2011 Exam

[Peter]

Welcome back to the forum after the 2011 exam.

Please feel free to discuss your thoughts / feelings / problems etc with the exam. We are happy to collate issues and help feed them back to the examiners.

Peter

[PJW]

Indeed.
I wasn't too surprised by the rather different spin that was placed on the mod5 TC calculation- there was some hint that the question could well be presented rather differently since it had felt to be too formulaic. It'll be interesting what effect that had on its popularity and how well it was done.
Rather surprised though that the mod 3 aspect sequence question was purely a drawing of a chart, but I haven't looked at the associated layout in detail.

I am actually considering offering a paper for 'Aspect 2012' on the subject of the IRSE Exam and whether its format should change in future- in particular regarding the challenges of:
a) UK students now used to more coursework and less onus on "final exams"
b) need to be more internationally applicable
c) changes in technology, particularly move to on-board transmission based signalling.

So any "longer term" ideas as well as those applicable just to the 2011 examination would also be appreciated by me.

Welcome back to the forum after the 2011 exam.

Please feel free to discuss your thoughts / feelings / problems etc with the exam. We are happy to collate issues and help feed them back to the examiners.

Peter

[Zaphod]

I have to confess that the change in TC calculation format threw me so I didn't do it. That's not to say the change was a bad thing but under exam pressure I cracked and didn't want to risk getting part way through the question and getting stuck.

I agree with PJW about internationally applicability of the exams. Personally it seems to me that the main challenge would be in module 3, where the layout provided seems very clearly to follow GB practice. In other modules at least it can partly be addressed by adding more questions with an 'international' flavour. At the same time, it does seem like the questions in other modules are generally about issues that are relevant in several countries.

From what I've heard about the aspect sequence chart, it was quite a complicated scenario to deal with. Then again, last year's question was just drawing a chart too.

[Peter]

From what I've heard about the aspect sequence chart, it was quite a complicated scenario to deal with.

I think the sting is in the braking distances.....

[vedprakash]

Hi Peter

Could you please give a brief on passing criteria? Do we have to attain minimum passing marks in all 3 attempted questions or two questions written adequately are enough to fetch passing marks? What are the passing marks for different modules? For getting a Credit or distinction how much is the cutoff in different modules? Or is it same for all the modules, or does it change every year?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Ved

Welcome back to the forum after the 2011 exam.

Please feel free to discuss your thoughts / feelings / problems etc with the exam. We are happy to collate issues and help feed them back to the examiners.

Peter

[Jerry1237]

I believe a pass is given when a student shows sufficient knowledge at the right level across all of the questions. A pass is more likely to be given if the student shows that they have an understanding of the underlying priciples of each question versus someone who has just guessed at some of the answer[s].

Credit is give to someone who shows a good all round understanding but provides further detail to validate their points.

Distinction is someone who excels with their answers showing a superb depth of knowledge, answers the question[s] fully and has gone out of their way to provide significant levels of detail in a concise and succinct way.

There is discussion on other threads about marking criteria.

[Peter]

Hi Peter

Could you please give a brief on passing criteria? Do we have to attain minimum passing marks in all 3 attempted questions or two questions written adequately are enough to fetch passing marks? What are the passing marks for different modules? For getting a Credit or distinction how much is the cutoff in different modules? Or is it same for all the modules, or does it change every year?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Ved

Certainly in past years, the examiners have made it clear that is it the total of marks for the module as a whole. This does mean, in theory that you could nswer two questions very well and omit one and still pass.

The exam committee will never discuss the cut off point for Pass / Credit / distinction. I have hear the comment that a distinction requires "three good answers", so in common with other organisations scorings, you could infer from that you would be looking for 75% or above for a distinction. This would make it impossible to get a distinction on only two questions which fits with the ethos of the exam requring depth and breadth - you cannot expect the top marks if you are only very clever in a range so limited that you can only answer two questions out of the selection given.

I think the boundaries are generally consistenet across the modules.

Sorry I cannot be more definite, but the information is not in the public domain.

[PJW]

Indeed none of us knows for sure.
My belief from some private discussions with certain examiners together with what is written and said at the annual Exam Review is that
a) there is no minimum quota for any question; the module is marked as a whole
b) Pass is about 50%, Credit about 65%, Distinction about 80% but NOT just done on arithmetical sum of individual marks, it will also be determined in how those marks are obtained. The more "patchy" the less likely that a particular numeric mark would be awarded the grade. Personally I feel that if you got very nearly full marks for two questions but did not attempt, or only got a very minimum mark on, the third then they would not award a Credit even if actually scored over the nominal threshold- you would have failed to show competence across the minimum range so I reckon they'd permit a Pass but no more. Similarly I do wonder what result you'd get if you got marks 21+15+3= 39; I suspect that this may not Pass, yet someone scoring 15+13+9 = 37 might.
It isn't therefore "cut and dry", but an overall assessment is made of how well the candidate has met the objective- as expressed by Jerry earlier.
c) I am sure that efforts are made to set an even standard across all modules; the examiners do tend to rotate around occasionally between the modules they mark which should stop any "drift" and they do discuss some marginal (that means any grade boundary) across the whole committee so that also engages the whole team.
Because of the relatively low numbers of both candidates and examiners, I think that there is probably a rather better consistency across the IRSE Exam than there would be across much larger public examinations.

Hi Peter

Could you please give a brief on passing criteria? Do we have to attain minimum passing marks in all 3 attempted questions or two questions written adequately are enough to fetch passing marks? What are the passing marks for different modules? For getting a Credit or distinction how much is the cutoff in different modules? Or is it same for all the modules, or does it change every year?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Ved

Certainly in past years, the examiners have made it clear that is it the total of marks for the module as a whole. This does mean, in theory that you could nswer two questions very well and omit one and still pass.

The exam committee will never discuss the cut off point for Pass / Credit / distinction. I have hear the comment that a distinction requires "three good answers", so in common with other organisations scorings, you could infer from that you would be looking for 75% or above for a distinction. This would make it impossible to get a distinction on only two questions which fits with the ethos of the exam requring depth and breadth - you cannot expect the top marks if you are only very clever in a range so limited that you can only answer two questions out of the selection given.

I think the boundaries are generally consistenet across the modules.

Sorry I cannot be more definite, but the information is not in the public domain.

[vedprakash]

Thank you PJW and Peter for giving me a better understanding of marking patter. Much appreciated.