Grade Shaming

Cold War Kid wrote: »

And if it is a possibility, then there is a problem. People can be excellent at most modules, yet struggle with one. Was the case for a guy in my postgrad, yet he still went on to do a lot better career-wise than I did.

Pointless argument really, but you know that.

Then he wasn't unsuited to the course. That example doesn't contradict what I've been saying.

* Disclaimer: I am currently a postgrad at Cambridge, and do some teaching for the university *

I feel I should point out first that in Cambridge, exam results are published publicly in the truest sense of the word. They are pinned to noticeboards outside that anyone can see. It's far from uncommon for example to see tour groups stopping beside the noticeboards and the guide explaining what they are, and people having a gander at the different pages. It also means that everybody from any course or college, as well as other academics etc. can see the results. They are literally put up on the side of the road, not pinned to a noticeboard in some corridor somewhere. In some subjects (especially maths) the results are announced by an orator, who calls out the names of the students in the order in which they have scored, with the person who received the lowest of all being publicly labelled the 'wooden spoon'. It is a pretty intense occasion, and it's not at all uncommon to see people sobbing in front of the noticeboards when they see how they've done. I believe there is now the option to view your result online, but typically the online results appear a few hours after the list is pinned up, and so it's very difficult to avoid hearing how you've done if friends went to check the noticeboard.

I should also say that Cambridge is a pretty intense place, and during the exam season is almost a scary place to be. The degree to which the students take their academic work seriously is partly commendable, but the (at times) obsessiveness and emphasis placed on doing as much work as possible, and doing as well as possible, is actually unhealthy I feel. Students spend around 8 weeks preparing for their exams, with no lectures to distract them in that time. They hole themselves up in libraries or their rooms and study for hours on end - there are even jokes about how some colleges have installed showers in their libraries, so students don't have to go home. The pressure placed on them by tutors and directors of studies can be enormous at times, particularly so for those doing their Finals. Additionally, as far as I know Cambridge has no continuous assessment on any undergraduate course (apart from those who submit dissertations), so the exams at the end are absolutely vital, and if you mess up there is no continuous assessment work from during the year to pull you up. Exam repeats at Cambridge are not allowed. Even if you were ill during the exams, there are no supplementals or resits, you have to wait until the exam period in the following year to try again. Repeating a year is also uncommon - if you fail, your college may very well chuck you out. Heck, even if you pass and get a third, your college can still chuck you out. There are many things that your grades determine. Some colleges for example operate an 'academic room ballot' - this is where the students are listed in order of their grades, and those with the best grades get to choose their room first, and it then proceeds down the list. So the person with the 2.2/3rd will typically end up with the crappiest room for the next year. There are prizes of cash and book tokens for those who do well, so the incentives are there.

I think many of the students' objections to publishing the results arise from this highly pressurised environment. Everyone knows that the exam term is absolutely hell, and to find that you not only have not done as well as you would have liked after working so hard, but for all the world to see it as well, is a tough situation to be in. I don't necessarily think the students are being overly precious or 'special snowflakes', having seen how the system works here. Publishing the exam lists by exam numbers would be much fairer in my view, or at the very least putting the results up on the university's closed system the day before pinning them to the noticeboard, so that people can find out for themselves first and avoid the melee around the noticeboard if they prefer. My own undergraduate university published results using student numbers, and it was actually very easy to work out who most people were, but there was still at least a degree of anonymity, especially to those outside the course.

xLisaBx wrote: »

Failing is always a possibility, and to be completely honest I haven't felt confident going into a single exam to date. I got a 1.1 in my first year exams and an almost perfect Leaving Cert. The reason I don't feel confident is because something can always go wrong- you can fall ill in an exam, the wording of questions can throw you or you could simply run out of time.
Surely you struggled somewhat in school/college at something? No offence but we can't all be good at everything.

I'm not saying I am, far from it. I've had far more failures in uni than I would like to admit though I never failed an exam or anything.

