How does that work? At my school it doesn't matter how well you do with other assessments, you must get a minimum of 50% in all invigilated assessments. So you'd have needed 50% to pass the exam anyway.
Different schools and different professors will do it differently....But let us say it is 25% MT1 25%MT2 25%Quiz/HW 25% final. IF you get everything else, then you really don't need to score high on the final.
I've had some professors who get lazy and say 1 MT and 1 Final. One that says, " if FINAL > mean(MT,Final) then GRADE=FINAL", another that went through a whole slew of little tests and homework (usually in lower div classes), others that give 2 MT and 1 Final, some that have just projects and no finals, one that had just 4 "quizzes", etc. etc. etc.
I'm surprised that it sounds like your kiwi professors grade on a standardized scale