New Grading Scheme for Final Theses

We designed a new and simplified grading scheme for final theses, replacing the old one. A thesis still has to pass some basic [OK|NOK] checks like completeness of declaration of materials built on, relevant topic, no plagiarism, etc. However, this is a binary decision and does not affect the grade directly (except for failing if these criteria are not met).

The grade then is derived using only four main measures. These are:

  • Results quality
  • Method competence
  • Effort expended
  • Presentation quality

Each measure is taken on scale of [0..10], where 0 means not present at all and 10 means perfect, with a linear distribution around the mean. The four measures are combined using the geometric mean, from which a grade in the German 1,00 – 5,00 grading system is derived.

This new grading scheme has been put into effect starting the academic year of 2017/18.