40% becomes the new 34%

Changes in the pass mark for students registered under the NEW 2011-12 regulations.

This year we have introduced New Regulations. These regulations are for some new students only. New students studying in a teaching institution should find out urgently whether they have been registered on the old or the new regulations. New Students not studying in a teaching institution will be automatically registered under the new regulations (all those registered since 1st January 2011). For these students there have been significant changes to the regulations, including the pass mark and the way that students can process through the degree.

Transfer to the new regulations is not be possible for students on the old regulations.

Please note: if you are a continuing student or have registered under the OLD regulations in 2011-12, this will not immediately apply to you.

To bring the EMFSS programmes into line with the LSE, we have adopted a change in the pass mark from 34% to 40% from summer 2012.  

This change will bring our programmes into line with the majority of other UK undergraduate awards which operate with a 40% pass mark.  This means there will no longer be a Pass category in the marking schemes for our degree course and all students will be required to achieve a ‘pass’ at the honours level of 40.  The rationale for this change is the desire to encourage students to achieve honours standards in their examinations, as they do at the LSE.  The previous Pass category will only be available for those few students who, at classification stage, fail two courses and would have otherwise been awarded a third class honours degree.

Given this is a major change to the programme regulations for existing students, the current 34% pass mark will continue until summer 2016.  By this point students need to have either graduated or completed their programme of study, or will be automatically transferred to the new regulations and continue on the 40% pass mark.

All Honours class boundaries remain unaltered, as illustrated in the single Marking Scheme published in the new regulations.

Our advice to all students in working towards their examinations is to know your subject, work hard and aim high!

John Ferrá

Head of the LSE Office for the University of London International Programmes.

 

 

 

Happy holidays to all!

It is that time of year again when the office closes down for Christmas and New year and the Study Weekend draws near.

Office closure

The LSE office for University of London International Programmes will close from the afternoon of Wednesday 22nd December until the morning of Tuesday 4th January 2011. You may of course continue to write to us and we will endeavour to get back to you as soon as we return to the office. Please refrain from sending repeat enquires over this period as this will slow down the response time.

Study weekend 2011

For those of you who do not know, this years Study Weekend will take place at the LSE from Friday 4th February to Sunday 6th February 2011.

You can find all the information about this years Study Weekend and see photos from previous years on the Study Weekend website, which is also the place where you can view the timetable, reserve your place and pay for your sessions online.

Please note that booking closes on Friday 14th January.

For those of you who haven’t been to a Study Weekend before you might also be interested in watching a short film about it, which was recorded at the 2008 event.

You may also like to read the following blog posts:

My first Study Weekend – an External study staff member’s perspective

Study weekend 2010 a student’s perspective…

Study weekends have been designed to help you but lecturers will not go over the whole syllabus. The study sessions are an opportunity for you to ask questions and to alleviate any doubts that you may have. We have found that the study skills sessions are particularly useful and so we would encourage you to sign up for these, and they are free!  

As usual we will be having a party on Friday evening and as ever we will be celebrating the successes of those students who have been given scholarships to study at the LSE and we will be inviting other graduates for you to meet.  We find that our alumni are a great source of support, information and guidance.  The party is a chance for you to relax and have fun so please come. On Saturday evening we will be having our open house as usual and we welcome any ideas that you may have for this session.

Any enquiries about the event should be emailed to externalstudy@lse.ac.uk

Please check the FAQs about the Study weekend web page before making an enquiry.

At the Study weekend we are looking for students to participate in a video recording session which aims to bring the student study experience to life. We’ll be asking volunteers questions such as:

What is it like to study with us?

What do you like?

What are the challenges?

What advice would you give to future students?

How has undertaking the programme helped your career prospects?

Here is an example of the type of video that you will appear in:

Videos recorded at the Study weekend will be used on YouTube and in marketing material for the EMFSS courses and are likely to be featured on the UoL International Programmes website.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Alice.Mallick@london.ac.uk

Examiners commentaries

Many of the 2010 examiners commentaries are now available on the VLE. These are important for you as they provide the ‘voice’ of the examiner, they will indicate how the examination questions should have been answered and in some cases indicate what a really good answer should look like.   Please read them carefully. There is a warning on every commentary to alert you to the fact that examiners can examine any part of the syllabus and to warn students against question spotting. Remember that you are studying for a degree not just for the examination.

Registering for examinations

The deadline for registering for examinations is 1 February 2011 unless you are coming to the study weekend where you may hand in your application in person.

It is crucial that you submit your examination entry form by the deadline for examination entry.

For full information on registering for examinations and to download the registration form see the University of London examinations website.

