resits plus essays - this is good news, right? staff opinions sought!

[Misthios]

DS has just finished 3rd year of a science-based degree (we are in Scotland and he still has a year to go). He has failed one of his exams this year, he is doing two subjects. Passed both exams first semester, failed one in second semester. DS has a (proper medical) diagnosis of dyspraxia and ADD. He is not medicated. He had his resit today and felt it did not go well, it was his least favourite / most difficult topics, he had a mindblank half way through....

Anyway, at the exam, someone from the university came in and told him he has to write 2 x 1500 word essays on topics he has been studying, due on Thursday lunchtime. He did not know he was going to be asked for these and is now in a total flap.

I have told him that this is an amazing opportunity, and that the uni has clearly recognised that not everyone demonstrates their ability through traditional exams. And that if he throws everything into these essays and does well, that might be enough to pull him through even if the exam went as poorly as he thought.

Am I reading this right, or giving him false hope? And yes, we are investigating getting him additional help going forward.

Seems unlikely he could be required to write two essays by Thursday. Assessment regulations usually give a minimum period of notice so asking for something in three days time sounds highly irregular. Would suggest he emails the programme leader for clarification in the first instance.

He has "special arrangements" on account of his dyspraxia and ADD, so gets extra time and is allowed to do his exams on a computer. He may well have been told that any resit would take X format and has not taken that in. His first attempt at the exam in May was taken as a discounted attempt.

Exam assessments have to be formally written, signed off by external examiners, and in a handbook for students. So a surprise is very unusual. Has he got the course handbook / emails from the course organiser explaining the exam set up / emails from the student office? He needs to email the student office and ask them to clarify. Surely he needs the scope of the essay and so on.

He should take the opportunity and write the essays, just in case he is on the borderline, even if it's a it irregular.

I read the email that came from the Uni about it. The exam plus two essays appears to be their standard format for resits for all students. Although students who read the course handbook (so not DS) the topics on which they have to write the essays are only given to them on the day of the exam, with submission date 72 hours later.

He got the essays done, bit of help from me on structure and grammar but no help whatsoever on the actual topic as it's way beyond me. We are crossing everything that he has done enough to progress to his final year but you know, if he hasn't it's not the end of the world. Another year to get his shit together before being expected to produce a dissertation.

That's good! It sounds a very fair resit design because it's giving students a bigger chance. I find it excruciating when students don't progress and wish we had a system like this.

He has failed the resit and has been placed in academic suspension, he is considering his next move. the uni does offer the option of partial attendance for the module he has failed, which is 25% of the total for the year. He is also considering a switch to a related degree, or repeating the whole year - which seems pointless as he has passed 75% of it. Also trying to sort out medication for his ADD.

I'm so sorry, @Misthios. You're a caring parent. I hope he finds his way through.

thank you @unicareercrossroads. it's not the end of the world, no wrong patth and all that but he's taking it very hard.

Sorry to hear that
With your support he will find his way through this

He's lucky to have support behind him, hope he finds a good path.

Hello,
is there an opportunity to appeal on the grounds that his disability was not taken into account?
If you look at the appeals page for his university, it will tell you what the grounds are. Usually, there is one about defective procedure. There is usually also one about medical or other personal circumstances which affected performance which examiners were not aware of at the time of the assessment. If there has been a change in medication or any other new information which could have affected his performance, then he should bring this forward in his appeal.
The university has a legal obligation to be proactive as regards disability and your DS should not have been in a position that he did not know the format of the assessment, particularly if he had reasonable adjustments in place. Were these adjustments met?
it is a good idea for your DS to immediately speak with his Advisor of Studies and if there is a student representative council, speak to someone there. They will have experience of supporting students through appeals. However, he must make sure an appeal within the given time frame.

I'm not sure to be honest. He was given extra time and the first attempt in May was discounted. Uni has been supportive since he got his diagnosis and have been giving him support with organisation and that sort of thing.

Our plan for tomorrow is to sit down and make a list of the people he needs to contact and the questions he needs to ask, student union and director of studies are top of the list.

Uni website says that they will allow suspension with attendance - so DS could attend the lectures for the one module he has failed, which is a good opportunity. My concern is that DS does the same thing as he did this year, with the same result. Something clearly has to change, whether that's medication, study methods, tutoring... DS is taking it hard because he has always been the clever one, and he's really struggling with failure.

Yes, taking further advice is sensible.

