yeah, getting above a 75 (a strong 1:1, magna) is extremely hard here. mostly because in the humanities, if you turn in a top-rate piece of work, they're normally only likely to mark it just a few marks above 70, the basic limit for the 'top' grade. as i said earlier, anything above an 80 then represents something of publishable, peer-review quality. anything above 90 is kind of starting to imply a sort of 'perfection' or total satisfaction that really just isn't possible in the humanities style classical 'essay' (essay etymologically deriving from the word for 'attempt'...). so it just doesn't happen. people mostly covet a 60-70 in the system over here, 65+ if you want a 'strong' or 'safe' grade. that's a 2:1, the standard 'good' pass (merit i guess you'd call it in systems with a pass/merit/distinction schema; something like a solid A- or 3.7GPA). almost all graduate-career jobs and career advancements will require a 2:1, but that's it. the 1:1 is just extra icing on the cake for particularly strong candidates. the magna/summa prizes are normally handed out here so infrequently, and only for such academic prowess, that they function more as academic sponsorships than concrete career benefit. most people who get them end up being lured by scholarships to postgraduate research.
Last edited by Uzique The Lesser (2013-04-19 03:38:38)