Queen’s University Belfast
degree classification calculator
Quick answer: Queen’s weights all three stages — 10:30:60 — so your first year counts, which is unusual. The weighted average becomes your programme mark, and regulation 7.1.2 truncates it to one decimal place rather than rounding, so 69.98 is a programme mark of 69.9. Within 1% of a boundary the Predominance Rule decides: it scores your modules by stage weight and awards the higher class at 300 points or more — which is exactly half of them.
Queen’s Belfast degree classification calculator
Stages 1, 2 and 3 at 10:30:60, with the Predominance RuleStage 1 — first year (10%)
Stage 2 — second year (30%)
Stage 3 — final year (60%)
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 | Programme mark | Uplift rule |
|---|---|---|
| First Class | 70% or above | or 69% with at least half of your modules, scored by stage weight at 70% or above |
| Second Class, First Division | 60% or above | or 59% with at least half of your modules, scored by stage weight at 60% or above |
| Second Class, Second Division | 50% or above | or 49% with at least half of your modules, scored by stage weight at 50% or above |
| Third Class | 40% or above | or 39% with at least half of your modules, scored by stage weight at 40% or above |
What do I need for a First?
The planner under the calculator works backwards from Queen’s Belfast’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 year weights 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.
All three stages count, and the first year is worth 10%
Regulation 7.2.2 sets the standard honours weighting at Stage 1 10%, Stage 2 30%, Stage 3 60%. Almost every university on this site discards the first year entirely; among twenty-four, only Queen Mary and Queen’s count it. Ten percent is not decisive, but it is not nothing either — a first year twenty marks below your final year costs you roughly two marks on the programme mark, which is more than the width of the borderline band. Other programmes carry their own tables: integrated master’s degrees run 5:15:30:50, MAcc and MEcon 10:20:30:40 (or 25:35:40 for direct entrants to Year 2), MPharm 5:5:45:45, and a language year abroad inserts a 10% stage between Stage 2 and Stage 3.
Your programme mark is truncated, not rounded
Regulation 7.1.2 is precise and unusual: the programme mark is the weighted average of your module marks, “truncated to one decimal place”. Truncation throws the remainder away rather than rounding it. A weighted average of 69.98 becomes 69.9, not 70.0 — there is no rounding up at Queen’s, ever, at any boundary. Every other university on this site either rounds or leaves the figure alone. This page shows the truncated figure, because that is the number your classification is read from.
The Predominance Rule, and what the 300 actually means
Within 1% of the next class (3% if you first enrolled before 2020-21), regulation 7.2.5 replaces judgement with arithmetic. Count your modules at each stage whose mark reaches the higher boundary, multiply each count by that stage’s percentage weight, and add them up. Reach 300 and the higher class is awarded. The number looks arbitrary until you do the sum: with six modules a stage and weights of 10, 30 and 60, the maximum score is 6×10 + 6×30 + 6×60 = 600. So 300 is exactly half — which is what the regulation says in words, that at least half of the weighted module marks must be in the higher classification. A single final-year module is worth 60 points; a first-year module is worth 10.
It is a count of modules, which matters if your modules are not all the same size
The formula counts modules, not credits. At Queen’s that distinction usually makes no difference, because a degree is 18 modules and 360 credit points (2.1.2) — six 20-credit modules a stage — so counting modules and weighting credits give the same answer. This calculator applies the credit-and-stage-weighted version, which is identical on a standard structure. If your programme includes a module of a different size, your School’s own count is the one that governs.
Resits, retakes and substitutions all enter at 40%
Three separate regulations say the same thing. A module passed after resitting a failed component enters the classification at the pass mark (5.4.5); a retaken module is capped at the pass mark for classification (5.4.14); and a substituted module, where the original is no longer offered, is capped the same way (5.4.15). In each case the actual mark appears on your transcript and the 40% is what the algorithm sees. Enter 40 for those modules here. Coursework submitted late loses 5 percentage points per calendar day up to five days, then zero — applied to the component, not the whole module mark.
Where Queen’s regulations stop
These regulations cover all primary degrees except the professional degrees in Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences and in Nursing and Midwifery, which are governed by their own programme specifications. Schools may also be granted exemption by the Director of Academic Services from the weightings, the mark scale or the Predominance Rule itself — exemption from the Predominance Rule is granted only where a validating or accrediting body requires it. Students who first enrolled before 2020-21 get the wider 3% band and may also have their lowest module mark discounted at the Board’s discretion (7.2.4), a provision that no longer exists for later cohorts.
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 Queen’s Belfast’s own regulations:
- Queen’s University Belfast — Study Regulations for Undergraduate Programmes — read in full: 2.1.2 the 18-module, 360-credit-point structure; 3.2.1 the late submission penalty; 5.4.5, 5.4.14 and 5.4.15 the capping of resat, retaken and substituted modules at the pass mark for classification; 7.1.1 the 40% pass mark; 7.1.2 the programme mark truncated to one decimal place; 7.1.4 the classified mark scale; 7.2.2 the stage weightings for honours, integrated master’s, MAcc/MEcon, MPharm and language-year-abroad programmes; 7.2.3 the treatment of study abroad credit; 7.2.4 the discretionary discount available only to pre-2020-21 entrants; and 7.2.5 the Predominance Rule with its formula and the 300 threshold.
- Queen’s University Belfast — Annex 1: Conceptual Equivalents Scales — the marking scale the Study Regulations attach to section 7, giving the discrete points markers use for qualitative assessment at each FHEQ level.
Regulations change between intakes. Your own cohort’s handbook is always authoritative.