More students speak up about Cardiff’s ‘awful’ exam situations

‘It’s been a total disaster’


Cardiff University students have spoken up about the potentially unfair exam format, and the poor communication of it, within The School of Engineering.

The Cardiff Tab previously reported that some Civil Engineering students were given information on the format of their exams just twenty-four hours before it was due to take place. Student’s were informed by email that they would not be able to return to questions once they had moved past them, and that the questions would be in a random order.

A mechanical engineering student has since contacted the Cardiff Tab, saying that they have the “same awful exam format”. The student added that they are expected to complete sixty marks in sixty minutes, calling it “crazy tough”,  particularly with the “lack of being able to check answers.”

The student further commented: “It’s appalling. It’s so important […] to be able to check answers as it’s so easy to misread questions especially under such pressure.”

According to the student, an “error” in one exam also caused marks to be released straight after submission closed. He commented that this had the potential to cause “those that failed to lose all confidence and ruin their chances in future exams.”

“It’s been a total disaster.”

Some students took to twitter to complain of the school’s decisions regarding exams:

An architectural engineering student told The Cardiff Tab that they were also informed that “questions would be in a different order for each student” but said that their main concerns “are not being able to go back to questions and not being able to submit workings.”

The student noted that they “can’t get method marks” meaning that “if you get the first stage of the calc wrong then you might lose all of the marks despite the fact that you may have done the rest of the calculation correctly.”

A Cardiff University spokesperson said: “The online exams have been designed, based on feedback from staff and students, to be completely fair for everyone, whilst at the same time adhering to exam formats that have been in place across the School for many years.”

“To be absolutely clear, in some exams students are able to see their own results once their exam is finished, but not the results of others. This has been well received by students who were pleased to be told how they performed.”

They added, “If any student has concerns or issues regarding their exams or any other form of assessment, we would encourage them to speak directly with their programme director.”

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