a high first class?

Erm. Hard work I guess!

If you are in Britain, shouldn't it be a distinction rather than a first class? But either way, hard work is the only way to do it.

For my Masters, we needed to get above 70% in every single component (e.g. each piece of coursework, thesis and each exam) to get a distinction. If you dropped below 70% for any of these, you would just get the 'Pass' mark. Needless to say very few people got a distinction.

Its worth checking with your uni if they are as rigid as my old one, and work as hard as possible!

Isn't 65-70 a merit? For a distinction, we had to average over 70 so technically you could get say 68-69 for something if you got 71-72 for another. But the pieces has to be equivalent i.e. 72 on a piece of course work would not lift 68 on the long dissertation or exams. So you had to get over 70 for the big bits.

I wonder if you could put all your questions in a single post rather than posting the eight topics you have?
You cannot get a first on a Masters.
As the previous posters have intimated, you can get a pass (50+) and a distinction (70+) everywhere (although there are various 'little' rules depending on where you are, i.e. at my place you need over 70 in your dissertation irrespective of whether your overall average requires it to be over 70. Lots of places (though not all) give merits to marks over 60.
You basically need to work hard, though sometimes an over-70 mark won't be sufficient to guarantee you passage onto a PhD; in this case it's best to try to get the highest mark possible rather than aiming for a 70 or whatnot.

Some courses don't get classed like that at all! XD My MRes won't be classified anyway... and I mean everyone on the course, not that I'm so terrible they're refusing to classify me!

For my university we need to get at least 50% of the total work credits at 75% or above pass mark. it's a lot harder than it sounds the sheer volume of coursework coupuled with the ongoing project makes maintaining consistency of high quality work very difficult. I spent almost every night in the computer cluster most of the time alone but believe me there is no other way to do it, it's all hard graft and sacrifice.

First of all dont think that Masters is the final DESTINATION. Make your self believe that your gona do a Phd NO MATTER WHAT. Write 'Dr' in front of your name and see how it changes the complete picture. Think Ahead of the rest. Remain one step ahead of others.
-Then tell me 'How you cannot manage 1st division in masters'

hi. finished my masters last year. start my phd this oct. in my uni (UK) a distinction is 70%and over. not 70% in every piece of work, but 70% overall. i got a merit which is 60% to 69%. a friend of mine was in the 50s and was classed as a pass but they were very pleased as he was a foreign student and english was a language he only started learning couple of months before starting the masters! i did badly in a couple of essays, had 40's but did high 60's and a dissertation at 59%. i had kinda lost it at the end and didnt work on my dis. but i knew by then my grades had fallen into merit and if id handed in a better dis, i would still have got a merit. i know many of my classmates slackened on their dis when they realised it wouldnt make any difference to their classification if they spent more time on it. im not saying thats a good attitude to take...but thats my experience of my masters.

ps. did also get 70% in a piece of work, but mainly all late 60's except the 2 low marks. overall my average grade was in the 60's bracket= a merit.

i take it uni's mark differently. my uni is very strict with marks. someone i know came to do a masters from the OU and failed miserably in the first year of a part-time masters and has now left to go back to do a masters with the OU.