Your module guide says the exam is worth 60%. That is 60% of the module, not of your degree. To see what the exam is really worth you need three more facts: the module’s credits, the credits in your year and the year’s weight in your degree. Multiply them through and a frightening 60% usually turns into a few per cent.
The sum
Write the exam weight as a decimal (60% is 0.6) and the year weight as a percentage, and the answer comes out as a percentage of your degree. A full-time year is usually 120 credits. Your year weights are in your programme handbook or classification regulations, and our guide to year weighting explains the common schemes.
Worked example: a second-year exam
Jane Doe has a January exam worth 60% of a 20-credit module, in a 120-credit second year. Her degree weights second year at 33% and final year at 67%, the most common split among the universities we have checked.
The same exam in her final year, which counts 67%, would be worth 10% × 67 ÷ 100 = 6.7% of her degree. Twice as much, because the year counts twice as much.
What one mark on the exam is worth
The shares tell you what a single mark does at each level. Each mark Jane gains or loses on that exam moves:
- her module mark by 0.6
- her year mark by 0.1
- her degree average by 0.033.
So 10 extra marks on the exam add 6 to the module, 1 to the year and a third of a mark to the degree. A bad day that costs her 20 marks costs about two thirds of a mark overall (20 × 0.033 = 0.66). That matters near a class boundary, but it does not decide a degree on its own.
A bigger exam in a bigger module
Now take a final-year exam worth 70% of a 30-credit module. It is 0.7 × 30 ÷ 120 = 17.5% of the year, and with the year at 67% it is 17.5% × 67 ÷ 100 = 11.7% of the degree. Each mark on it moves her degree average by about 0.117, so 10 marks is worth more than a whole mark (1.17). That is the exam to plan around.
The same exam at different universities
Year weights differ. Here is Jane’s second-year example (a 60% exam in a 20-credit module, so 10% of a 120-credit year) under the weights we have checked for each university:
Bristol’s science, engineering, health and life sciences courses use 25 / 75 instead, which makes the exam 2.5% in second year and 7.5% in the final year. The weights come from each university’s regulations: University of Bath, Bournemouth University, University of Bristol, University of Exeter, King's College London, University of Leeds, University of Nottingham, University of Westminster. Some set them per course, so check that yours matches.
First-year exams
At every university in that list, first year counts 0% toward the degree class, so a first-year January exam is worth nothing to your classification. It still has to be passed, because the credits are what let you into second year. Our guide to the pass mark at university covers what passing takes, and the “first year doesn’t count” myth covers why the marks still matter in other ways.
When the share is not the whole story
- Exams with their own minimum. A 3% share does not help if the exam must be passed on its own. Miss that floor and the module fails, whatever its average.
- Rules beyond the average. Some universities look at the spread of your marks at a borderline, or leave out your weakest credits, so one low mark can matter more or less than its share. See borderline classifications.
- Modules that carry on after January. If more work is due later, the January exam is one part of what is left. Use the weight printed in the module guide, not a guess.
Use the number
Knowing each exam’s share lets you rank them, which is the first step in planning revision around assessment weights. Then work out what you need on each one: the free exam mark calculator gives the mark you need on an exam to reach a module target, and the university grade calculator shows how your modules add up to a class.
