Grounds for Appeal or not..

NaiveMelodies · 09-07-2012 5:36pm #1

Hi there,

Just wondering if anyone has been in position before or has any idea if I have any grounds for an appeal.

Basically, I failed a resit exam, which is the only one thats currently stopping me from graduating.

I had a number of issues with the timing of the exam and especially, the notice given.

I emailed the Module Co-ordinator for said Exam soon after receiving my exam timetable, as I was not allocated a time on the official timetables.
She replied to say she'd be in touch soon, however I received no reply as late as the 2nd week of April. I then emailed the course coordinator, enquiring if she could help me, as I was quite anxious at this stage, with the upcoming exams and a Thesis I had to finish.
She forwarded on the email to the module coordinator, who replied the following day, telling me that herself and the lecturer would Assign me an assignment which I would be given ample time to complete after the Exam period.
I was delighted with this, as I could give the assignment a good go in my own time.
Anyway, I'd heard nothing from the module co-ordinator coming into the 2nd week of my exams, so on the wednesday I e-mailed her to ask what the story was. I had an exam the thursday,friday, saturday so I was up the walls and at the same time quite panicky about my repeat, whether they'd forgotten about me or not...
She replied the following day saying that herself and lecturer had decided to set me an MCQ exam for the following week, Giving me the option of the Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. I wasn't overly happy with this, as I was down to work full time starting from Monday, Wasn't too confident of having the time or energy to study a full course in 4 or 5 days. The previous MCQ I'd had for that lecturer was very difficult so this made me very uneasy.
The only day that suited my work was the Wednsday so I decided to go for that exam time.

Anyway, turned up for my Exam on the day, the module co-ordinator was 5 minutes late, had no idea if it was negative marking or not, told me to assume otherwise and she'd let me know the following day(which she did'nt). So I was a bit of a nervous wreck during and after the exam, which I thought I might have scraped a pass, assuming negative marking wasn't being applied.

Failed the Exam.. Asked her was negative marking was applied the day I got my result, she said she'd check, then replied telling me it was originally applied, but after correcting without negative marking, I'd still failed!

So I was very keen on appealing, most of my friends, family said I should 100% do it, even it just mean't a free resit in September.
My main gripe being the very short notice for such an important exam.

Just want to try and get an unbiased opinion here, If anyone could be honest with me and let me know I'd really appreciate it.
Really sorry for the long post..

Maldesu · 09-07-2012 6:40pm

I'd appeal it. Starting with a potential exam to being told it would be a written assignment, just to have a mcq dropped on you with no time for preparation is a load of BS. Not sure how you do go about appealing, but I'd not want to deal with the Mod Co-ord after all of this. Seems like they were unable to do their job properly in either assigning a exam time or writing the paper.

If you appeal make sure you have all the emails and all responses to it. Write up the exam dates etc to show what the workload was at the time, showing how little time you had for the MCQ being dropped on your plate.

I'd probably start doing a bit of study too on the topic as I would expect them to say you need to pass the mod, either via assignment or exam. Might as well brush up on it while you can.

groovyg · 09-07-2012 9:32pm

Thats really bad form on their part. I hope you kept a record of the e-mails between you and module co-ordinations just to show that you were offered an assignment and at the last minute it was changed to mcq. I'm not sure whether your're undergrad or postgrad but is there someone higher up you can contact besides the programme co-ordinater ...e.g Is there an associate dean for undergraduate / postgraduate programmes in your school that you make a complaint to? You wanna get a move on with the exam appeal, appeals need to be lodged within 30 days of your results http://www.ucd.ie/appeals/exam_appeal.htm
Best of luck. Hope it works out for you.

MrKingsley · 09-07-2012 9:40pm

Maldesu wrote: »

If you appeal make sure you have all the emails and all responses to it. Write up the exam dates etc to show what the workload was at the time, showing how little time you had for the MCQ being dropped on your plate.

I'd probably start doing a bit of study too on the topic as I would expect them to say you need to pass the mod, either via assignment or exam. Might as well brush up on it while you can.

Big +1 to all of that but especially the bold.

If it is to go to an appeal committee then your module co-ordinator should not be involved in the initial investigation. As long as you have all the relevant emails you should be able to make a really strong case.

Best of luck with it and hope your not stuck there next year

NaiveMelodies · 09-07-2012 9:58pm

Thanks a mill guys, gives me a bit of confidence to go ahead with the appeal.

Have all my E-mails saved so I'm ok in that regard.
One Issue I have with the appeal submission form is it gives very little room to outline my issues(max 30 words i think it was), so I presume printing out a letter with an explanation would be advisable?

