4.2 4.2.1
ASSESSMENT FOR HIGHER CERTIFICATE AWARD The award of a Higher Certificate may be at a Pass, Merit (Merit Grade1, and Merit Grade 2) or Distinction. To be eligible for an award at Pass classification, a candidate must: (a) satisfy all the examination requirements, credits and other requirements for the course as specified in the Approved Course Schedule, and, (b) pass the final examination as a whole, by attaining a GPA of 2.0 in accordance with Marks and Standards of HETAC.
4.2.2
To be eligible for consideration for an award at Merit, Distinction classification, a candidate must: (a) satisfy all examination requirements, credits and other requirements for the course specified in the Approved Course Schedule, and (b) have attained a GPA in the award stage of the course in accordance with the requirements in the Table below , and (c) pass the final examination in the case of full-time candidates, at the first attempt and in one sitting or in the case of part-time candidates, by virtue of passing in each required examination module of the award stage at the first attempt.
4.2.3
Where reassessment is undertaken for an award, successful candidates shall be eligible for a Higher Certificate award with a Pass classification only.
4.2.4
The GPA required for award classification is as follows:
HIGHER CERTIFICATE Pass Pass with Merit – Grade 2 Pass with Merit – Grade 1 Pass with Distinction
GPA REQUIRED 2.0 2.5 3.00 3.25
4.4 4.4.1
BORDERLINE CASES Notwithstanding the above provisions, an Examination Board may consider as a borderline case, any candidate presenting for an award, whose GPA is within 0.10 of any of the above thresholds, provided the candidate has achieved full credits in all prescribed modules.
4.4.2
Where a candidate’s GPA is below the minimum pass threshold or the number of credits gained are insufficient for a particular award as a result of Grades D or F in particular modules then: (a) only those modules where a grade D or F has been recorded can be repeated, or
(b)
if any of the modules referred to in (a) above are elective modules, then other modules may be taken to enable a student to pass in the examination as a whole.
REASSESSMENT REGULATIONS 5.1 5.1.1 RESSASSMENT REGULATIONS Normally, if a candidate is unsuccessful in the assessment of some or all of the modules for the year of a course, the candidate shall be permitted three further attempts at the unsuccessful assessment(s) following the first attempt. These further attempts shall normally be at the next available sitting(s). 5.1.2 A candidate who does not avail of one of these attempts is deemed to have exhausted one such attempt, except where extenuating circumstances prevent the candidate from attempting the assessment, in which case an application for a deferral should be made by the candidate by completing an Extenuating Circumstances Form. 5.2 5.1 REASSESSMENT FOR PROGRESSION A candidate who is unsuccessful in some or all of the assessments for progression shall normally be entitled to be reassessed in the failed assessments at a supplementary examination prior to the commencement of the next academic year. 5.2 A candidate who is unsuccessful in an assessment may be required to repeat attendance of the year of the course prior to re-assessment.
5.3 5.3.1
REASSESSMENT FOR AN AWARD A candidate who is unsuccessful in some or all of the assessments for an award shall normally be entitled to be reassessed in the failed assessments at the supplementary examination prior to the graduation event.
5.3.2
A candidate who satisfies the requirements for the award at reassessment shall be eligible for the award with Pass classification only.
5.3.3
A candidate who is unsuccessful in an assessment may be required to repeat attendance of the year of the course prior to re-assessment.
5.4 5.4.1
CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT In the case of a candidate being referred in an examination, marks awarded on the basis of continuous assessment, shall, normally be carried forward from the original examination to the supplementary examination and shall be aggregated with the marks scored in the latter to determine the total marks to be awarded in respect of the referral.
5.4.2
In the case of a candidate who re-attends a year of a course, the marks to be awarded shall be those gained in both written examination(s) and continuous assessment elements by virtue of the re-attendance.
5.4.3
In the case of a candidate whose results are liable to be jeopardised by the carry forward of poor continuous assessment marks, alternative assessment arrangements may be approved by the Examination Board, in lieu of the continuous assessment. The results of such candidates at the supplementary examination shall be based on the marks awarded for the alternative assessment combined with supplementary examination result.
5.4.4
In the case of a candidate who has been unsuccessful in the assessment of a module and who applies for reassessment in that module, the College may make alternative assessment arrangements where the module is no longer available.
COMPENSATION REGULATIONS 6.1 6.1.1 PASS BY COMPENSATION Compensation is the procedure whereby an Examination Board permits a candidate’s overall assessment performance to compensate for partial failure. Compensation may be applied only to enable a candidate to pass the assessment as a whole; it may not be applied to grant exemptions or additional exemptions. Compensation may be applied in any year of any course. 6.1.2 A candidate who does not achieve the required pass standard in one or two of the examination modules in an Examination, may, nevertheless, at the discretion of Examination Board, pass the examination by compensation. Compensation may be applied on the following basis, at the discretion of the Examination Board: (a) where the examination consists of five or more Examination Modules, compensation may apply in the case of two, (b) in the Alphabetic Grading Scheme, while a Grade D is the minimally acceptable performance in any individual module, an average performance at Grade C (GPA 2.0) over the entire course is required to pass an examination as a whole. Therefore, in general a Grade D will need to be compensated for by sufficient grades higher than Grade C in individual modules, (c) the marks obtained in the module(s) being considered for compensation must not be lower than 35%,
(d)
the pass standard must be reached in the remaining Examination Modules requiring to be passed,
(e)
compensation can only apply where all the Examination Modules appropriate to a year are presented at the same sitting,
(f)
compensation may be applied only to enable a candidate to pass in the examination as a whole. It may not be applied to grant exemptions or additional exemptions.