I’ve just been playing around with the grade calculator used to decide whether we pass or fail third year medicine. It’s a complicated setup as it amalgamates the grades from all rotations and all exams and weights them appropriately.

We are graded as Meritorious (should be the top 5%), Satisfactory (the great majority ~80%), Borderline (~10%) and Unsatisfactory (>5%). We pass the year if we get satisfactory or better overall.

So I decided to input some random grades into the calculator to see what you need to be getting during the year to get what overall grade. It turns out the system uses so many roundings that it is grossly unfair. Here are two examples

Both students achieved grade S in all written and practical exams (end of year and December).

Student A 

In Course rotation grades:

Number of Merits: 0
Number of Satisfactorys: 6
Number of Borderlines: 41

Overall Grade: Satisfactory

Student B 

In Course rotation grades:

Number of Merits: 36
Number of Satisfactorys: 9
Number of Borderlines: 2

Overall Grade: Borderline

It all seems pretty shocking. I plan to confirm this by e-mail with the faculty to ensure I’m not making a mistake but if I’m right things need to be changed.

Student A – Grade Calculator (.xls)

Student B – Grade Calculator (.xls)