LSE students reveal disparity across departments’ assessment approaches

Additional reporting by Yasmina O’Sullivan.

Described as a “weight lifted” by some, and “ridiculously deluded” by others, the move to online exams has widely changed the way both students and staff view the exam period. With exam strategies differing greatly between and within departments, The Beaver reached out to LSE students to tell us what they really thought about assessment strategies.

46 students, 40 undergraduates and 6 postgraduates, from 14 departments responded to The Beaver’s survey, sharing their thoughts on their departments and specific modules within them. Respondents were asked to rate their department’s assessment approach and specific module approaches on a 1 to 5 scale, ranging from unhappy to happy with the approach. In addition, respondents were asked to select the issues that factored into their rating of their department (Fig.1). 

Figure 1. Responses from students when asked which issues factored into their rating of their department’s assessment approach.

When asked what factors aided their individual rating of their departments, ‘detail given about new exams’, ‘department communication’, and the amount of time students had to complete their exams were the main concerns among student survey respondents. Moreover, in many responses students highlighted the need for a no-detriment policy, which The Beaver has been reporting on since the closure of the campus.

Scroll down to see how people from your department view the departments’ approaches to exams:

Accounting

A first year Accounting & Finance student rated their department a 1 out of 5, indicating that they were unhappy with the department’s exam scheme, arguing that the department had low levels of support and a “lack of understanding“. They also said that ST107, now a 24-hour exam, gave them “no information about how the exam will be completed”, leaving many in the dark.

A second year student also explained that “included in the exam are two 30-minute timed components online where if during the session the internet connection is lost at any point, the whole component is discounted and you have to re-sit in August“. They also add that they feel the department “did a good job in providing a lot of Q&A sessions as well as a full mock of the exam. However, the structure is unacceptable”.

Anthropology

A third year Social Anthropology student rated their department a 4 out of 5, explaining the efficiency of communication between staff and students. “One thing that really helped”, they said, “was the individual surveys which allowed us to individually fill out our concerns and circumstances so that they will consider such factors when marking our work“. 

However, an Anthropology and Law student suggested that the “strict referencing” format makes the exams even more difficult, suggesting that “they should either have kept the same format and just extended the allowed time, or made them proper summatives”.

Economics

One student sitting the EC100 exam rated the module 5 out of 5: “[they] emailled straight from the beginning that they understood that grades may be inflated this year, but they were fine with it given that these are extreme circumstances”. Moreover, a second year student rated the department’s approach a 5: “given the circumstances, they’ve given a flexible alternative to in-person exams and plenty of other options and support for people who feel unable to complete exams”. 

“Communications have been prompt”, said one third year student, “department tutors and senior staff have been compassionate and caring about the situation”. They add that “I feel that at a departmental level, not much can be done. The school’s policy seems very top-down with very little consultation to people at the bottom… I would have preferred a more consultative school management but this has nothing to do with the department”.

A student in EC302 suggested that in the changes to the exam strategy, students “see no rationale”. They add that “it aims to limit the choice of topics we can specialise in and as a result gives us further stress due to the short notice”.

Economic History

One final year student rated their department’s assessment approach 3 out of 5, saying that “the style of exams is good, however, the execution in terms of clarity, communication, and especially timeline in regards to other deadlines are not ideal”. They also noted how their exams start a day after their dissertation is due, “not leaving enough time for sufficient revision”.

Geography and Environment

A MSc Local Economic Development student rated their department a 3 out of 5: “communications have been good (a million times better than the School Management Committee), and I feel assured that they have our interests at the front of their mind“. 

In contrast, a third year BA student felt the department had “awful communication”, with “virtually no acknowledgement that dissertations are being written with no access to library facilities”. They add that “dissertations are also a lottery… other students with different timetables have more time”. They also note that for the Geography dissertation, students have only been given an extra week to help complete it. 

