French Revolution: Department forced to void paper after yet another exam cock-up

The French Department was forced to void an exam paper last Friday following outrage over a second year French test.

The linguists say the paper, which took place on Thursday, was littered with errors and contained a question which had nothing to do with what they’d been told to prepare and revise for.

Second year Niamh Crittenden said: “We had to trek to Hillsborough in arctic conditions. We got to the exam, and the first part, which required a translation, hadn’t been proof-read and was full of mistakes.”

The exam paper

“Everyone then turned over the paper and people started laughing- the question wasn’t anything to do with the dossier we’d been given a week to prepare for.

“We told the exam invigilator, who phoned up the department. They then told us “we’d just have to have a go” and that we’d be given an extra half an hour, compared to the week we should have had.

“People literally started shouting, crying and threatening to leave- the exam invigilator phoned up again but we were forced to attempt the translation anyway.”

One student, who wishes to remain anonymous, said “we had our own sort of French Revolution, and one girl actually shouted “liberté!” It was a massive cock up by the French Department.”

Emails and complaints started rolling in to the department, who decided to reschedule the exam for Friday 6th February. People took to Twitter and Facebook to complain about this further, with one student even threatening to contact the Vice Chancellor.

Many complained they had already planned home visits, meaning their non refundable train tickets of up to £60 would go completely to waste.

On Friday, the department eventually declared the paper as null and void, with students being told they now to complete a piece of coursework instead.

Niamh said: “They were pretty decent about it in the end- but we pay 9 grand a year. Why should we pay for their mistakes?”