ACS Exam: Faculty Statement
Added on February 25, 2010
The following is a statement released by the faculty on 25/02/2010:
IACS exam Feb 2010
The standard was thought unrealistic – this exam is now standard set, which means that a group of people sit and look at each question and decide how a borderline student should how about each individual question and in this way, determine the pass mark for each question and the exam overall. I understand there is a perception abroad that the ACS exam is fitted to a normal distribution in some way so that a fixed proportion of students are destined to fail. This is not what happens – the exam being standard set means that if all the students achieve a mark in excess of the required pass mark, all will pass; if 10 get less, 10 will fail.
Large number of questions – there were in fact the same numbers as in last year’s exam, but there was an additional 30 minutes this year. The question numbers were the same as last year and the balance was the same. The length of time can again be reviewed but it is difficult to adequately test the breadth of the curriculum with out the volume of material that is presently tested.
No practice exams available – sadly as a result of student complaint last year these were discontinued after last academic year, when there was disquiet expressed because the practice examination was too easy. I have discussed with the Unit and Elements leads ways in which this can be redressed, and there are some options to explore.
Not prepared for material examined – I understand from Professor Pignatelli that were a number of tutorials provided that explicitly covered aspects of Data Interpretation and there were questions available on Blackboard which was representative of the type and subject material.
Distress of students – I have sought some verbal feedback from those invigilating – this is not exactly in line with what they saw as their experience of student behaviour but of course it is difficult to comment on what people felt inside.
The overall volume of subjects was also considered too much – we are presently undertaken a review of the curriculum and I have already asked Francesca Curry, Galenicals President to provide me with names of people to give a student perspective on the curriculum to feed in to this. It may be worth pointing out that several years ago students expressed a view that COMP I and COMP II were lighter than RHCN and ACS, which was the pairing at the time. Accordingly we moved the units to the present pairings. I understand that the overall volume of examined material has not increased over the past few years.
I appreciate that these points may not satisfy people’s sense of unhappiness, but hope that they in some way go to address these points.
With best wishes
David Cahill
Feel free to contact Galenicals (president@galenicals.org.uk) on any matters reguarding the recent exams, so that these views can be effectively brought up with the faculty. Also, don’t forget the SSLC is coming up (5pm Tues 16/03/10 CfME).
