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Image Description: A view of the Examinations Schools from Merton Street The University has today confirmed that exams in Trinity Term will take place across the whole of the term, weeks 0 to 11, in order to ensure social distancing and safety. Although the University is attempting to minimise disruption, many in-person exams will have […]
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Image description: Arial view of the main hall in Exam Schools. Third-year engineering students will sit their Part A exams next week after they were postponed at the end of last year. Weeks of bad communication – or no communication – from Colleges and the University has left many students confused about what to do […]
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Image description: Cardboard mortar board made from a box for Corona beer on a desk in a bedroom TL;DR: Sitting Finals at home wasn’t great, but that’s mainly because it felt like an empty, uneventful anti-climax, rather than it being unusually stressful or difficult academically. There are reasons to be grateful for finishing in 2020, […]
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Image description: a student holding an open book against her face. Error upon error has marked this year’s exam season. Prioritising avoiding grade inflation rather than fairness led to A Level chaos, and then a sudden change to BTec results caused widespread confusion: it seems that every consideration was made other than for the welfare […]
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Image description: students sit exams in person in sports hall The University has confirmed that it plans to assess some students remotely in some of their Trinity term exams. This comes following Wednesday’s email to English students stating that on the advice of the University Registry, it would not be possible to ‘plan in-person exams […]
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Image Description: Law Library at Oxford University On June 4th, law students sitting a finals paper were emailed half-way through the exam informing them that the wrong paper had been uploaded to Weblearn, despite the paper being correctly named “Criminal Law”. The email advised students to begin again with the correct paper. This follows news […]
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The Faculty of Law is facing criticism from students after a series of mistakes over the last two days. The faculty admitted to an error in a finals paper question that went against examination conventions, and also modified the release date of first-year Moderations exam results to a later date at the last minute. Many […]
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Image description: students in academic dress Students can now apply for DDH up to two weeks after the final assessment according to updated University guidelines. This allows students to sit their exams before making the application. ‘Declared to have Deserved Masters’ (DDM) option for postgraduate finalists who find themselves unable to complete their Trinity Term […]
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Image description: A laptop with a webcam being covered by tape The Classics faculty have proposed that exams for students learning a classical language in Trinity Term 2020, including finalists, be conducted over video call. This includes Classics, its joint schools, CAAH, and AMH. The faculty argues that the exams, based on the translation of […]
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In the perennially wise words of Marge Simpson, it’s very easy to criticise. It’s much harder to come up with a sound policy for mitigating the effects of a coronavirus pandemic on hundreds of different examinations and types of examinations; at a university comprised of nearly 25,000 students of all ages; who study nearly 400 […]
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To put it simply: the disturbance caused by the coronavirus pandemic should merit cancelling all exams in Trinity term. The UK government has already cancelled all GCSEs and A levels and shut all schools. Further, a majority of people in the UK are either working from home or not at all. This disruption to society […]
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Today, the University of Oxford announced a huge array of details about arrangements for the coming Trinity term. In an update posted to the university’s website, and sent via email to most students, the cancellation of prelims was announced, as well as much more detail on plans for finalists’ exams. Given they are the most […]
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The Oxford Student can reveal that over 4000 students have responded to an SU consultation which asks for student input over the way examinations and teaching will be run this Trinity Term. Just an hour after the launch of the consultation 600 responses were received, with 3200 being received within 24 hours. The consultation, a […]
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In an email sent to all Oxford students and academic staff, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education has announced the updated university policy in light of the new government measures introduced yesterday to help halt the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The email starts: “I am writing to provide another update on coronavirus in light of the […]
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Image description: Students take part in traditional post-exam trashing celebrations The University is set to reintroduce the ‘What a Waste’ campaign first launched last year to discourage students from their current trashing practices. The campaign highlights the social, environmental and financial impact of the traditional post-exam celebrations. Many students are probably not aware that we are, […]
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The Faculty of Music has withdrawn proposed changes to one of its FHS exams after strong criticism from students. On Thursday 31st January the Faculty announced via email that the ‘Music Analysis and Criticism’ paper – in which students have to analyse an unseen score of 19th-century chamber music and write an essay on it […]
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If at first you don’t succeed, ask Daddy to pay for you to take easier exams. At least, this has been the case for several GCSE students at independent schools which are opting to take the easier IGCSEs over the more rigorous and difficult GCSEs which have been introduced during the Conservative government’s latest round […]
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Barely a day went by over the Christmas vacation when there wasn’t an Oxfess agonising over collections, asking whether they matter, what will happen if we fail, how we should prepare for them. Instead of Christmas being a time for rest and recuperation from a hectic Michaelmas, the vacation becomes a time for panic to […]
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UK universities have this week been warned about an imminent rise in cases of contract cheating. Concerns about student cheating have been raised over the last month by government officials, national news sources, and individuals both inside and outside the Higher Education framework. Daniel Sokol, a former Oxford University student and lecturer who is now […]
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