I disagree. The TMAs for me don’t count towards my final mark for all of my modules except for one module in which there was one TMA counting towards the final mark and that is the first module where i have had it count toward my final mark 10%. It’s always been final exam = 100% which is daunting. What are you studying that you can get 50% before walking into an exam?

For the TMAs I answer the questions and always score well but I am aware that they don’t count towards my final mark so I don’t worry about them as much as I would if it did count towards my final mark. You just need at least 40% average on the TMAs be allowed to sit the exam.

To have it sprung on me that something I thought was ‘just for practice’ is now dictating my final grade. I would be pissed.

For example, my last TMA handed in last week after a one week extension, because I was pushed for time etc (bloody virus). I handed in 4 of the 6 questions because I can then at least get feedback on those.

Obviously I wouldn’t have done that if I had known that it would count towards my last grade.

For TMAs when I get a mark over 95, I barely get any feedback except to say well done. I won’t learn anything from that so sometimes I take a risk and answer a question in a different way just to see if it is right and if not, why not? I wouldn’t say that this isn’t ‘the smart way to work’ given that the marks for it don’t matter. It’s an opportunity to learn more.

I assume that your final grade now being an average of your TMAs must be for students on your pathway who have always known that TMAs count.