Receiving feedback can be difficult because it involves being vulnerable and taking judgement on something you have worked hard on.
You put a lot of yourself into your assignments, including your personal ideas, organisation and points, own words and hours of your time. When you hand in your assignment, it is normal to feel:
- relief and excitement that you've finished the task
- pride in what you have achieved
- disappointed with your finished product or that you didn't have enough time to fully finish the project
- regret or guilt over not meeting your personal standards or goals.
It can then be frustrating, disappointing or confusing to get a grade or mark that doesn't meet your expectations.
Reading and interpreting feedback
Dealing with feedback can be challenging, especially if the feedback is negative. To help you gain the most from the experience, try to keep the following in mind when reading your assignment feedback:
Being a student is a learning experience.
Your unique learning experience offers its own lessons of personal discovery and growth.
"Mistakes" are opportunities to learn.
Constructive criticism is an opportunity for improvement.
Without feedback, how can anyone progress and improve?
Every student is different.
Each person enters university from a different cultural background, has different expectations and has had different experiences in their prior education.
Your mark or grade is the judgement of 1 person within a specific context.
A poor grade does not reflect your academic ability in general, detract from your previous academic achievements or indicate your level of commitment to study.
Applying feedback to your future assignments
When you receive feedback, you need to apply it to your next assignment.
- Make a checklist of the points you've been marked down for.
- Use this checklist to review your work before submitting your next assignment.
- Contact your lecturer for advice on how you can improve. Ask for specific examples or additional resources that can help you.
- Look at example assignments and use them as a template for your structure, number of sources and assignment length.
- Before submitting, compare your assignment to the marking guide. Ensure you have met all the requirements and criteria.
- Check for common mistakes that lower your grade.
Common mistakes that lower your grade
Common mistakes that lower your grade
Your assignment may be marked lower if:
- You used too many quotations and didn't use your own words to explain others' ideas. Remember, when you explain information in your own words, this demonstrates to the marker that you have clearly understood the topic.
- You didn't follow the acceptable standard required to acknowledge the work and ideas of others through your citations or reference list.
- You didn't cover the full scope of issues and sub-issues related to the topic. You only covered a few basic points.
- Your details about the topic were too brief.
- You needed to give more explanation through examples, details or evidence from theories or studies.
- You didn't thoroughly explain the ideas in your readings or textbook that relate to the topic.
- You didn't cite or reference your sources to the accepted standards for MLA, APA or Harvard style.
- Your assignment structure is difficult or uninteresting to follow.
- Your points did not lead logically on from one to the next.
- Your assignment has too many presentation errors.
- You have used unauthorised AI tools to write or contribute to your assignment.
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