transcript. Does this matter?
Will it have any bearing on me in the future.

Thanks.
And also how do I withdraw from a subject

[slothpomba]

You should talk to your faculty advisors.

Withdrawn Fail will show on your transcript.

It will also have an impact on your GPA calculation. The subject is counted as a fail, which is the lowest GPA contribution you can get - http://www.monash.edu.au/exams/gpa-wam.html .

So, caution if you need your GPA for anything (Postgrad med, ect).

It shouldn't affect your WAM heaps...it really depends. WAM is just the simple average of all the subjects you've taken so far. So, Say i got:
Chem:80
Bio:89
Philosophy:43
Math:54

They simply (80+89+43+54)/4. To get your WAM, by the end of this year i assume you would of taken 8 units so its now (80+89+43+54+x+y+z+w)/8 and that equals your WAM. As you can see it works out a lot better. The GPA is kind of a silly scale in my opinion, it assigns arbitary values to grade ranges rather than the actual grade you received. A fail will really bring down your GPA, it isn't a fatal event though. It'll smooth out in later years with good marks. It won't be as hard on your WAM assuming you've done alright so far in the subject you intend to drop.

To be brutally honest, if you think you will fail it, thats your own self assessment, i won't doubt you or try encourage you. If you think its an uphill battle and you've done pretty bad already i'd just cut my losses and write the subject off, drop it. If you're going to do bad either way it hardly matters and at least if you drop it you can focus on your other subjects a bit better. That said, even if you stayed in and put in minimal effort, you would get a higher mark than dropping out now. Surely, you'd get at least a couple things right on the exam with no study or extra time input. So, thats another valid option, continuing it. 3rd option is pull up your socks and work 110% at it and hope for the best.

Do tell us what you choose, just out of interest anyway.

I also recommend you read this - http://www.monash.edu.au/enrolments/change/unit-discontinuation-penalties.html .

[Eriny]

Unless there is some hope that you can improve (and here, you have quite a lot of resources to help you - the tutor, lecturer, others taking the course, etc.), the question is really, which is worse on a transcript, 'fail' or 'withdraw fail'? I think 'withdraw fail' is better, because it won't be clear to people looking at your transcript why you withdrew (though they could probably guess).

As common as failing is in uni (especially in first year), it's worth noting that it's also common for people to think that they are going to fail and don't. Have you failed other pieces of assessment or did you just get low scores for them? Moreover, if you do fail, does this course offer alternative assessment so you could get a pass conceded? What level of failure are we talking about here (would you get between 45-49, or will it be closer to 0)? You don't have to answer the questions here, but these things all should have some bearing on your decision.

[slothpomba]

Well, it depends just how close he is to failing. At monash its extremely common for the exam to be 40-60% of the total mark for first year units (usually 50-60% from what i've seen).

If you're close to passing i think you shouldn't drop it right now. Even if you show up and with what little knowledge you have score a bit on the exam it could push you over. However, i guess you're best in place to make this assessment. This requires relatively little effort on your part, assuming you know enough to get a decent mark (eg not like 0-30%). A 'pass' looks a hell of a lot better than 'fail' or 'withdrawn fail'. This is up to you though...

[andy456]

I'm definately going to get less than 40. I was more worried about whether a fail or withdrawn fail would look better, and considering the circumstances I'm gunna have to go with the withdrawn fail. And as much as I would like to think I have a chance of cramming so hard that I will pass I won't. Thanks for your advice. Gunna have to go speak to Arts people on tuesday then.
Its a stupid subject anyway.

[slothpomba]

I just remembered this the other day, if you withdraw, you will need to make up an extra subject at the end of your degree. So, either you overload, do summer semester (limited range of subjects) or stay there for an extra semester.

You need an X amount of credit points/units done to be able to graduate. It's essentially (as far as im aware) 3 years full load, so 3 years * 8 subjects a year. Obviously if you want to be more technical you can do that on credit points, this is only really necessary if you do units that are worth more credit points than usual or go for longer than a semester which i doubt you are. So, if you withdraw, you only would of been counted as doing 7 subjects this year. You need to make up the shortfall somewhere. Same situation as where someone fails a unit, they need to make up the shortfall.

http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/2011handbooks/courses/0002.html You need 144 credit points. Credit isn't granted for withdrawn/failed units as far as im aware. The vast majority of units you'll ever encounter in your degree are 6 points. So, 144/6 = 24. 24 Units which is the same as i said above (the 3 years of 8 subjects a year).

I wouldn't worry too much though, i'm also in this situation. A fair amount of people switch to part time/intermit/fail/withdraw from their course or units and have to make up the shortfall.