The examinations timetable is currently being worked on an will be made available on the examinations website.

That just leaves me to say Happy holidays to all and we wish you a very happy and successful new year.

IMPORTANT: Exam paper changes & Subject guide revisions

Every year we publish two extremely important documents which you MUST take careful note of. Both of these documents are available to view from the home page of the Virtual learning environment or the LSE External study website.

List of Subject Guide revisions

AVAILABLE HERE

Each year a number of the Subject Guides are revised and supplements to current guides are published. This may be for a number of reasons, to update the syllabus or readings references for example. You should consult the  list of these revisions and supplements to ensure that, if you are studying any of the courses listed, that you are using the updated (2010) version of the Subject Guide and take note of the important supplements.

List of changes to Examination papers

AVAILABLE HERE

Each year some of the examination paper formats change. It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that you check the list of examination paper changes every year.

If the course that you are studying is not listed, then you should refer to the most recent past examination paper and examiners commentary to discover the current examination format.

Please DO NOT assume that the examination format as outlined in the Subject Guide is correct since a number of our guides were published some years ago and thus the examination format may well have changed since publication. It is also important to note that the examination format, as outlined in the notes from a Study weekend session or from another activity or publication, may also be out of date.

So, to find out about the structure of the examination paper in May and June 2011:

FIRST refer to the list of examination paper changes. If your course is NOT listed then you MUST CHECK the examination paper and commentary from the previous year. DO NOT assume that any other source outlines the correct examination format.

It is also important that you take note of the warning on the Examiners commentaries in regards to question spotting. You MUST be aware that Examiners are free to set questions on ANY aspect of the syllabus. This means that you need to study enough of the syllabus to enable you to answer the required number of examination questions.

Examiners will vary the topics and questions from year to year and MAY set questions that have NOT appeared in past papers – every topic on the syllabus is a legitimate examination target. So although past papers can be helpful in revision, you CANNOT ASSUME that topics or specific questions that have come up in past examinations will occur again.

Moving forward in 2010/11…

 

Director, LSE External Study Rosie Gosling welcomes and encourages new students at the Singapore Institute of Management induction day.

Since the release of examination results this August, students have been experiencing a variety of mixed emotions, from elation to extreme surprise and disappointment.  Some  students have written to us for advice and so we thought that we should write this blog to give you some information and to help you understand what, if anything, you need to do. 

If you are surprised that your result was below your expectations,  you may consider having your marks checked.  However, before making a representation against your result it is important for you to be aware that you can only make a representation on administrative grounds. Our examinations are very carefully doubled marked and checked carefully.  Representations cannot be considered on academic grounds as each script is marked independently by two Examiners and the confirmed result is then determined at an Examination Board meeting. The decision of that Board is final. If you do wish to make a representation your script will not be re-examined by an academic but thorough administrative investigation will be undertaken. 

There have been a lot of successes this year with many students achieving first class honours in the degrees, or distinctions in the Diploma for Graduates, the Diploma in Economics and the Diploma in Social Sciences. Many students have been able to get new jobs or have been given promotion on the basis of their qualifications through the University of London International programme.  Others are getting ready to study in excellent universities in the United Kingdom, including LSE, and in the States and elsewhere. 

For those who are continuing with the EMFSS degrees and Diplomas, results are important as they can be very good indicators of your strengths and/or weaknesses. 

If you were surprised at your results, use the Examiners’ commentaries to see why you may have received the mark you did. The Examiners’ commentaries for the past three years are available from the home page of every course in the VLE. The 2010 Examiners’ commentaries are coming in thick and fast and will be available shortly. Reviewing the Examiners’ commentaries should help you to understand what the examiners expect of you to achieve good marks in the next set of examinations.  

If you have failed a subject, you may take it again (up to a maximum of two more attempts) on the degree, Diploma in Economics and the Diploma in Social Sciences, and once more on the Diploma for Graduates. If you failed a course this year, think about why you may have failed? 

• Some of you may not have understood the language or approach of the discipline. If this is the case approach the subject afresh, start again by reading the Subject guide and text books carefully and make sure that you understand the core concepts.  If there is a video on the VLE listen and watch carefully to see how the academic explains the approach that should be taken in your study of the subject. 
• Some of you may have ran out of time in the examination. If this was the case then you need to practice more, working through past and sample examination questions in timed conditions. In many cases students simply write down all they know, which is unfortunate because examiners want to see an answer to the question rather than read through all the material that they have written!
• Some of you will have done some question spotting and the questions you prepared for did not appear. Question spotting is very dangerous! Examiners can ask questions on any part of the syllabus and will do so; you must cover the whole syllabus (unless the syllabus specifically indicates otherwise).  Most examiners set questions across the syllabus and so you need to know and understand the material to apply it to answer the questions set. 