My question about extra time was about the 72 hours for the essay as well. That sounds like a take home exam in addition to a timed exam - so they were given essay questions and had 72 hours to complete in addition to the regular exam. I am surprised the re-sit was in a different format to the first sitting because that seems to create potential problems for students with neurodivergence and indeed, caring and other commitments over the summer. It sounds like students were informed of this, but I am not sure why the essay questions could not have been released in advance or DS been given longer than the 72 hours. The university needs to think proactively about the needs of students with disabilities and caring commitments.

Reflecting on this a bit more, even if the grade is set aside/discounted on appeal, DS would still have to pass the assessments to progress, which is the current issue. Still I would suggest he should ask the Student Union/his Advisor about appealing as an option, particularly if the next sitting is capped in any way (so there is a ceiling on the grade he can get as it is a second sitting). At the very least, it gives him a chance to put forward his case and the staff to consider whether additional adjustments should have been made (beyond extra time for the timed exam part).

I don’t think this is an issue of being clever or not, but organisation which is disability-related and the changing format of the exam/essays in the re-sit (which seems to me odd because the norm would be that re-assessments take the same format unless it is not practical - ie the first assessment was group work and not all the group need to re-sit a course). All of the support services, appeals processes, options to re-take a course or the year exist because students do have different needs and issues to manage, which are nothing to do with how intelligent they are. He has passed 75% of the third year here.

Does he have any assistive softwares from the disability service? So I know that students can find things like MindView helpful. There will also be an academic learning service for help with study skills. But basically take home exams need revision in the same way as regular exams and needing to have the resources ready and book marked to write the essays. So knowing the format of the assessments in advance and making sure he knows this is the big life lesson. Which is better to know now whilst there are still options to progress, even if these options are not particularly palatable.

Sorry this is long.

i appreciate you taking the time to explain that and I do understand your point. I am not still 100% sure that I understand the essay assessment part of the resit and what it refers to, DS is under the impression that everyone who had a resit on any of the modules had to do the essays but anyway, he passed the essay component of the resit - not a stellar mark, but a solid pass - but can't progress because the mark on the exam was only 36.

The student union does have an advocacy/support service and making an appointment with them is on the list of things we need to do.

I am totally out of my depth with support here to be honest, kicking myself for not identifying these issues when he was 8 not 18. I have been reading a lot of facebook groups for parents of adult children with add/adhd and it seems to be a 50/50 split of people saying that getting a degree and having a relatively successful career is entirely possible, and the others saying it'll never happen so give up now and work in a minimum wage job. I'm resigned to the reality of this year as a bit of a write-off but the worry is that he can't get through the next resit and then we have the whole final year to contend with...

Quick reply just now, sorry.

I would try and pick apart the issues, to be honest.
Remember, DS has passed the vast majority of his degree so far. People bring it around from far worse situations.

There are two possibilities as far as I can see.

1. if DS was told before or during the exam about the essays, this in itself affected his performance as you say he was in a flap. He then did quite well to get anything whilst in a flap. Sorry if that sounds flippant, but he has got good results in the essays when he has focused on them not in a flap. I still think this relates to the disability issue and the need for staff to be more proactive with awareness and adjustments if the assessment in the re-sit has changed. But I speak as an outsider to the programme and its needs.
2. He struggles with exams. This would not be unusual in the post-pandemic cohort, even without a disability. So it is then a case of addressing this with study skills suitable for his needs.

That’s my brief response, but I would focus on what he has achieved so far, which is to get into university and get to his third year before meeting a progress issue. And then on the best way through the progress issue.
My other point is that repeating the full year is usually for people who for one reason or another do not complete the majority or all of their courses. Your DS is not in this position.

Thank you. He has looked at the uni website and there is an option for suspension with attendance which means that he is suspended from everything but the bit he failed. As you say, no point in repeating stuff he has passed. It does say the decision to allow this is at the university's discretion as there are funding implications but I am thinking this won't be an issue.

Agree that he has done remarkably well to get this far before running into issues. Will post again once he's spoken to uni next week.

Insufficient notice of the essays could be included in his appeal. But - he should check, check, check his emails. He may have been informed, but students who are anxious about their work tend to become avoidant.

Is it a core module or non-core module?

If he does resit - he can pass, it's a matter of giving it plenty of time, rote learning, and practice, practice, practice. Working through multiple past papers, attending every class, watching the recordings, and going to office hours as often as he can for one-to-one meetings. See if there is an academic support centre too for exam preparation help.

