A first class degree is the highest award given on a bachelors degree course in the uk.

The grading structure usually works as follows, but can vary between universities:

70% + 1st Class Degree
60% + 2:1 Upper Second Class Degree
50% + 2:2 Lower Second Class Degree
40% + 3rd Class Degree
- 40% Fail!!

Employers usually ask for a First or a Second Class Degree, depending on the type of work.

1) Treat your degree like a job, turn up every day on time and work hard all day!

2) Learn to touch type, this will save you a lot of time

3) Spend a little time fining out about resources and services offered at your University, then make sure you take advantage of them all!

4) Work ahead, this will save you time as, when you hit a problem you have time to ask for help

5) Build good relationships with lecturers and tutors, these people are very valuable to you! They are more likely to make time for a serious student who ask's intelligent questions than a lazy ignorant one!

6) Avoid freeloaders who will try and get you to do their work for them. Make sure people you work with contribute as much as you do

7) Do not engage in plagiarism as this will jeopardize your degree course

8) Learn to use your word processor properly this will save you a lot of time and good presentation can only go in your favour when it comes to getting those last few marks

9) Use past student projects and exam papers to benchmark your work (many universites make these projects available, be nice to the lecturer and they may tell you what marks those projects achieved) set your standards!

10) Plan your work on a hard copy planner, so you can see at a glance when work is due for completion, check this every day or so and make sure you are doing the right thing at the right time

11) Hand work in two weeks early, this will ensure you are never late, and, if you have a problem you will have time to resolve it

12) Read, re-read and refine your work before handing it in.

13) Find a good proof reader, see if there are any learning support staff at your University who can assist with this.

A common response is to consider taking a further degree in an attempt to mask your less than brilliant result, but only do this if you know you can put right things that went wrong on your last course.

A Master's doesn't erase a lower class degree from history, and, if you've struggled academically on your first degree, more of the same at a higher level is obviously a recipe for disaster.

That said, a good masters will help "draw a line" under a poorer first degree. It will show you have the ability and can only help you.

Masters degrees maybe particularly helpful in finding employment after a poor first degree if they (Masters degrees) are vocational.

If you can find work, within a couple of years your work experience will overshadow your poor degree result.

In deciding what you do with a bad degree, you need to be honest with yourself and ask whether you really can change the things that led you to do badly, if the answer to that question is no, then draw a line under it and get on with your life!!