But to be successful in any sphere you must have the right frame of mind, uni is no different. The most successful guys in the world never think about failure, whether grades were posted publicly would be irrelevant to them because they would never consider failing to achieve their goals, failure wouldn't be a possibility.

xLisaBx wrote: »

But is that edging on cocky?
Successful people fail. Everyone fails from time to time. It's human nature. Students must also worry about doing the best in the class- nobody wants to be isolated due to academic superiority either.

What's wrong with being cocky? Belief influence's outcome, if you genuinely believe you can learn, do or achieve anything then you're one step closer to complementation any industry, academia included.

I've never seen a person being socially isolated for being academically gifted, the opposite in fact.

gutenberg wrote: »

* Disclaimer: I am currently a postgrad at Cambridge, and do some teaching for the university *

I feel I should point out first that in Cambridge, exam results are published publicly in the truest sense of the word. They are pinned to noticeboards outside that anyone can see. It's far from uncommon for example to see tour groups stopping beside the noticeboards and the guide explaining what they are, and people having a gander at the different pages. It also means that everybody from any course or college, as well as other academics etc. can see the results. They are literally put up on the side of the road, not pinned to a noticeboard in some corridor somewhere. In some subjects (especially maths) the results are announced by an orator, who calls out the names of the students in the order in which they have scored, with the person who received the lowest of all being publicly labelled the 'wooden spoon'. It is a pretty intense occasion, and it's not at all uncommon to see people sobbing in front of the noticeboards when they see how they've done. I believe there is now the option to view your result online, but typically the online results appear a few hours after the list is pinned up, and so it's very difficult to avoid hearing how you've done if friends went to check the noticeboard.

I should also say that Cambridge is a pretty intense place, and during the exam season is almost a scary place to be. The degree to which the students take their academic work seriously is partly commendable, but the (at times) obsessiveness and emphasis placed on doing as much work as possible, and doing as well as possible, is actually unhealthy I feel. Students spend around 8 weeks preparing for their exams, with no lectures to distract them in that time. They hole themselves up in libraries or their rooms and study for hours on end - there are even jokes about how some colleges have installed showers in their libraries, so students don't have to go home. The pressure placed on them by tutors and directors of studies can be enormous at times, particularly so for those doing their Finals. Additionally, as far as I know Cambridge has no continuous assessment on any undergraduate course (apart from those who submit dissertations), so the exams at the end are absolutely vital, and if you mess up there is no continuous assessment work from during the year to pull you up. Exam repeats at Cambridge are not allowed. Even if you were ill during the exams, there are no supplementals or resits, you have to wait until the exam period in the following year to try again. Repeating a year is also uncommon - if you fail, your college may very well chuck you out. Heck, even if you pass and get a third, your college can still chuck you out. There are many things that your grades determine. Some colleges for example operate an 'academic room ballot' - this is where the students are listed in order of their grades, and those with the best grades get to choose their room first, and it then proceeds down the list. So the person with the 2.2/3rd will typically end up with the crappiest room for the next year. There are prizes of cash and book tokens for those who do well, so the incentives are there.

I think many of the students' objections to publishing the results arise from this highly pressurised environment. Everyone knows that the exam term is absolutely hell, and to find that you not only have not done as well as you would have liked after working so hard, but for all the world to see it as well, is a tough situation to be in. I don't necessarily think the students are being overly precious or 'special snowflakes', having seen how the system works here. Publishing the exam lists by exam numbers would be much fairer in my view, or at the very least putting the results up on the university's closed system the day before pinning them to the noticeboard, so that people can find out for themselves first and avoid the melee around the noticeboard if they prefer. My own undergraduate university published results using student numbers, and it was actually very easy to work out who most people were, but there was still at least a degree of anonymity, especially to those outside the course.

I know it has the reputation and blah blah, but that to me sounds like a terrible way to produce future workers of the world. All based one one or two tests rather than continuous and practical assessment seems very contrasting to what students will actually encounter in the real world when they're finished, while other less prestigious universities will be setting their students up a lot nicer. Maybe I'm wrong but that just seems like a horrible system they've got. If you want to make it difficult so only the best make it out alive fair enough, it's ruthless but that's life and only the best get to the top, but no continuous assessment sounds mad to me!