Fears that final year exam papers may not be accurately marked have been raised after students carried out their own “test” of fair marking in their department.
Three final year French students worked together to produce almost identical copies of a non-assessed translation, which was a copy of an exercise they are expected to complete in their final exams.
They submitted the three very similar translations to three different tutors within the department to see how accurately the tutors – who will be marking their exam papers – assessed students’ work.
Each of the translations was placed in a different classification, with one receiving a first with a grade of 76.5 per cent, one receiving a 2:1 with 60 per cent and the final paper receiving a 2:2 with 53 per cent.
Education Officer Holly Taylor has termed the results of the students’ test “very worrying”.
She said: “Although I have not seen the feedback that each of the students received, the discrepancies here are very worrying.
“For such a short piece of assessment it should be fairly easy for an academic to establish which grade bracket it falls in to, which clearly is not the case here.”
One of the students, who received 60 per cent for her work, told Forge Press that she believes that some tutors may not be sticking to a standard marking system.
She said that she and her course-mates are now anxious about their final exam results.
She said: “I’m now worried about who is going to be marking my exam papers, especially as I’m currently on the borderline between two degree classifications.
“Our test showed that there are some tutors who mark fairly but definitely others who are harder and too picky over small details.
“Now we are concerned that these tutors might be the ones marking our exams.”
Another of the students who submitted similar papers said she was “really demoralised” after receiving 53 per cent for her work.
She said: “I’ve lost confidence in my tutor. I don’t trust them to mark my work now and I’m worried about who will mark my final exam papers.”
Holly Taylor said she appreciated that all Arts subjects were subjective but that work should be marked in accordance with marking criteria and not on any personal opinions on the topic or the student.
She said: “The University has issued a set of principles around assessment and feedback for students.
“I would ask both students and academic staff to use these as a way of knowing what is expected of the assessment feedback process.
“This should help in stamping out situations like this one.”
Head of department, Dr David McCallum, was asked whether he agreed with the specific grades given to the three students but did not comment. He told Forge Press that the department did all it could to ensure marking was fair.
He said: “The University is aware of differences in the marking of translation scripts in the Department of French.
“There is no single, ideal translation for any given text, this is the case in all language departments and is part of the nature of the exercise of translation.”
Professor McCallum insisted that what were perceived by the students as “slight differences” between the three translations, such as the difference between “its” and “it’s”, were in fact more significant.
“There were several differences in the scripts submitted in this case which could not be considered negligible distinctions in either meaning, grammatical accuracy or idiomatic construction, which demonstrates these were not ‘near-identical’ papers”, he said.
He stressed that students should not be concerned about who is marking their exam papers.
He said: “In an official exam, translation marking of scripts is always carried out in teams of two to ensure an accurate mark is reached.
“Language exam papers are also marked across the whole year group, so that each paper is marked in the context of the students’ peers.
“All final-year language papers are also seen by experienced external examiners who read and sample them for the fairness, consistency and range of marking applied.
“The students can rest assured that final-year language exam papers will be fairly marked.”
Despite their concerns, the students praised one lecturer, Professor David Walker, for his conduct.
“He went through the exam criteria in detail with us,” one student said. “He also explained exactly why he marked as he did, which eased my mind a little.”