• Some of you may not have answered the questions directly. In our examinations this is probably the most usual case of failure. We ask specific questions and therefore the examiners require specific answers. For further advice on preparing yourself for the upcoming academic year, examinations and learning skills please do make use of the the resources designed to support your studies on the VLE and in Strategies for success. 

In all cases, think strategically, think sceptically and remember that you need to cover the whole syllabus in order to do well as examiners have a tendency to surprise!

I look forward to seeing lots of you at the Kick off day on the 25th September.

Best wishes

Rosemary Gosling 

Director, LSE External Study 

 

Current goings on and a big welcome…!

                                

Director, LSE External Study Rosie Gosling welcomes students onto University of London International Programmes at the Singapore Institute of Management induction day.

First of all, may I welcome all new students onto the programme and welcome back all continuing students.

Continuing registration

Just as a reminder to continuing students, please remember that all continuing registration forms need to be returned to the University of London by the 10th October 2010. The University have e-mailed all students a copy of the continuing registration form, however if you have not received this e-mail please contact the fees office (tel: 020 7862 8366 or e-mail: ipstudents.fees@lon.ac.uk)

The sooner you submit your continuing registration form, the sooner you will receive the printed study materials for the course/s that you have chosen to study.

Choosing courses

From this year onwards the term ‘Unit’ will no longer be used, and will be replaced by ‘Courses’.

When making ‘course’ choices, please remember to check the structure of the degree that you are studying and the prerequisites for each course. It is also important to check which courses you should take if you would like to receive exemptions from professional bodies (see page 14 of the EMFSS Prospectus) or for access to a future Master’s programme.   

If you will be completing next year and want to apply for a Masters’ programme start thinking about this now! You make need to take a GMAT or GRE test and so you should start preparing for these.

Selection groups and degree structures are outlined clearly in the 2010/11 Regulations, available to download as PDF or new for this year, as a series of HTML pages and in the EMFSS Prospectus.  

To help you make better informed course choices and begin studying earlier than ever before, the Course information sheets, updated reading list and full Subject Guide for each course is openly available to view and download from the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

Virtual Learning Environment

The VLE can be accessed via the Student portal.

Once logged in, click on the Study tab and add the courses that you wish to study or explore to your online course list.

Your login details to the Student portal should have arrived in your study pack, however if you have not received them or have forgotten them please e-mail the support team at support@londoninternational.ac.uk remembering to quote your student number. Institution tutors should contact externalstudy.vle@lse.ac.uk

If you are a new student and have not yet registered, you will not be able to access the Student portal and so you should refer to the first four chapters of each subject guide, available on the public website, to make informed course choices. You can also view the course information sheet, updated reading list and past examination papers and examiners commentaries from the public website.

Study materials

Whilst on the subject of study materials, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you refer to the latest version of the reading list on the VLE or the public website. The reading list printed in the subject guide is often out of date since the subject guides are not re-published every year.

It is also essential that you check the documents listed under the title ‘Important Documents’ on the home page of the VLE. Here you will find the list of examination changes (available shortly) and the list of subject guide revisions for 2010/11. It is important that you refer to this list so that you can be sure that you are studying the most recent edition of the syllabus.

As an example, for 2010/11 the following guides have been re-published and updated on the VLE:

05a Mathematics 1 – 10% revision

05b Mathematics 2 – 5% revision

21 Principles of sociology – 20% revision

116 Abstract mathematics – 10% revision

42 Optimisation theory - 5% revision

There have also been a number of supplements published to be used in conjunction with current subject guides. Some of these are printed and sent out with subject guides, others may just be available online via the VLE so it is important to check the list of updates and the course pages of the VLE to access the essential supplements.

Examinations

Remember that if you would like to sit for examinations in May/June 2011 you must submit an Examination Entry Form by the 1st February 2011. All information on registration for examinations can be found, here.

Kick Off day 2010

And finally, I would like to remind all students that the annual Kick Off day will be taking place on Saturday 25th September at the LSE. For full details on this event and to book your place, please see the Kick Off day website here. You can also join the LSE External Study Facebook group and visit the Kick Off day Facebook event page.

We will be using the hash tag #kickoff10 on Twitter to discuss & share tweets about the 2010 Kick off day, so please do remember to use the hash tag #kickoff10 on the day and in the run up to the event in your tweets.

Graduates

First of all, many congratulations!

We wish you well for your future and hope that you will keep in touch with the University of London Alumni. You should expect to receive your graduate certificate are in November when they are normally sent out.

Good luck with your studies!

