University exams

[Skullduggeryfizz]

My daughter is a first year student at a UK university studying politics. They have been informed this afternoon that their exams in the summer term will go ahead. They will do them at home, being given the questions and have to submit them in a set time, i.e 3 hours.

Just why?
Surely all the university efforts should go into the year 3 and 4 students. They must be going through so much as it's their final years.

Plus there must be a lot of students who don't have great WiFi, quiet areas to study, illness or even death to deal with. With the mental stress on everyone during this time do they really need to add on any more.

I suspect the alternative may be to resit the year or take exams late Summer (when retakes are normally) in the hope of passing the year and resuming in Autumn. .

Surely they could just go on yearly averages, the same as A levels and GCSE exams. I just feel that some people are going to be so disadvantaged

In some universities (like mine), first year results count towards final classifications.

Because first year exams function as a gatekeeper to the later harder years and it's not fair to allow students to go into second year if they're not able.

Because the learning objectives have been taught and can still be assessed, albeit in a different way.

Because all the work done to rework assessment for later years (necessary as you say) can be used to rework earlier years. So it just means individual module coordinators have to rework their assessment and then do marking they would've been doing anyway.

Because some students will do much better in the second semester than the first and should be allowed the opportunity to do so.

Many unis change modules for second semester. Realistically between strikes and covid 19 there may be very little submitted work since Christmas to base any assessment on, as this is done in the latter part of the course and/or via exams. Some year 2 module options will build on year 1 material.

We are being told to carry out assessments where possible.....adjusting things if needed as in your DDs case. If anyone has issues these will taken into account.
We can't win really.....cancel them completely and we get complaints. Adjust them and get complaints 🤷

A lot of courses are doing similar. Issues with WiFi or personal circumstances should be handled by the course leader.
Exams should be adjusted for the current situation.

What everyone else said! Where students' circumstances are not conducive to online exams at home there are lots of examples around the sector of excellent mitigation, from one uni posting 4g enabled devices to students with no broadband, to guaranteed minimum policies where grades will not go below the average obtained to date.

And yes all efforts are being made to final years, but that doesn't mean first and second years get a free ride! After all as people are so keen to keep reminding us, they are paying to sit exams and have them marked.

So if all these factors are so important, why are some universities having no exams at all and others are. How can that be fair and equal?

Each uni/subject/course is structured differently so impossible to generalise. I'm not sure how science foundation years could be passed, for example if less than 2/3 of the syllabus has been covered and assessed. The whole point is to make up any gaps in preparation for progression onto the full degree. In Medicine you cannot just miss courses out.

So if all these factors are so important, why are some universities having no exams at all and others are. How can that be fair and equal?

You do get that not all History courses are exact replicas of each other yes? Different modules will be studied so why would you expect assessment methods to be identical? Maybe you think that Maths first year assessment methods should be the same as Geography. And French. And Art History....

But every university has different rules for assessment anyway? They're all standalone. So they're all doing their best to adapt at very short notice, to be fair to students but not diminish the quality or integrity of their qualifications. Stands to reason they'll all come to slightly different conclusions.

Because universities/faculties/departments/courses are all different. You can't generalise.
Even in my very,very niche subject that's only offered at 6 universities is taught and assessed 6 different ways.

FIrst year exams are not usually about final degree classification. There are probably two main purposes in having first year exams:

1. to make sure students have an incentive to study the course as fully as possible, not just any elements covered by coursework, so that they have all the prior understanding they need for the second year;
2. to give them a practice run at doing university-level exams, so that if they've not taken in quite what that's like, they've a chance to improve next year. So cancelling exams could be detrimental in terms of knock-on effects next year.

Hopefully the university will be fully sympathetic to those who are ill or hampered by a poor study environment and have (or will put in place) procedures for notifying the university if this is the case.