A Freedom of Information request by The Beaver has revealed potential concerns over a high rate of mistakes in exams given to LSE students.
Whilst the average error rate of all departments is 7%, some departments have a significantly higher exam error rate. The Department of Economics, the worst performer, had an error rate of nearly one third in 2019.
LSE began taking into account exam corrections with more detail in 2019, yet sources close to the matter have said that exam error rates have been a problem in the past.
A meeting of the School Management Committee (SMC) on 10 September 2019 noted that exam error rates “remain an issue”, despite the fact that error rates had improved from earlier years. The SMC is reportedly considering employing external reviewers to improve these shortcomings.
In a statement to The Beaver, LSESU expressed concerns over the matter: “We’ve approached LSE on this issue and we are aware that there are ongoing efforts to tackle this problem and good practice in some departments.”
“Yet, this data is a symptom of departmental autonomy at LSE. Without a clear accountability or sanction processes in place for poor practice, it will always be difficult to require powerful departments to act with urgency.”
5 Worst Performing Departments
| Department | Percentage of exams with corrections |
| Economics | 29% |
| Accounting | 21% |
| Statistics | 20% |
| Mathematics | 15% |
| School of Public Policy | 10% |
The Department of Economics has faced serious complaints over mistakes before. In 2018, the EC220 and EC221 summer term exams enraged students who were faced with “disorganised” exams. An article in The Beaver at the time, described the chaos: “The first surprise to the nearly 400 exam candidates was that the exam cover sheet stated that calculators were allowed, despite a Moodle post explicitly stating the opposite. Subsequently, after minutes of confusion, invigilators announced that calculators would indeed not be allowed, despite at least three questions in the exam requiring calculators in order for the answers to be accurate.”
LSE issued a statement to The Beaver on this investigation, saying, “We are working hard to reduce and remove errors in examinations, and have seen an overall drop in the error-rate in recent years.”
“Following analyses of error rates, we have subjected our exam-setting arrangements to an internal audit, and tightened our quality assurance processes as a result. Actions taken include updating the instructions to examiners guidance and working with departments on the timely submission of exam rubrics. The Economics Department, in particular, has been working closely with its faculty to improve their local exam-setting processes.”
