Do past failures affect your cumulative grade? (EU/ECTS/Bologne plan concern)

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the impact of past failing grades on cumulative grades and transcripts within the context of the Bologna process, particularly focusing on experiences from Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. Participants explore how these grades may affect prospects for graduate school and employment in the UK and other regions.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Exploratory
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses concern that past failing grades will appear on transcripts and questions their impact on graduate school applications in the UK.
  • Another participant shares a similar situation and seeks clarification on the implications of failing grades.
  • A third participant discusses the Portuguese grading system, noting that there is no distinction made between first attempts and resits on their college website.
  • A later reply mentions that a university registrar indicated past failing grades do affect the average on transcripts, particularly for prestigious grants, but that graduate school entry primarily considers final grades.
  • A participant from Morocco notes that it is not necessary to retake modules if overall grades average out to a passing score, but expresses uncertainty about international standards.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express varying experiences and interpretations regarding the treatment of failing grades across different educational systems. There is no consensus on how these grades affect cumulative averages or graduate school applications.

Contextual Notes

Participants highlight differences in grading policies and practices across countries, including the handling of resits and the visibility of grades on transcripts. Some limitations in understanding the implications of these policies for international contexts are noted.

Who May Find This Useful

Students navigating the Bologna process, particularly in Spain and Portugal, as well as those interested in the implications of grading systems on graduate school applications and job prospects in the EU and UK.

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I have recently been informed that in my country(Spain, which is adapting to the Bologne process), past failing grades will still show up on the transcript, along with the number of times you have taken the final exam. Is this detrimental for graduate school or work in the UK? Does your cumulative grade calculated upon graduating use only your final grades from when you passed the course or all of your past grades?

The damage has already been done in my case, I have had to resit 4 final exams on 3 occasions, and 2 exams on two occasions, however my final grades so far are all good-average and have been improving steadily since my first year (7.03/10 as it stands, 2 more years left). So far I have never needed to retake any course as my university allows up to 3 examination attempts per year. How does my situation look as a prospective EU physics grad student/job market "newbie"?
 
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i would really like to know the about this, as i am in a similar situation!
 
I too would like to know this. I am Portuguese and in my list of grades on the college website there is no distinction of whether you took a resit or not.

In my faculty it is pretty normal for people to take resits. Many times we even go to the first exam even without studying simply to try our luck as we are always allowed 2 shots at it.
Even for many subjects the assessment is not by 2 exams but instead 1 exam is replaced by 2 tests and you can choose to exam, tests or both. I seriously doubt they even store that information (I mean they do save our exam sheets) since professors only submit the final grade for each course, not an individual grade for each exam.

As to retaking courses, we can only retake a course in the year after we tried it first and if you improve your grade it does show up that it was on a second try.

I did however do a year abroad in the netherlands and in their system there was an individual mark for each grade (not very worried though since i only retook it to improve my 9/10 to a 10/10)
 
Here's an update for anyone still interested: I spoke with my university registrar and they claimed past failing grades do affect your average on the transcript but its mainly a problem for people requesting some of the highly prestigious private grants that are available in my country (Spain).

For grad school entry what counts is your average computed using your final grades. I specifically asked about having my transcript sent to a US or EU university for a msc/phd and this is the answer that I got.

In any case you should all ask your registrar's about this and post about it (don't forget to mention your country) so other people can find this thread useful.
 
Last edited:
In morocco, it is not necessary to retake a module if your overall grades can make an average of 10/20 but internationally, i don't know.
 

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