Blackfriars > Student Area > Blackfriars Studium Student Information > Mark Scheme

Mark Scheme

Blackfriars Studium Mark Scheme

All Studium courses, including those for the STB, are marked out of 100 according to the scheme specified below. 40% is the bare pass mark, without which a student cannot gain credits for the course in question.

Summa cum laude	85 – 100	Work in this band is marked by thorough knowledge, theological skill, originality of thought, and clarity in argument and expression, such that one could hope the student might go on to make his/her own contribution to scholarship.
Summa cum laude	70 – 84	The student has mastered the subject and issues, and has answered with some flair and attractiveness. However, the answer falls short of the highest standard in terms insight & originality.
Magna cum laude	60 – 69	The student has broadly understood the subject and the major issues raised in connection with it, and can give a clear and solid account of these. Though a real answer to the question asked, it is basically derivative.
Cum laude	51 – 59	The student has understood, and has given a coherent if basic account of the subject and of the issues raised in connection with it. He or she has done more than the minimum reading required, has focused on the task set, and has shown some ability to craft a solid, or critical, or attractive, or personally integrated, answer to the question asked. More of these elements, and even some insight and originality, are present higher in this band.
Bene	46 – 50	A basic understanding of the subject, with some degree of ability either to analyse it and the issues it raises, or to explain it attractively, or to argue to an answer to the essay question set with at most minor factual errors.
Probatus (rite)	40 – 45	A minimal understanding of the subject, with a merely descriptive, account of it, which may show some errors.
Fail	0 – 39	The answer shows one or more of the following: failure to understand the subject; major errors of fact; failure to produce what could count as an academic argument; serious academic faults such as plagiarism.