LSE External Study

 

Inspiration from Alumni…

First of all, I hope that examinations are going well for you all.

If you are struggling to motivate yourself to revise I thought it would be useful to push you in the direction of the University of London’s YouTube channel.

In addition to Cameron Paige’s inspiring story (here) there are many examples of External Study students who have achieved great success since graduating from the University of London External System:

Of course, their success is based upon their own tremendous hard work and I hope that for at least some of you these stories will motivate you to push yourself just that little bit extra during revision time.

You too can achieve  your goals!

Further inspiration from External Study alumni can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/UniofLondon

Best of luck from all in the External Study office!

Get Re-Vising…

The photograph above is of Cameron Paige, a former student of the External programme, who in the previous blog [link] has kindly taken the time to share with you the strategies that she used to achieve great success, through the External programme and since at Masters level studying internally at LSE.

Two weeks ago the External Study graduation ceremony took place at the Barbican in London. You can ‘visit’ the graduation ceremony by following this link.

We hope that Cameron’s story and the graduation ceremony will give you some encouragement as you prepare for your examinations this May.

Cameron believes that you have to study in a way that suits you and she is right, but you do have to make sure that you think hard about the subjects. Revision means to ‘Re-Vise’, to ‘Re-See’ not to start seeing and studying! Most of you may have made resolutions in September and planned your work so that you would have gone through all the material at least once by now. However, we know that most of you will not be at this stage despite your good intentions and planning. Yet you must still allow time to ‘Re-See’,  and go over your work as Cameron describes in her very thoughtful blog.

It is very important that you do not learn material and sample essays off by heart, you may remember them on the day of the examination but this will not help you! You may find yourself giving an answer that does not answer the question. Your answers will lack any critical thinking or originality.

If you are attempting Economics and Mathematical questions make sure that you understand the assumptions and reasoning behind the material, in short as Professor Witztum indicates, ‘learn the language of Economics’.

In many cases you will be required to apply what you know and to provide examples to illustrate your answers or back up your argument, therefore as you revise it is important to think of examples from the real-world or the literature to illustrate what you are Re-Vising!

We will write to you all again before the examinations but until then happy Re-Vising.

Rosie Gosling

Director, LSE External Study

How I was successful…

Former External study student Cameron Paige graduates with an MSc Sociology (Research) from the LSE, presented by LSE director, Howard Davies. In this blog she shares the secrets of her success…

A few years back, sitting on a train home from work, I pulled out one of my study books and set about highlighting everything I deemed important. After a short while, a man sitting across from me leaned over and said:

“You highlight too much. You’ll never learn like this.”

He had an all-knowing, benevolent smile. He wished well. Unfortunately, he didn’t know me. I had a system. The system worked for me. I’d underline whole sentences so I could read the book again comfortably, block-highlighting only the key words. I’d even highlight random words across the page so, when read together, they made for coherent sentences and smooth argument flow. I had four different colours of highlighters for different levels of discussion within a piece of text: yellow for major themes, green for sub-points within those themes, pink for juicy detail and orange for counter-arguments. Occasionally, I’d throw in blue or purple for good measure as well. I had four colours of Post-its I used in a similar fashion, labelling them with a key word so I could easily find any argument I’d read and couldn’t perfectly recall. In a similar fashion, one of my friends had a system of his own. Every time he picked up a study book, he’d pull out his highlighter (he only used yellow), and block out the title and the author’s name.

“You’re supposed to highlight the important stuff,” he’d say a little belligerently if anyone tried giving him a funny look. And he was right.

The point of this lengthy introduction should be quite clear by now: it doesn’t matter how you do it as long as you do it and it works for you. What might have been a waste of time to somebody else, for me was vital preparation. Yes, I spent ages underlining and making labels. But once that was done, I could whizz through a book again and again in no time. By the time the exams came around, I would have read all my study books once cover to cover, at least three times the highlighted gist of it, and about ten times the key words. The day before the exam, I could pull out my notes and do a complete revision of a subject within an hour. Because by then, I didn’t have to search and read whole paragraphs. By then, a single word underlined in orange or green was enough. And if it wasn’t, I knew exactly on what I had to read up.

Here, then, is my second point: there’s no substitute for studying, no easy fix. I can tell you what I did to keep on top of my studying: I found a library I liked and made sure it was my ‘happy place’. The staff were nice, the chairs were comfortable, and there was a great cafe right outside. I got up early and exercised before hitting the books. I ate well, slept well, and made sure I took regular breaks. I carried pocketfuls of apples and energy bars with me everywhere. I gave myself Friday evenings and Saturdays off, no exceptions. If the weather was good, I took my notes to the park. If it was bad, I made myself cocoa and read curled up in a blanket on the sofa. But I was never without the books. I watched no TV, I rationed my time with friends. I imposed on my partner and made sure everyone knew that degree was my top most priority. I was lucky that my family and friends were understanding, for I must have been insufferable.