He can do it. It is harder with ADD but still possible. He will probably need to work twice as hard as others but the rewards are still worth it.

It's tough for students facing all sorts of difficulties. They compare themselves to the students who have more money, who learn easily, who have more friends. And they often feel that the effort they put in should be equal, so that they have equal free time. For students with disabilities and students who need to work part-time, this is a cruel mirage.

It is a core module in pharmacology. I think the reality is that he probably was informed about the essays and either didn't read the email or did read it and forgot about it. He has also said that the particular topic covered in this third year module is not one which will be covered at depth in the final year.

I do think it is quite unrealistic though for the uni to expect a student who has demonstrated their inability to stay on task and revise independently, unsupervised, to just take a year's suspension, not attend classes and excel at a second sitting.

Being on academic suspension and having to do one course over a year, where only the exam is missing in terms of credit, seems quite punitive, yes, and in the case of neurodiversity, counter-productive.
But if it is an accredited programme, the university has to adhere to the stipulations of the professional body. Plus, from what you say, this is a core course so it will have additional importance, and generally speaking students need to complete a certain number of credits to progress. The alternative would be carrying the exam only and re-sitting it next year alongside everything in the final year - which is sometimes an option where I am, but that adds workload. This would not be possible on an accredited programme.
I hope your DS can work something out. It sounds like he has done well, and has been taking the right steps to manage his disability in terms of university support. In this case, however, something seems to have gone awry in terms of the communication around the exam and essays, which may have impacted his performance. Hopefully the student union and his advisor can help navigate the best way to progress.

Can you sit down with him and develop a plan for him on how he could complete the module while studying independently, perhaps while also earning some money? Presumably he'll have access to the online materials, lecture recordings, library and so on.

Would he have to return home for the year? I know many students find this difficult because they feel that they will lose access to their university friendships.

Yes I think so - course accredited by the institute of biomedical science which I think means that should graduates wish to, they can go straight to work for the NHS as a biomedical scientist without further exams.

Even if it was possible to "carry" this module and sit it with exams next year - and from what you say it's not - then I don't think that's right for DS. He needs to get his medication and other coping strategies 100% sorted without the extra pressure of finals and a dissertation to write. He is feeling more positive now he has a plan. He has requested an appointment with the student union to discuss funding and support. He has a big list of questions to ask his tutor about additional support, other reading, mentorship possibilities, library access, breakdown of marks.

He scored 31% on the exam in May, and 36% on the resit. If he can improve another 5%, it's a pass. Not a stellar pass, but a pass. The format is 40 x multiple choice questions and then 2 x 30 mark questions which are longer than a couple of sentences but not a full essay. He says there were 4 topics for the essay choices and he had to choose 2. The mark was just expressed as a total mark rather than broken down into the separate sections so he is going to ask about that. I do think he can pull it back with some clear guidance, advice from his tutor about other reading materials, intense revision and perhaps a few directed tutoring sessions. And medication!! All of his other marks in the previous years have been 55-65% - again, nothing stellar, but solid passes. This particular topic is a real sticking point and will require an intense effort on his part.

@unicareercrossroads he's a home student - the uni is locat to us. He swithered about going away but given all that's happened i'm glad he's at home. he would have crashed and burned much sooner had he had to do things like supermarket shopping, cooking, washing clothes and paying bills.

Also he has already spoken to the people who run the two societies he's most involved in and where he has made like-minded friends. They both said that they don't care that he's suspended, as far as they're concerned he's still a student and more than welcome at their meetings.

The fact he can still have his social life helps a lot - very reassuring to hear! It might help to just slow down for a year and rediscover some bandwidth and love of learning.

If your son sits down with the lecturer/tutor and goes through the paper, he could learn a lot - and about exam strategy as much as subject content.

If the tutor has written the paper him/herself, your son could ask what their intention was in setting the question, or even if not, what they think the point of the question was. It's not just about knowing the content, but being good at working out what the questioner is trying to get you to do.

It's very common to see students fail to answer a multiple choice question even where that's pointless - you should guess if you don't know (unless it's a punishing marking scheme where wrong answers are penalised).

Questions often contain clues within the question phrasing themselves - or there is information available within the same paper for another question, which can be drawn upon helpfully elsewhere.

Having a sense of how to read the examiners' intentions is a great skill, though it does depend on getting into exam mode. Being able to focus really helps - tough for students with ADHD, but perhaps with extra time he can use the first few minutes to get in the zone, and bring on the hyperfocus.