Groovyg I'm an undergrad, Problem is the module in question, while a core module, is run by a different school(sports science..) so whenever I got in touch with my actual course co-ordinator, she would tell me to get in touch directly with the module co-ordinator.
I will try find out if there's an associate dean i can get in touch with.

MrKingsley · 09-07-2012 10:02pm

only1stevo wrote: »

One Issue I have with the appeal submission form is it gives very little room to outline my issues(max 30 words i think it was), so I presume printing out a letter with an explanation would be advisable?

I would try an contact someone in the appeals dept. about that first. Its the kind of thing they could be quite particular about

DocFrustrated · 12-09-2014 11:26pm

Hello all,

I want to appeal the results of an exam, but I'm not sure if I have grounds to appeal or not, so any advice would be appreciated....

On a recent MCQ, the answers should have been filled in horizontally but I filled them in vertically. The MCQ sheet to me was not laid out very well and was comparable to another sheet used frequently by the University which records the values vertically. So to me it was very confusing on the day and my grade im a particular module has suffered greatly (as has my GPA) as a result.

Has anyone any advice to offer? Would UCD entertain an appeal?

DocFrustrated · 12-09-2014 11:33pm

Just to add, my appeal would be to request a manual correction of my answers

taz70 · 14-09-2014 2:19pm

I would definitely go and speak to the Appeals Office. Sounds like an easy mistake to make and they will be able to see from your exam script if your answers correspond to the MCQ if viewed horizontally! Did you speak to the Module Coordinator already? That's normally the first step.

But when was the MCQ? You might be too late to appeal if it was during the May exams.

DocFrustrated · 14-09-2014 3:12pm

Many thanks for the support! I only got to meet the co-ordinator on Tue and became aware of the issue with the MCQ sheet then. I had been constantly contacting the co-ordinator since the results were released end July asking I meet so I have documented proof (emails etc) as to why there was a delay in viewing my paper. I think I'm going to call the appeals office on Monday, nothing to lose! The co-ordinator told me on Tue that I had no grounds to appeal, but in hindsight I don't think that's up to the co-ordinator to say it's up to the appeals office

willowthewisp · 15-09-2014 10:37am

DocFrustrated wrote: »

Many thanks for the support! I only got to meet the co-ordinator on Tue and became aware of the issue with the MCQ sheet then. I had been constantly contacting the co-ordinator since the results were released end July asking I meet so I have documented proof (emails etc) as to why there was a delay in viewing my paper. I think I'm going to call the appeals office on Monday, nothing to lose! The co-ordinator told me on Tue that I had no grounds to appeal, but in hindsight I don't think that's up to the co-ordinator to say it's up to the appeals office

I agree with you on that, I have heard of someone else recently been told that by their Coordinator but getting told something different by the appeals office.

DocFrustrated · 16-09-2014 7:42pm

Nice to know. I've left a voicemail with the appeals office, they only work Wednesdays so hopefully tomorrow I'll have an idea whether I can appeal or not!

taz70 · 17-09-2014 9:31pm

You're right! It's not up to the Coordinator to decide. The Appeals office is in Newman - might be worth dropping in for a chat?

DocFrustrated · 18-09-2014 8:02am

taz70 wrote: »

You're right! It's not up to the Coordinator to decide. The Appeals office is in Newman - might be worth dropping in for a chat?

Good idea. The office was meant to be open yesterday, I must have tried calling 20 times but kept getting voicemail. I've emailed and left a voice message but no reply yet. I'm on a placement for the next few weeks miles away from UCD but I might have no choice but to sneak away and make my way to the Newman building. They're not making this process easy!

ironclaw · 18-09-2014 8:52am

Whilst I agree this is a royal mess, just playing devils advocate here, they will probably ask how you failed a module you should have been prepared for. In the ideal world, if they presented you with a MCQ, Essay or Oral exam, you should have been able to pass it (Or at least have a very good go) were you suitably prepared. Granted, the uneasiness and stress of not knowing the exam format didn't help, but I can also see the viewpoint of not having grounds for appeal.

DocFrustrated · 18-09-2014 12:12pm

Hi, I really appreciate the view point many thanks for the post. All I can do is be honest with the appeals people, I did feel prepared before exam, but I had never seen that MCQ sheet before that day, all I had seen was the other one that looks pretty similar. I'm not the only one in the class this has happened to, there are at least 2 others I'm aware of plus 4 others who realised half way through the exam that they were providing the answers the wrong way but managed to correct them on time. It's a shame though that I'm the only one appealing that I know of. I will accept whatever the appeals office decide, but I genuinely feel the MCQ sheet was confusing. I can appreciate though that they may see the situation differently.

Grounds for Appeal or not..

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