The third and my final point is this: be nice to yourself. Know what you want, and arrange your life to make it happen. You cannot drift through your time with the External System, it’s not that kind of a degree. But if you can take the responsibility for your studies, then at the end of it you’ll find you’ve managed to get your life in order too. Keep up the good work. And good luck!

Cameron Paige

Cameron graduated with First Class Honours in BSc Sociology in 2008, receiving the Academic Achievement Award 2007 and 2008, the Graduate Merit Award, and the 150th Anniversary Award, and went on to study MSc Sociology (Research) at the LSE. To do justice to all the grounding the External System has given her, in 2009 she completed that degree with distinction, and was awarded the Hobhouse Memorial Prize in recognition of achieving the best overall performance in the Department of Sociology Masters’ programmes. She currently works as a Clinical Research Associate, single-handedly project-managing a major study for NHS Blood and Transplant. To put all this in perspective, five years ago she had no higher education and was working as a kitchen porter. So there you have it.

Moving forward…

Welcome to all new students and those returning for another Academic Year. 

Your results are now out and some of you are very happy, some reasonably relaxed and some, very surprised at their results and disappointed, wishing that you’d done better. There have been a lot of successes this year, many students received first class honors or distinctions in the Diploma in Economics and over 150 students will be studying at excellent universities in UK after obtaining a degree via the External System. Others are continuing on the External programme, or are now in good jobs, whilst others are still searching.

For those who are continuing with the EMFSS degrees and Diplomas, results are important as they can be very good indicators of your strengths and/or weaknesses. Use the Examiners Commentaries if you were surprised at your results to see why you may have received the mark you did. The Examiners Commentaries for the past three years are available from the home page of every unit in the VLE. The 2009 Examiners Commentaries are coming in thick and fast and will be available shortly. Reviewing these should help you work out what you need to do to get good marks in the next set of examinations.     

If you have failed a subject our system allows you to take it again, up to a maximum of three times. Think about why you have failed, most of you will know why. Some of you have not understood the language or approach of the discipline. If this is the case approach the subject afresh, start again by reading the subject guide and text books carefully and make sure that you understand the core concepts.   Some of you ran out of time, especially those who were taking Accounting or Statistics subjects.  If this was the case you need to practice more, working through examples in timed conditions.  Some of you will have done some question spotting and the questions you prepared for did not appear. Question spotting is very dangerous! Examiners can ask questions on any part of the syllabus and will do so, you must cover the whole syllabus (unless the syllabus specifically indicates otherwise).  Some of you may not have answered the questions directly, in our examinations this is probably the most usual case of failure.  We ask specific questions and therefore the examiners require specific answers! For further advice on preparing yourself for the upcoming academic year, examinations and learning skills please do make use of the Supporting your studies area of the VLE and Strategies for success.

Our examinations are very carefully marked and checked. You can of course ask for your marks to be re-checked. You cannot, however, ask for your papers to be re-marked as they have already been marked by at least two Examiners and in many cases checked by a third.

For those who have just completed a few units, this is an important time. Many of you will be applying for postgraduate study and will need to apply after your second year on the External programme, if you are completing in three years. Therefore any results that you have will be scrutinized. It is a much better idea to get excellent marks as you go along each year rather than wait until your final set of examinations.  Most universities and companies look at the spread of marks as well as the overall degree result so the ‘transcript matters’.

So welcome to the new session. Use your subject guides, associated reading and online resources on the VLE. And remember, you can contact and support other students via the VLE discussion forums. Please see my previous blog “Learning from each other” here.

In all cases, think strategically, think skeptically and remember that you need to cover the whole syllabus in order to do well as examiners have a tendency to surprise!

 

Rosemary Gosling

 

Director, LSE External Study

Results available online…

Results are now available online via:

http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/examresults

You will need your 9 digit Student ID number, and also your Candidate number.

If you no longer have your Student ID number, you can obtain it from the University of London registry office (external.registry@london.ac.uk) or telephone 020 7862 8063.

If you no longer have your Candidate number (it would have been on your Examination notice), you can obtain it from the University of London examinations Office (emfssexams@london.ac.uk) or telephone 020 7862 8333.

A copy of the official notification of your results has been despatched via your test centre (for students who sat exams outside of the UK) or has been mailed to your home address (for students who sat exams in the UK). Your teaching institution will also have a full set of results.  

Best of luck!!