Lindsay Pennington

Postgraduate
First Year Assessments
• Full time PhD and MD students
8 months following registration
• Full time MPhil
6 months following registration
• Part time students
10 months following registration

What Happens and When:
• 4-8 weeks before assessment is due - notification from Faculty by student e-mail account
(Feb/March for Sept/Oct starters)
Date given is completion not start date! Make sure review takes place before this date
• Contact Panel to agree date and book room
(for 2 hours, via PGRA)
• Assessment within 2 week period of the date
• Seek approval for extension if > 2 weeks

• 1-2 weeks before assessment date:
– Complete student form (e-portfolio)
– Supervisor complete supervisor form (e- portfolio)
– Upload report on e-portfolio
– Hard copies to Panel

What to prepare:
• First year report (7500 word limit)
• A 15-20 minute PowerPoint Presentation
• Lab book(s), research journal(s) or research diary(s)
• Self Assessment and Personal Development Plan

On the Day of the Assessment:
• Arrive promptly with the following:
– PowerPoint presentation
– ‘Lab’ Book
– A copy of your report if you wish to refer to it
– The Development Profile from your e-portfolio showing courses attended
– A list of seminars that you have attended throughout the year

Structure of the assessment
• Presentation
• Questions
• Answers and discussion
• Usually lasts between 1 and 2 hours

How to structure your presentation
• Similar to an essay
- telling an interesting scientific “story”
- supported by evidence
• Introduction
• Middle
• Conclusion

Content of your presentation
• Introduction should include:
- Project Title
- Background information
- Context of the Research - why is it important?
- Others involved
• AIMS of the Project
• Methods
• Results (if you have any; or what you expect)
• Summary/plans

Starting and finishing presentation
• Most difficult part
• Engage the audience
• Mentally rehearse first few and last few sentences
• PRACTICE

Questions in the assessment
• Questions from assessors
–about presentation
–about 1st year report
–about general background to project
–about other important aspects of your studies
•Health and safety
•Seminars attended
•Training portfolio
•Concerns
•You can ask questions too!

After the assessment meeting
• Panel Members discuss the assessment and complete Panel
Report on e-portfolio
• PGRSC signs e-portfolio
• Concerns and/or comments by the panel sent to student and supervisor by PGRSC
• Concerns raised are provisional until the Dean has signed the report
• Panel Report final approval from the Dean
• Student notified and able to see full report on e-portfolio

Outcomes
• Progress satisfactory; proceed
• Some concerns noted but overall performance is satisfactory; proceed
• Performance is unsatisfactory and a further assessment should be held within two months to determine whether progress on the programme will be recommended.
• For doctoral students only, the candidate's performance is unsatisfactory and a submission for a Master of Philosophy examination is recommended
• The candidate's performance is unsatisfactory and the student's candidature should be terminated.