Examiners’ reports

Many examining boards ask their examiners to produce reports each year which explain the general performance of candidates. The same concerns are highlighted year-in-year-out. They invariably read

something like this:

• ‘Many students did not read the instructions at the head of the question paper. Some answered fewer than required and some even answered more! Some failed to answer the required number from each section and others missed out elements of a multi-part question.’
• ‘Students did not read the questions carefully enough. A question in a 20th century history paper asking for causes of the outbreak of World War 1 prompted answers from some candidates relating to World War 2!’
• ‘Students did not take careful note of the verb in the question which told them what to do e.g. assess, compare, describe, argue, list, etc. Instead they regurgitated all they could think of about the topic involved.’
• ‘Students did not plan their answers. They produced an uncoordinated mass of prose which jumped around from point to point with no logical thread running through the answer. In short, there was no structure or logic to the answer which made it very difficult to mark.’
• ‘Judgements and viewpoints were not supported by clear evidence. Lack of objectivity was often evident with wild generalisations and personal prejudices included.’
• ‘Students did not manage their time effectively which meant that many did not finish. Others wrote unnecessarily long answers to some questions and only a few lines for the final ones because they ran out of time.’