Goodness me, what an outpouring of discourse "The Mass Debate" caused yesterday!Anyhoo, may I tear you away from the mechanics of projectiles and divert your attention to Nanny and her works?
This little vignette sounds almost so implausible that I thought someone was "'aving a larf" with me. Regrettably it is 100% true.
One of Nanny's chums, Dr Mike Reddy a senior lecturer in computing and engineering at the University of Wales, wants to engender trust and respect in his students.
Er, why?
I have no idea, but the method he has chosen will do no more than to make him look like a twat in their eyes.
He has decided to let them set their own final-year exam, and also to take notes into the exam hall in case they could not answer their own questions.
What???? I hear you ejaculate (oh dear, there's that word before the 9PM watershed).
Yes folks, not only do his students get to set the exam, just in case they really are too thick and dumb they can also take their own notes in to answer their own questions!
Beggars belief doesn't it?
Dr Reddy claims that it is better than "the common practice" of recycling old exam papers, or giving "strong hints" about content. Well, none of the exams I took were recycled; but then again, my lecturers and teachers actually took some pride in their work.
He said:
"We all wanted the chance to show the research we had put into the subject.
Some people would suggest that an open-book exam is open to plagiarism.
I would counter that by the fact that the students felt a trust and respect from our collaboration."
Prof Alan Smithers, the director of the centre for education and employment research at Buckingham University, said that this was a load of old bollocks (or rather he implied it:)):
"Final degree exams recognise achievement and provide accurate information about how well the student has done.
They are high stakes and competitive and should be carried out under invigilated standards."
In the same spirit, Nanny Knows Best is proud to announce its own degree scheme. Those of you who want to award themselves a first class degree in Nanny Studies should send a cheque addressed to the Ken Frost "build a holiday villa in Spain" fund.
It is not only fun, novel, exciting and challenging; it is compulsory!
And given that lecturers are not currently marking exams, presumably the papers will also be marked by the students ?
ReplyDeleteSounds like we can get rid of the lecturer entirely ......
Whatever happened to good old fashioned reading and revision? Seriously, can things have got this bad in the 12 months since I finished my degree at Salford Uni, where we had to cram and cram and cram, not knowing what questions would come up in the exam.
ReplyDeleteI knew I should have taken a year or two out. I could have taken all my notes and books into the exam and gotten a good mark. Oh wait, hang on, I got a good mark anyway (2:1). Just how thick are these people that they need their notes to do well in an exam, and what the hell are they doing studying engineering?
Seems like university IT departments attract these twats. When I studdied IT (just shortly after the invention of the difference engine) we had a Professor T. Watt who instited on using a binary marking system. 1 - if he liked the essay that you'd just spent three days writing, 0 - if he didn't. After tens of complaints from the students to the faculty head, he finally relented, and re-marked them 1, 1/2 and 0.
ReplyDeleteMy eldest has just finished her second year of Accounting and Business studies.
ReplyDeleteIn one of her end of year exams she started to answer one of the more numerical questions as the second question of the exam session - so some way in to the tiem allowed - when it was announced that there were some errors in the figures provided. So she starte it again and 10 mns later it was announced there were some more errors. So she did a coupdl of other question, by now being somewhat annoyed and distracted, and was about to return to it when they announced there were even more errors. So she did a different question completely, one which she was less prepared for or interested in as a subject but on the basis that the error s might make it impossible tio get a suitable answer to the preferred question. 5 mins from the end they announced that they had found even more errors in the original question.
I wonder what they would say if she missed a higher degree by one or two points next year because of the problems with that question.
At least she had the presence of mind to get write some notes against the question and the paper in general explaining her disatisfcation and got them signed by the invigilator.
In my view that, and the fact that she spelt her name correctly, should guarantee an immediately awarded First!
I could carry on about this for days, but I'll try to refrain from doing so. Yes, universities have as their primary function education (well, at least theoretically). But they have another function, generally overlooked by those espousing 'collaboration,' 'mutual respect,' 'nurturing' and suchlike bollocks.
ReplyDeleteThey certify that their graduates have attained some level of performance in certain areas of expertise (again, theoretically). Universities failing to take this second function seriously squander vast amounts of public and private resources, waste huge amounts of time, and deceive and - yes, at times - exploit those students too naive or dimwitted to realize they are learning almost nothing of substance and value.
No doubt, many of the students think it doesn't really matter whether or not they actually learn how to do anything for which another human being would willingly pay them money. No doubt, this is a lesson they've learned both from their prior education and the society in which they live.
The last thing a high school graduate needs is four more years of high school. But, sadly, that's just what they'll be getting.