University of Portsmouth
degree classification calculator
Quick answer: Portsmouth throws away your worst 20 credits at each level before it calculates anything, then takes the better of two methods — Level 5 and Level 6 at 40:60, or Level 6 alone. The result is then rounded to a whole number, and that rounding is the only leniency left: 69.5 becomes 70 and is a First, 69.4 becomes 69 and is not. Portsmouth used to have a third method based on a majority of credits, but withdrew it on 1 September 2025, so there is now no borderline rule at all.
Portsmouth degree classification calculator
Best of two methods, worst 20 credits discounted at each levelLevel 5 — second year
Level 6 — final year
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 | Weighted mark | Uplift rule |
|---|---|---|
| First Class Honours (1st) | 70% or above | — |
| Upper Second Class Honours (2:1) | 60% or above | — |
| Lower Second Class Honours (2:2) | 50% or above | — |
| Third Class Honours | 40% or above | — |
What do I need for a First?
The planner under the calculator works backwards from Portsmouth’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 best-credits rule.
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 worst 20 credits at each level are discounted before anything else happens
Both surviving formulae in regulation 5.4.3.4 begin the same way: the mean is taken “after first discounting the marks in the worst 20 credits” — at Level 5 and at Level 6 for the 40:60 method, and at Level 6 for the final-year method. This is not a borderline concession or something you apply for; it happens to every student automatically. On a standard 120-credit year it means your best 100 credits are what count. Note that the regulation discounts credits, not modules, so a module can be partly discounted if it straddles the 20-credit line.
Two methods, and the higher classification is the one you get
Regulation 5.4.3.4 tells the Board of Examiners to recommend “the highest classification arising from the application of the following formulae”. The first weights Level 5 at 40% and Level 6 at 60% — a heavier second-year contribution than most UK universities use. The second ignores Level 5 entirely and runs on Level 6 alone. You do not choose between them and you do not apply; whichever produces the better class is the one recommended. Level 4 never counts.
Portsmouth deleted its third method in 2025 — and with it, the only borderline route
Until 1 September 2025 there was a third formula: the minimum classification in which more than 50% of your combined Level 5 and Level 6 credits were attained, again after discounting the worst 20 credits at each level. It was a majority-of-credits route, of the kind Nottingham Trent still operates, and it could lift a student whose average fell short. Portsmouth withdrew it as part of a set of changes made to bring its regulations in line with other universities. What remains is two averages and nothing else — no zone of consideration, no volume-of-credits test, no second chance for a near miss. Be careful with older guidance: the regulations PDF published on Portsmouth’s own document store is the September 2019 version and still prints the withdrawn method.
Everything is rounded to a whole number, and that is the entire leniency
Regulation 3.2(b) says weighted mean averages are reported as integers, with a decimal of .5 or greater rounding up and .4 or less rounding down; 5.4.3.1 repeats that classification marks are presented as integers. So a final mean of 69.5 becomes 70 and is a First, while 69.4 becomes 69 and is an upper second. One tenth of a mark across your whole degree decides it. With the majority method gone, this rounding is the only thing standing between a near miss and the class below — which makes it worth knowing that module marks are themselves reported as integers first.
A compensated module keeps its original mark in the calculation
If the Board awards credit in compensation for a failed module, regulation 4.11 is explicit about what happens next: the transcript shows a pass annotated “Compensated Pass”, but “the original mark shall be used for the purposes of determining any classification”. So the failure still drags on your average — though, given the rule above, it may well be one of the credits discounted. Compensation itself requires a weighted average of at least 40% across the level, measured after the same 20-credit discount, and is capped at a single 20-credit module per level above Level 4.
What this page does not cover
Regulation 5.4.3.5 gives a different pair of formulae to students admitted with credit to study only the final stage — a top-up route where only Level 6 counts. 5.4.3.6 lets the Board depart from the calculation where 20 credits or more at Level 6 came from recognised prior learning or pass/fail modules, and section 6 gives a general power to depart from any regulation where strict application would be unjust; neither is a borderline rule and neither can be predicted here. Integrated master’s degrees are classified under 5.4.5.7 on 50:50 Levels 6 and 7, or 20:40:40 across Levels 5, 6 and 7, again with the worst 20 credits discounted at each level — a different calculation that deserves its own page. Portsmouth also reports a Grade Point Average alongside the classification (5.4.4), calculated the same 40:60 way on grade points rather than marks; it appears on your transcript but does not decide your class.
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 Portsmouth’s own regulations:
- University of Portsmouth — Examination & Assessment Regulations: Boards of Examiners — read in full: 3.2(b) the integer rounding convention with .5 rounding up; 4.5 and 4.11 compensation, its 40% threshold measured after the 20-credit discount, and the rule that the original mark is used for classification; 5.4.3.1 the classification bands as integers; 5.4.3.4 the classification formulae; 5.4.3.5 the final-stage-only route; 5.4.3.6 Board discretion where 20+ Level 6 credits are RPL or pass/fail; 5.4.4 the Grade Point Average; 5.4.5.7 the integrated master’s weightings; and section 6 the general power to depart from the regulations. NOTE: the copy published on this document store is dated September 2019 and still contains the third classification formula withdrawn in 2025 — see the second source.
- University of Portsmouth — MyPort, Changes to Assessment Regulations 2025 — the University’s own record of what changed on 1 September 2025: the withdrawal of the majority-of-credits classification method for undergraduate courses and its equivalent for non-honours courses, with the two surviving undergraduate formulae reprinted in full. Also records the separate change of the master’s pass mark from 40% to 50%.
Regulations change between intakes. Your own cohort’s handbook is always authoritative.