"Double Chance" Assessment

In an effort to overcome some of the problems which have resulted from the introduction of in-term assessment the staff and students of the French sector of the Romance Languages Department last year came up with a proposal to give students a "second chance". Their idea of "double chance" assessment was to give students a mark out of 100 for their performance in course work and then to give them the opportunity to improve on this mark by sitting an end of year examination. Students presenting themselves for both types of assessment would be given the higher of the two marks obtained as their final result. An important element in this proposal was that students would be told their mark for their year's work before the final exam.

The advantages of this method of assessment would be to give students two chances to score well and to give more equal opportunity to those who prefer course work assessment and those who prefer final exams. But its disadvantages are that it would present students with a most difficult, if not unfair decision, at the end of the year: whether to settle for the mark obtained during the year or to challenge the judgement of their lecturers by sitting a final exam. Furthermore it would not remove many of the disadvantages of in-term assessment that were outlined in last week's article.

Although the French sector's proposal was only a limited attempt at reform, it did offer students a much better deal than the established method of in-term assessment. It was also a proposal that was jointly worked out by staff and students at all levels of the French sector's courses. However the proposal has not been implemented in its original form. The Professorial Board subsequently altered it to make the finals exam compulsory. But the student's final grade is determined by his highest mark in course work or finals, and a student can score as low as 40% in either mark and still pass.