05-10-2015, 05:26 PM
(05-10-2015, 06:46 AM)dorothy.pipet Wrote: I do wonder what impact on each subsequent year's exam when marking takes so long it must delay preparation of the next paper; perhaps something the examiners could comment on at the next review.
I think there used to be a bit of a lull before setting the next paper and what has happened is that gap has been filled. However I think you are correct that there are some significant effects-
a) the availability to have contact with the examiners within that time window is much reduced
b) as you have pointed out separately the relevant dates for any appeals to be heard will have to be updated until AFTER the results are published!
c) the holding of the Exam Review in late Jan / early Feb was good timing to kick off the following year's study. The first few months of the New Year in the UK are generally a good time to get started (inspirational New Year resolutions, the start of a "new term" at work, dark evenings with less incentive to do other things, post Christmas financial squeeze similarly restricting ability to spend money so overall studying becomes a more attractive proposition that it is later on in the year). For an exam in October then I feel that for many people the preparation should be something like Feb/March/April- reading and assimilating to get good awareness of topics, May/June/July- start attempting to answer questions in parallel with more study directed at these particular questions, August/September- practicing answers as much as possible "closed book". Starting later is detrimental, yet until one knows the result of last year's exam then may be very uncertain whether should be studying for a different module(s) or redoing the previous so this certainly presents a practical problem; even worse if trying to organise a Study Group (as whereas an individual might have a feeling whether they have passed or not, trying to get a group consensus in such circumstances is likely to be quite difficult.
Hence overall I think that it might actually have an even greater effect on the students rather than examiners.
PJW