Multiple choice exam (final year) - advice needed

[FlotsamNotJetsam]

Not sure I’m posting in the correct place, but I would really appreciate some advice from any academics out there.

My dc (currently in final year) has had semester 1 module results back, and there is a single low score, due to the module being 70% multiple choice exam on computer (and 30% coursework), and the marking approach taken was that there were multiple parts to each question on the multiple choice exam, each scoring marks, but if a student got a single part of the question wrong, then they scored 0 for the overall question. DC says that there were perhaps 5-8 parts in each overall question. There was also an error in the paper (where one large question was not possible to answer), but that has been ‘adjusted’, apparently. There is also described a ‘random marks adjustment’ of up to 10 % (or 10 marks?) that is potentially applied afterwards (according to the module outline).

What this has meant is that my DC’s score for this exam is approx 20 % less than the scores for all their other modules / module components, from semester 1 (year 3), and from all of the modules in year 2, and has essentially meant that it will bring their total average for year 3 down, ruling out a place on an MSc course that they have a conditional offer for, for next year.

This doesn’t seem a correct or fair way to mark - that someone can get, say 72% of the sub-questions correct, but a lot of those points will be discounted if there was also an incorrect answer in the question.

Does anywhere else do this?

Is there anything that can be done, this year? (Eg complaining / appealing?). How should dc go about this?

Apparently, students complain about this module every year, but it has never changed.

Thanks in advance, if anyone has any advice.

once the exam has happened and everyone in the course has been treated in the same way, I don't think there is any opportunity to change the grades. students can complain via the student-staff consultative committee (or similar) but that can only make changes for next year.

but the Higher Education board is a better place to ask as a parent of student - this board is for anyone who works at a university to discuss their job and isn't heavily used.

@parietal Thanks for your advice - it’s so frustrating though!

(the situation, I mean - not your advice!)

I’d suggest he talks to the programme lead and if he is still upset he could contact the student union for support.

Dd did this in her final year over an assessment which was unfairly set, she ended up having a meeting with the deputy vice chancellor for student quality and the whole assessment was quashed and reset for the whole cohort. The cohort then went from 60% of them failing to them all passing. So changes can be made though I accept it’s unusual and your DS may have to be quite persistent.

It does sound odd but there may be some reasoning behind it but if so they need to explain it to the students. You’d like to think this assessment has been signed off within the university department and also by an external examiner but I accept it’s possible to slip the finer details through without others realising at times.

@HighStreetOtter Thanks so much for this. It’s really good to hear that your dd was successful. Apparently there have been complaints about this module last year (and maybe in previous years?), but the lecturer has been adamant that it won’t change. I will ask dc whether any of the students has been in touch with the student union. Would you mind if I DM you, please? Thanks so much for posting your dd’s experience.

The board of exam should normally look at the average score for that module compared to other year 3 modules. If it is off-kilter then that should be discussed with the external examiner and if necessary all marks should be scaled up accordingly, unless there is a specific justification for the difference in results (e.g. different cohort picking that module. I'd suggest she goes to see her academic advisor to discuss the process and also the mark. Don't forget, other students may have done well on this assessment, it's always possible; if so, her advisor can help her understand where she went wrong and she can learn from it.

Hi, do dm me that’s fine,

@Ramblingaway Thanks very much for this. The module outline actually states that there is a ‘random’ marks adjustment (of up to 10 % or 10 marks, I can’t remember which) applied to the students’ marks after the exam - there is no explanation as to whether it is random for each individual student, or if it is scaling the whole cohort up or down by the same mark or %. This seems very odd that this should be designed into an assessment from the start, rather than as an action taken if the results are anomalous. I can’t see any mention of this approach listed within the University’s Examinations and Assessments policy (online) - the policies pretty much seem focussed on a typical written exam.

One other issue is that in the early part of the exam there was a large question with multiple parts, that had an error in it, so it was essentially impossible to answer (it was a stem subject exam, and there were calculations involved). Apparently this issue has been dealt with, by all students being given a particular mark for that question (I am not sure what that is, or whether it was consistently applied). However, I imagine this would have thrown all of the students - and probably caused quite a lot of panic in the exam room. One friend of my dc spent a long time trying to do the impossible question, with the result that they were left with very little time to complete the rest of the exam. With the consequence that the friend’s score on the exam is roughly 30 % less than the score that they have been getting for other modules. I don’t think just adjusting the marks for the impossible question takes into account the impact this will have had on students’ overall performance in the exam.

Another friend on the course has dyslexia, and they are given extra time; however, students with dyslexia are much more likely to make little mistakes in transcription (especially in things like abstract symbols, due to working memory issues), which under this marking scheme would mean that a small transcription error in one part of a sub-question calculation would result in zero marks for the whole question. One might counter that by saying that the additional time makes allowance for the checking of answers - however, given that there was also an impossible question, which would have eaten up a lot of time, this would have meant that there would be limited / no time for checking for mistakes in the additional time. It feels like this sort of marking approach (‘all or nothing’) is particularly bad if you have dyslexia.

My dc has been to their academic adviser - they have been told that there will be an email going out to students about the module (from some other member of staff) - not sure what info this will cover.