Government

A second year Politics and IR student rated their department 4 out of 5, citing the work done by staff in GV245 and GV249 in being “fair” and “reasonable”. Similarly, one student rated GV248 a 4 out of 5, arguing that the course convener “responds efficiently to students who can ask questions freely”, making the exam expectations “very clear and reasonable”. One student sitting GV302 rated the module’s exam strategy 5 out of 5: “I feel like GV302 is the exemplar model of how to adapt to the School closure. The lecturer held a class in which she asked us what sort of new assessment we wanted. We reached a consensus, and then she went to management to argue for the change“.

However, these feelings are not the same across the board: a GV100 student felt that the department has failed to ensure enough clarity, especially for the first year students in which many will be sitting their first ever university exams.

“It is really NOT fine”, said one Government student, “and LSE management is ridiculously deluded, or privileged, or both“.

International History

One student initially gave the department a 1 out of 5, meaning that they were unhappy with the approach, as “they moved my exams forward and closer together, reducing revision time and making exam time much more stressful”. However, they changed this rating to a 2 due to the department’s reduction in answer length. Furthermore, they added that they had no idea why the exams were moved forward in the first place, highlighting a lack of communication with students. The reduction in essay length was not as positively accepted by others, as one second year student suggested that “in reality, reducing the word limit often makes it harder to write an essay”, although noted that for many, it seems too late for departments to change their strategy again.

International Relations

A third year student had their exams “moved a month early across the board, with no formal notice by the department acknowledging this change”, adding that they “felt completely foisted in”. Another third year student had the same experience about the changes to the exam timetable, yet rated the department a 3: “[IR] have now given me 2 weeks to complete an essay in the place of an exam… [but] all my assessments are within a few days of each other”. They added that alongside the timetable changes, exams were made harder by reducing the number of available questions, forcing revision to be more concentrated. 

Concerns over the changing of the exam timetable were felt by another third year student: “a large number of IR students have 3 or 4 essays (anywhere from 8,000-12,000 words total) due within a 2-3 week time frame. This is in addition to a dissertation for some”.

One student rated IR206 a 1 out of 5, arguing that “the exam format is completely different than it would have been, and we have received very little information on how to revise for it or what it will require”.

An IR206 student said that, at the time of survey participation, they “have not received feedback from essays submitted in this course, so I’m going in with little relevant material”.

As well as the change in exam timetables, one MSc International Relations student suggested that academics and tutors were “only concerned with getting their legal obligations over and done with”. “It’s too late to change anything”, they added, “I feel doomed“.

Law

Most of the participants of our survey from the Law Department rated their department a 1 out of 5, meaning that they were unhappy with their department’s assessment approach. A third year Law student who rated their department’s approach at 1 out of 5 said that “the move to online exams doesn’t take account of the lack of quiet study workspaces at the small and cramped houses of disadvantaged students”. They explained how deferring their exams just wasn’t an option for them “because I need to work during the summer to maintain my family members”. 

Similarly, a second year Law student also rated their department’s approach as a 1, saying that “the Law Department’s policy does not allow students to ask for extensions”, even though all of their exams are to be completed within a 24-hour window, “and only gives us the option to defer…”. 

“We have had no consideration of our circumstances“, said one second year student, “the Department has CHANGED an exam day and time within a week of the exam meaning to take place”.

A MSc Human Rights student who rated the department a 2 out of 5 suggested that the Department could “provide for more time as most other departments have 7 days, and more effective communication which assesses the needs of each student as an individual”.

However, a student taking LL108 rated the module’s exam approach a 4 out of 5, stating that “they have kept the same format” as before: “it’s the least radical change to the exam, providing stability and coherence for students”. Similarly, one student who rated the Law department a 5 suggested that “they did the best that they could do… they will have to make adjustments – they’re not going to screw over the whole year, that won’t do them any favours“.

Management

A second year student rated their department a 1 out of 5, suggesting that they are not “accommodating”, and should adopt 24-hour exams instead. They also rated the timed exams of MG205 and MG207 a 1 out of 5, meaning that they are not happy with the assessment strategy. Another MG205 student rated it a 2, stating that the approach “is an unnecessarily strict way of running this exam”.

