Yesterday i designed & published a ‘congratulations’ image on this blog which was created with today in mind. That could have gone horribly wrong of course, but it didn’t. For someone who does that sort of thing so often, it rarely does go wrong 🙂 I like to think i can accurately assess myself… i think it’s an important skill – knowing what you’re capable of and selling yourself just right… not over selling, not underselling.
Anyway, I got exactly what i’d said i’d get – a Bachelor of Science in Computing in Applications and Support – Merit 1…. above 60%, below 70%.
I ended up with a 67.8% average which was slightly higher than i was expecting (i was expecting low-mid 60’s) but that was partly down to the confusion as to how my overall grade was calculated. It appears to be the average of semester 5 and 6 which is not what anyone had expected…
Anyway, the ‘grades’ go like this;
- distinction > 70%
- merit 1 > 60%
- merit 2 > 50%
Distinction is top marks, you can’t get any higher… Merit 1 is the next best thing which is what i got. So i was just 2.2% shy of a distinction in the end. Frustratingly short but it’s much better to be that much short this year than next 😉  Had this been next year and i got the same result, i’d be talking about getting ‘Second Class Honors’ which sounds better of course 😉 However i’d have been 2.2% short of ‘First Class Honors’ which sounds much better!
So i now (officially) have an Ordinary Degree in Computer Applications & Support. Next year it’ll be an Honors Degree in IT Management, hopefully ‘First Class Honors’ 😉
Provided i simply pass next year though it’ll render this degree i have right now pretty much useless which is why i was never too concerned about getting top marks this time around… it’s all a very strategic approach 🙂
Still, to most people a degree is a degree… even for someone like me who’s in the system and knows the difference between them all, if somebody tells me they have a degree in something i don’t question what type of degree it is or what their exact % average is. I just respect it as ‘a degree’. Getting any kind of degree requires intelligence and a work ethic.
It’s still no substitute for practical experience though as the likes of Sir Alan Sugar and Bill Cullen constantly point out on ‘The Apprentice’ and it’s on that note i end talking about college and get back to working on my leaving cert websites 😉
Well done Sean!
cheers paddy 🙂