Special Consideration

On some occasion sickness, misadventure, or other circumstance beyond your control may prevent you from attending during a time when you are required to carry out assessable work for a course (formal end of session examination, class test, laboratory test, seminar presentation, etc.). This may prevent you from meeting a deadline for the submission of assessable work, or may significantly affect your performance on an assessable task. The University has procedures which allow you to apply for Special Consideration for the affected assessments. Depending on the circumstances, the University may take action to allow you to overcome the effects produced; for example, give you additional assessment or extend a deadline.

You should note that merely submitting a request for special consideration does not automatically mean that you will be granted additional assessment, nor that you will be awarded an amended result. For example, if you have a poor record of attendance or performance throughout a session/year in a subject you may be failed regardless of illness or other reason affecting a final examination in that subject.

The University has a centralised procedure for Special Consideration applications. You should follow this procedure. Full details of:

· how to apply for special consideration
· what happens after you make application
· what outcomes you can expect

are given on the website (https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/atoz/SpecialConsideration.html).

See Additional Assessment details

Re-marking of Exams

The University has a policy for "review of results" that allows students who believe there has been an error in the calculation of their final mark to appeal that mark. There currently may be a fee attached to applying for a re-mark which is refunded only if the mark changes substantially upwards. UNSW Student Central will advise of the current policy on applying this fee. There is also a 15 working day time-limit in applying for a review of marks.

Students are able to apply for an "administrative check" that all sections of their final exam have been marked and all marks and assessment task marks have been correctly entered into the calculation of the final mark. The fee for this is nominal.

They may also apply for a "re-assessment" or "re-mark" of some piece of work. The fee for this is substantial. The re-mark is done by the School Physics marking the piece of work again using the same mark scheme as was used originally. Normally this will be done by a person other than the original marker. If the re-marker feels that an error in marking has been made then they will consult with the original marker where relevant as to the correct interpretation of the mark scheme. Any change in mark must finally be approved by the Director of First Year Studies.

A re-mark may result in the allocated mark increasing, staying the same or decreasing.

The School of Physics is permitted to refuse a "re-mark" if it believes that "insufficient reasons" have been given. Our view is that a student claiming that they thought they "should have done better" is not a sufficient reason to be given a re-mark.

The School of Physics keeps a record of each student's applications for re-marks and any student deemed to be misusing this provision will be refused further re-marks.