All university students are usually entitled to at least one further attempt of any assessment they have failed to pass. In this case a student is referred by the university which usually entitles a student to a second attempt at the learning outcomes they failed to achieve. The location, time and length of a practice placement to undertake the second attempt are decided upon by the university and dependent on the needs of the individual student. The student may not undertake their second attempt in the same placement as the first attempt as usually both mentor and student benefit from a fresh start. If a student were to request a second attempt in their first placement then this would be considered by the university, but only if the mentor and placement area were also in agreement.

As students will usually be given a second attempt at any failed learning outcomes you may come across a student who did not pass on a previous placement and requires a second attempt with you. This could be quite challenging, as the student may enter the placement with low self-esteem or feeling very anxious and worried. Essentially, your role as a mentor will not alter and you will still be expected to provide a range of learning opportunities and provide a fair and accurate assessment. All the advice given in earlier chapters around the assessment process applies. To recap these are:

Clear and consistent feedback is probably one of the most essential elements as the student will need to be informed of their progress and to be informed early on if they are not making the required progress. As the second attempt is a student’s opportunity to demonstrate that they have developed and improved on the first attempt you should have a very clear benchmark to work from. The content and accuracy of the ongoing achievement record will be invaluable as you should be able to pick up from where the last mentor left off.

In some circumstances students may be required to undertake their second attempt at failed learning outcomes at the same time as undertaking a new placement with new learning outcomes. This will usually happen when only a small number of learning outcomes are outstanding and it is not in the student’s interest to restrict their progression. When you are mentoring a student who needs to undertake a second attempt on a practice assessment, remember you will only be assessing the student on the learning outcomes which they have not achieved during their first attempt. Students who are completing first attempts of one module and second attempts of another may have two practice assessment books and two sets of learning outcomes to be assessed. This means you will need to be very organized in your mentoring role to support this student. Remember however, that you should have the ongoing achievement record written by the mentor of the first attempt placement as a reference point. This should give you a good indicator as to what the student’s areas for development and any issues and concerns are. Reflecting on the contents of the ongoing achievement record with the student will help the development of the action plans for the placement.

In those circumstances where you are being asked to assess the student on learning outcomes from both first and second attempts, your skills of planning for and facilitating learning will come to the fore. It is advisable to undertake an initial, midpoint and final interview for each set of learning outcomes. This will help distinguish what is required for each assessment and though a little more documentation is involved it will enable the student to focus on what needs to be done for each learning outcome. An ongoing achievement record should also be written after a second attempt, regardless of the outcome. Box 12.1 summarizes the terminology used by universities in the assessment process.

The final assessment decision should never come as a surprise to the student. Throughout their placement with you, you will have given regular feedback on their progress and so they will know what the final outcome will be. As long as you have followed due process with documented evidence of a clear action plan with regular feedback, if the student has still been unable to achieve the required level of competence then your final decision has to be to fail the student. Always seek support from the university in this situation. This will be a difficult interview to undertake and so having a link lecturer sitting in on the final assessment will provide support to you and the student. Afterwards you may find it helpful to discuss the whole process with the link lecturer to assure yourself that you did all that was required and identify what you have learnt from this process.