Similarly, another student who rated their department a 1 out of 5 said that “the department’s dealing with the situation has been ridiculous. While the whole school has set 24-hour frames for the exams, for some reason our department chose to limit our assessment windows to 4 hours”. They add that other, more quantitative departments “do not have the same limit. This puts every student in the department at a disadvantage to all other departments“. 

Furthermore, the student exposed a lack of communication within the department: “no office hours were offered over the Easter break and a specific professor has decided that we are NOT allowed to email any class teachers with our questions, instead we have to post them on a forum that is only open for limited and specific periods”.

However, one student rated MG206’s one-week coursework approach a 5 out of 5, saying that “I think it takes a lot of the pressure off… giving me the whole week really helps”, adding that the extra time “feels like a weight lifted“. 

However, one student condemned the perceived lack of communication: “Blanket emails about mental health are not enough”.

Mathematics

A second year student highlighted the effective communication used by the Mathematics department, rating it a 5 out of 5: they “organised two open forum Zoom calls where our individual concerns were directly addressed and the whole process was very transparent“. This level of communication was also seen by students sitting MA203 exams, which were also rated 5 out of 5: “the lecturer did not change the overall approach… the Moodle forum has also been exceptionally well monitored and all questions are addressed within 24 hours”. 

Similarly, one student believes “stability is very important in adjusting students’ expectations, and exams have largely remained the same while maintaining academic integrity”, rating the Mathematics department 4 out of 5.

Philosophy, Logic, and Scientific Method

A 2nd year PPE student rated their department 4 out of 5, highlighting the consideration the department took holding “a Zoom check-up for us before the Easter break and its email communications were supportive, reminding us to take care of ourselves”. 

A third year student echoed the efficiency of communication with the Philosophy department, however said that the new exams require “proper referencing and a bibliography, despite only [wanting] 2 hours of effort… they keep saying it’s just like the normal exam, except it isn’t”.

A student in PH214 said that whilst the “exam structure is very clear, expectations for exam performance is unclear”. Rating the module’s exam strategy a 3 out of 5, they also note how the exam “has been moved a week ahead and has the exact same timing as another module in the same department”, highlighting a lack of internal communication.

Social Policy

A first year student rated their department 4 out of 5, arguing that “in light of LSE’s wider policy, which I completely disagree with, my department has done incredibly well”, although does raise concerns about the potential for students to cheat. One student notes that in the 24-hour SP110 exam, “one teacher said it was ‘closed book’ – I don’t see how this is possible”. When asked about references that could only be accessed as a physical copy from the library, the student was told “to purchase it online for £20” instead of being provided with ample accessibility measures for those unable to purchase references. 

Statistics

A third year student rated their department 2 out of 5, arguing that “I’m anxious about how my grade will be affected”, by the new exams, highlighting a potential lack of communication. They added that they find it “really hard to focus in a noisy home with all the stress about the virus too”. They noted how the move to online exams drastically changed their timetable, as they now have “exams three days in a row”, making revision tougher in an already tough environment.

A note from The Beaver

The testimonies given in this article do not speak for the experiences of all students, nor is it the full depiction of how departments are accommodating to online exams. Instead, we hope that students can use this to become more informed about how other departments are finding this unprecedented time, in the hope that they can hold the school more accountable, both now and in the future. 

As exam season starts, The Beaver will be doing less reporting. However, we have been dedicated to reporting students’ experiences during this uncertainty, from shining a light on disadvantaged students to Zoom calls with LSE’s Pro-Director of Education Dilly Fung. You can read more of our COVID-19 coverage on our website.

Share:

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
On Key

Related Posts

Reflections on 75 years of The Beaver

For our final issue of the year, which is also the 75th Anniversary edition of The Beaver, a selection of our opinion and executive editors write about what 75 years at The Beaver means to them.

scroll to top