MELBOURNE University has gone into damage control mode over a huge exam bungle in which medical students were "accidentally" given last year's papers for their exams last week.
The university has scrapped 11th-hour plans to hold replacement exams today after furious students contacted the Herald Sun yesterday.
More than 140 final-year medical students were told via email on Monday that they would be sitting a replacement exam after they had been given replicas of the 2005 exam papers for their two specialty health rotations exams last week.
Faculty staff told students yesterday morning that the department had accidentally switched 2005 exam papers with those prepared this year -- and told the students they must resit the exam this week.
But angry students -- who would be forced to rush back to campus from all over the country to take the exam during their holidays -- said it was impossible that the exam had mistakenly made its way on to their desks, and railed against the university.
"The exams were clearly marked '2006'. It could not have been a mistake," one student said.
"Whether or not the university couldn't be bothered and was too lazy to prepare new exams, it has certainly inconvenienced us all greatly."
More than 50 students at the state's most prestigious medical school signed a petition calling on the university to nullify the exam marks -- which are worth 50 per cent of the total marking for the subject -- and use other assessments to grade students.
By last night the students had won.
Faculty of Medicine acting dean James Best emailed students last night -- less than 20 hours before the exam was due to take place.
He said: "Following consultation . . . it has been decided that, rather than have you sit an alternative examination, the second written paper will be disregarded and your final mark will consist only of the clinical assessment tasks and the one written paper you sat on Thursday. You will thus not be required to attend a resit of this examination."
One student voiced relief but said the medical school was in a shambles and "it has been a really silly semester".
Last night's email was in stark contrast to that sent to students by Neville Mabotha, the School of Medicine coursework programs manager, who told students on Monday that they would be required to sit another exam.
"The School of Medicine (with the backing of the University Academic Board) has decided to request all students to resit the specialty health rotations examination," the earlier email stated.
"The School of Medicine deeply regrets that this has occurred and trusts that you will understand that we are acting in your best interests and with the academic integrity of your results in mind."
***********************************************We made it into the papers!
For the wrong reasons though... tee hee hee..
22 comments:
For the wrong reasons, no doubt.. It was a mistake that is not suppose to happen.
But nevertheless, I'm glad that I DONT have to retake the damn paper.. After all that stress, my holiday has become so much more 'precious' *grin* YAY!
And thanks for the time that u spent listening to us, esp me, complaining about it when the resit seems inevitable! :) *hugz*
p/s esp with the silly BIG, KingKong and Panda teddies.. LOL
are you also affected by this?
To my honest opinion, they should have included the second written paper as well into the final mark. It is not the students fault at all as they actually took the exam?
Just my thoughts!
cis! potong stim! i thot u were in it!
haha...that's something i expect would happen in m'sia, not australia! =))
the price to pay for being lazy.
as if they MISTAKEN the papers!
ade: hahaha no need to eat teddies anymore. can eat krispy kreme *winks* tee hee hee...
navin: only in the sense that they sat for the same paper i sat for last semester.
and i had to listen to them whine about having to resit the paper previously. tee hee.. besides that, nope.
thank god i was not in their shoes.
andreas: it wouldnt have been fair, cause almost everyone knew the question the day before, and studied for it.
and for those who didn't get to see the past year's question? wouldn't it be a disadvantage for them? it wouldn't be fair.
wuching: as a 'final year medical student' yes.. as 'mei'... nope.
sorry to have disappointed you. heheheh
iwashigh: Hahaha, maybe i should arrange for an interview, and have my profile pics taken as well huh?
what lah you!
sooyin: Shit happens man! wherever you are... and they paid for it dearly.
I doubt they expected it to come out in the papers.
kelly: Well, I don't know what's the real reason behind that. But I shall not poke anymore. *shrugs*
At least you guys know that it won't happen to you people. tee hee hee.
on the downside, there isnt a 2nd med party.
med parties are supposedly the best. too bad i always cant attend them cos i still have exams when the parties are being held!
daniel: Hahahaha. That's because there's always free flow of alcohol, and the med students get real crazy after the stress...
But trust me, I reckon everyone's partying cause the paper's cancelled!
Mei you doing medicine ah?
xes: teehee. yeah. not law, like someone *winks*
Isn't it time we get an update, babe?
Marlene: Yeaps. Coming soon!
Hey, GO SHIRTLIFF slash Prouse! Which sports hse were you frm anw back in BBGS?
sam: I was in Maclay! :D teeheehee. I think if you look up the old magazines, you'd fine my name somewhere (Cheah Mei Ling). Graduated 1999.
How was Cheer 2006??? Update me, update me! :D
sam: I meant *find. hehehe. typo!
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