Am I right I in thinking that an MA with distinction is publishable? Maybe we'll be blessed with whatever nonsense she wrote soon enough.
Probably not in the initial form, but potentially with some reworking, yes.
---
i’m actually so shocked that she got a distinction…
must be such an easy course lmao
It's almost impossible to tell for her course in particular, but it seems that across the English fac masters courses its around 40-45% of students get a distinction. Doesn't look like it's recovered to the circa 1/3 it was pre-covid, and 2023 doesnt have published stats for whatever reason.
Very hard to tell what that means on an objective basis: in theory you have to have a certain level of competence to get on the course in the first place. We don't know if it is the examiners being lax, or the selection criteria for the course being good.
---
Honestly, I feel happy for her that she got such a good grade. But I am a little bit confused with the grade system. So in GB, you will pass if you have 40%? Here in Germany, you need 50% to pass (B.A. and M.A.). In some degrees, you need 61 to pass, and you need 93–100 for a distinction. In Oxford, it is 70+ isn't it? But I find it kind of overreacting to be so nervous about a paper when it is not even your thesis. I think she should definitely work on her nervousness.
I feel honourbound to point out the pass mark for a master's is 50, not 40. Oxford has even changed their undergraduate masters pass mark to 50 to bring it in line with their postgraduate masters (to the grumblings of undergraduate masters students everywhere).
The masters grade structure is <50 - fail, 50-65 - pass, 65-70 - merit, >70 distinction. This is all complicated somewhat by certain subjects being subjective, and some objectively marked subjects being curved. In practice almost no one on a humanities course gets above a 90. They seem to love leaving headroom on the marking structure for whatever reason.
