2015 Results

[PJW]

Mohan,
I'm not sure I see how that would help the examiners. [PJW do you know how many, if any, examiners work on more than one paper?]. I think it may help some candidates, others will try and prepare in too short a time and we'll get more fails. I already can only manage one paper a year to do well. Worth discussing but may not help the underlying issue.
I hear that Thorrowgood Scholarships already take into account those who have achieved outstanding results but not all in the same year.

So in my view the things we need
* more examiners, without burying the benefit in co-ordinating and invigilating between them;
* Candidates who take the exam when they are ready i.e. better preparation of those who take the exam and few trying to take it to early in their railway careers.

And as I see it we need those who have passed well in recent years to both become examiners and help the candidates.

No examiners mark more than one paper.
The prime difficulty seems to be that people underestimate the preparation they need to do prior to the exam- we suspected this before but this is also what the survey results told us.  
Twice a year exams would increase costs for everyone, require more volunteers to give up time for invigulating etc.; given that the reason why we seem to be in the current situation is that inadequate studying and practice gets done, I don't see the solution is to change the exam.  The one thing we might do is to keep it to be annual but only certain modules certain years........ 

If in a year where there is no one worthy of a Thorrowgood, then the examiners do look to see if there is anyone who has achieved a suitable level of performance spread over that year and the previous one, but the emphasis is on those doing all 4 modules at once.  I advise people who are perhaps thinking of it to study for modules, do not sit, then study for more modules and when they feel they are ready then sit the lot altogether.

As for your * points:
*1.  Does happen and probably at the level for most modules that caouldn't readily be extended
*2.  That is where our focus now is.  Watch out for forthcoming IRSE News.

Either help, or be examiners- not both!

Since both the existing mod 2 examiners are into their retirement, I am sure that fresh blood is needed- be careful what you wish for!