Cardiff Metropolitan University
degree classification calculator
Quick answer: Cardiff Met classifies on your best 100 credits at Level 6. Under Method 1 those carry 0.7 and your next best 100 credits at Level 5 or above carry 0.3 — and “or above” matters, because Level 6 credits that missed the first pool are ranked alongside your Level 5 ones. Method 2 uses the Level 6 hundred and nothing else. Your programme specification fixes which; it is not the better of the two. The borderline has two tiers: within 1% the upgrade is automatic, and within 2% it depends on half your award-level credits, exit velocity, or your project mark.
Cardiff Met degree classification calculator
Best 100 Level 6 credits at 0.7 with the next best 100 at 0.3, or Level 6 alone4.1 says the validated method “must apply to all students enrolled on a programme”. It is fixed by your programme, not chosen by you, and the two give different marks.
Level 5 — second year
Level 6 — final year (award level)
What do I need for a First?
Enter the marks you already have above. These boxes are the credits still to come in each year: a year with no marks yet is counted as all still to come. Change them if that is not right for you.
| Class | Mark needed in every remaining module |
|---|
Class boundaries
| Class | Award mark | Uplift rule |
|---|---|---|
| First Class Honours | 70% or above | 69% or above — automatic, no further condition or 68% with at least either half of final-year credits at 70% or above, or a final-year average of 70% or above, including marks that improved on the previous level, or a major project or dissertation mark in the higher class |
| Upper Second Class Honours (2:1) | 60% or above | 59% or above — automatic, no further condition or 58% with at least either half of final-year credits at 60% or above, or a final-year average of 60% or above, including marks that improved on the previous level, or a major project or dissertation mark in the higher class |
| Lower Second Class Honours (2:2) | 50% or above | 49% or above — automatic, no further condition or 48% with at least either half of final-year credits at 50% or above, or a final-year average of 50% or above, including marks that improved on the previous level, or a major project or dissertation mark in the higher class |
| Third Class Honours | 40% or above | 39% or above — automatic, no further condition or 38% with at least either half of final-year credits at 40% or above, or a final-year average of 40% or above, including marks that improved on the previous level, or a major project or dissertation mark in the higher class |
What do I need for a First?
The planner under the calculator works backwards from Cardiff Met’s own algorithm. Enter the marks you have so far, leave the years you have not finished empty (or set how many credits are still to come), and it shows the lowest mark you would need in every remaining module to reach each class. It runs the same calculation as the calculator, using the weighting bands and the secondary rules in the table above, so a class reached through one of those routes shows the lower figure.
The answer is a single mark repeated across every remaining module. Real marks vary, and where only some credits count or a class can be reached through a share of high marks, an uneven spread can sometimes get there with a slightly lower average. “Already secured” means the algorithm gives that class even at 0 in what is left, but you still have to pass those modules.
Your programme decides the method, and the two do not agree
Section 4.1 is unambiguous: “the validated method for calculation of degree class must apply to all students enrolled on a programme and is stipulated in the programme specification”. Method 1 weights your best 100 credits at Level 6 at 0.7 and your next best 100 credits at Level 5 or above at 0.3. Method 2 uses the best 100 Level 6 credits alone. This is not a best-of-two: a student on a Method 1 programme cannot claim the Method 2 mark because it flatters them. Check your programme specification and set the picker accordingly.
“Level 5 or above” means leftover Level 6 credits count in the second pool
This is the part that catches people out. Under Method 1, Band A takes your best 100 Level 6 credits — on a 120-credit year, that leaves 20 Level 6 credits behind. Those leftover credits do not disappear: they go into the Band B pool alongside your Level 5 credits, and the best 100 of that combined pool are taken. A leftover Level 6 module marked 66 will outrank Level 5 modules marked in the fifties and enter the 0.3 band. The calculator does the ranking for you; enter everything.
The award mark is rounded, and Cardiff Met does not publish which way
4.1 classifies on the “final rounded award mark” — so rounding happens before the boundary is tested — but neither 4.1 nor AH1_04_08, which covers marks and transcripts, states the direction. We have checked both places it could be. This page therefore rounds half up (68.5 becomes 69) and says so plainly rather than implying a precision the regulations do not give. If your mark sits on a half point, your Registry’s figure is the authoritative one.
The borderline has two tiers, and the first one is automatic
Section 17 does something no other university on this site does. Within 1% of a higher classification, the Board will automatically upgrade you — there are no criteria to meet at all. Between 1% and 2%, the Board is empowered to upgrade if at least one of three things holds: (a) at least 50% of your credits at award level are in the higher band; (b) exit velocity — comparing the averages of your two highest levels, your marks improved and the higher level’s average is in the higher band; or (c) your major final-stage project or dissertation mark is in the higher band. The 17.3 table gives honours degrees all three; an Integrated Master’s uses Levels 6 and 7 for exit velocity.
Exit velocity asks whether you improved, not just whether the final year was good
Criterion (b) compares two averages. A student whose Level 6 average reaches the higher band but whose Level 5 was the stronger year has not exited at velocity, and the criterion does not apply to them — the regulation asks whether marks improved. This calculator tests both halves, which is why it needs your Level 5 marks even if you are on Method 2, where they do not affect the award mark itself.
Your transcript already shows the mark that counts
At several universities on this site the recorded mark and the mark that enters the algorithm are different, and students have to know to substitute a cap themselves. Cardiff Met is the opposite. AH1_04_08 says that where a module was completed successfully, only the mark for the final successful attempt is shown, with the number of attempts; where it was not, the highest unsuccessful mark is shown. Since 4.1 caps re-assessment at 40%, a re-assessed module already appears at its capped value. Enter the marks as printed on your transcript.
Compensation and late submission changed in September 2025
The same section 4.1 introduced a minimum threshold for the compensation of a narrow fail and a late submission window from September 2025. Neither changes how the award mark is calculated — they change which modules you pass and at what mark — but both affect what you should be entering here, so check the current version of the Academic Handbook if a narrow fail or a late submission is in your record.
What this calculator does not do
It applies the published algorithm to the marks you enter. It cannot know your programme’s approved variances, any extenuating circumstances, capped resit marks, or how a Board of Examiners will use its discretion. Where a rule is a judgement rather than a formula, the page says so rather than guessing.
Sources
Every figure on this page is read from Cardiff Met’s own regulations:
- Cardiff Metropolitan University — Academic Handbook Volume 1, Section 4.1 Assessment Regulations (AH1_04_01) — read in full: section 16 Award Classification, including both calculation methods, the 0.7 : 0.3 weighting, the “Level 5 or above” second pool and the requirement that the validated method apply to every student on a programme; the class boundaries and the final rounded award mark; section 17 Borderlines with the automatic 1% tier, the 2% tier and its three criteria, and the 17.3 table of which criteria apply to which award; the 40% cap on re-assessment; and the September 2025 compensation threshold and late submission window.
- Cardiff Metropolitan University — Academic Handbook, AH1_04_08 Assessment Marks, Certificates and Final Transcripts — read in full to settle the rounding direction, which it does not state — the section is administrative throughout. It does settle what a transcript shows: the mark for the final successful attempt, or the highest unsuccessful mark, together with the number of attempts.
Regulations change between intakes. Your own cohort’s handbook is always authoritative.