Exam Stress

I love our university dearly and am often proud of what they achieve in the way of awards, accreditation by external bodies, and accolades from students. However sometimes, just sometimes I have to hold my head in my hands and give a little cry of despair.

Exam time can be stressful enough for students, but imagine getting to the exam and being told by the invigilators that one of the questions on the paper was no longer available to you as an option to answer and you should strike it through. Worse still, imagine sitting the exam and not being told by the invigilators about the now disallowed question, then getting home relieved that you had survived, only to have a letter drop through your mailbox advising you that one of the questions you had answered had actually been disallowed.

This is what has happened to many students on one science course recently. In fairness they have been told that

"The University has now also put in place mechanisms to ensure an equitable assessment for all students performance in the examination"

But that doesn't alter that fact that a significant number of them were not told about the disallowed question and so answered it.

So far no information is forthcoming from the university about what will be done for these students. I am investigating and will update the blog as soon as I have news

25/10/06
Apologies for the delay folks (my fault not the universitys - they got back to me very quickly but my life got in the way of my updating the blog)
19/10/06
Having heard back from the relevant department of the university (and my thanks for their speedy response), I am satisfied that they are aware of the full situation regarding the above exam, and am confident that when the results are determined they will be done so in a manner that is fair to all students who sat the exam, and that no one will be either advantaged nor disadvantaged.

That’s it folks – fingers crossed that your results are what you wished for yourselves.