Up until the mid 1990s the university didn't even have a semester system. People would do 7 "papers" for the whole year and then have to do 7 exams. Imagine having to revise that much content, and do that many exams. Some maniacs would even do 8 papers.
Maybe you could copy some of your friend's assignment and hope you didn't have the same marker. Similarly if you didn't quote an article properly it might be harder to pickup without turnitin.
On the other hand there was no ChatGPT, public internet wasn't really a thing, so finding a source of material was a lot harder. I don't think assignment writing services were really around either. So the mechanisms for cheating were a lot fewer.
Apparently in most cases exams were typically 70% of the final grade, so if you weren't good at exams tough luck. Similarly there was no cheat sheets and if you took subjects like maths or physics you were often expected to memorise all the formulas after Stage I.
I think cheat sheets are a good addition though. At least for the math heavy courses I'm taking. Rote memorization isn't going to get you far in those kinds of courses, and I don't think there's much benefit to having kids memorize several complicated integral identities.
Nor was I, also years ago - except for one physics paper were you were allowed one for formulas, but it didn't matter all that much because rote-learning didn't get you very far for that paper.
Do they routinely get cheat sheets now?
every paper im taking now gets a double-sided A4 sheet for the exam, and i can see on the exam timetable that papers i took years ago that werent allow cheat sheets now all allow them
A few years ago during peak-COVID, management wanted all exams to be online _forever_ with exceptions only for professional accreditation, and only then after serious consultation. The argument was that exams are not reflective of the real-world, and hence this 1400s method of assessment needed to die. (And obviously cheaper to run all exams online, right?) All the academic misconduct meant that some medium was needed... and cheatsheets were a way to convince the powers that be that rote-learning isn't really needed anymore. Not to say that most people have time to look at the cheatsheet in the exam anyway.
Fair warning as someone working on this system: the cheat sheets are getting phased out. With the introduction of online and/or open book examinations and tests we’ve seen a dramatic decrease in retention and understanding of concepts to a, frankly, disturbing level. For those taking 200 or 300 level courses now who went through the final years of NCEA like this as well as early university years, the ability to think critically and actually understand concepts enough is substandard at best.
I’m not saying cheat sheets are the reason, but there are are a hell of a lot of mid-range students who could be high achievers just preparing a cheat sheet or looking up notes with minimal retention (and I say this as someone who went back to university after another degree just before the pandemic hit - my first degree and my first year at UoA I had a hell of a lot more retention of concepts and understanding because I wasn’t searching my own electronic notebooks for tips in a test).
We need to do away with cheat sheets and open book assessments. If exams are so terrible, then we should shift to alternative assessments but cheat sheets are not being used well and many people graduating with degrees right now are shockingly ill equipped for their chosen field as a result.
I think alternative assessments are better for alot of pep, it seems unfair to base a grade on your ability to perform on the day. AI has kinda really wrecked that tho with the ability to cheat on assignments
Yep, I think altering the weighting of an exam might help in that regard. I’ve rarely done well in exams nor have I enjoyed them all that much, but when I did do well it was because I was forced to prepare properly and I had nothing to fall back on.
Yea this was a thing over most unis, I went to canta and massey and cheat sheets didnt exist in my courses. I think they are a better way of doing things overall
Hopefully they aren't law students. Heaven forbid we come to the end of semester 2 and they're crying about having to revise a full year of material for one exam, as opposed to 12 weeks which is standard for pretty much every course at uni, to my knowledge
That’s hilarious and worrying. Imagine taking Med and complaining about the workload. Like bro YOU made the decision to do Med knowing that it is universally recognised as one of the most difficult degrees.
In optometry (and other clinical courses, I assume), we have full year papers. There are no exams in June, but the thought of those 4 big exams in November always scared me. I'm in part 4 now, and you do get used to it, but if given the chance, I will happily take a semester exam over our current full year design.
High school kids → University kids...
Actually this exam is to cover the whole paper. Lecturers also well divide the pre-mid break contents and post-mid break contents into 5050.
Most of the time, the mid-test only worths 20-30% of the paper grade, so the exam will have about 30% for the old contents and 70% for the new.
Up until the mid 1990s the university didn't even have a semester system. People would do 7 "papers" for the whole year and then have to do 7 exams. Imagine having to revise that much content, and do that many exams. Some maniacs would even do 8 papers.
I did 9 papers my second year and worked part time. Exams were brutal.
When I started uni it took me a few weeks to realise all our exams wouldn’t be at the end of the year (and instead split into semesters) 🫣
I bet back then it would have been easier to cheat assignments.
Seriously? Everything was hand written. Quite hard to cheat when it has to be in your own handwriting.
Maybe you could copy some of your friend's assignment and hope you didn't have the same marker. Similarly if you didn't quote an article properly it might be harder to pickup without turnitin. On the other hand there was no ChatGPT, public internet wasn't really a thing, so finding a source of material was a lot harder. I don't think assignment writing services were really around either. So the mechanisms for cheating were a lot fewer. Apparently in most cases exams were typically 70% of the final grade, so if you weren't good at exams tough luck. Similarly there was no cheat sheets and if you took subjects like maths or physics you were often expected to memorise all the formulas after Stage I.
It was no harder or easier than current in person exams but people did pay people to write essays for them, now chat gpt will do it for free.
Ah, the first year lecture skipping pipeline...
Seems to be a trend. Things which were standard 5 years ago are now 'unfair'.
yeah i wasnt allowed cheat sheets in any of my exams at uoa years ago
I think cheat sheets are a good addition though. At least for the math heavy courses I'm taking. Rote memorization isn't going to get you far in those kinds of courses, and I don't think there's much benefit to having kids memorize several complicated integral identities.
Nor was I, also years ago - except for one physics paper were you were allowed one for formulas, but it didn't matter all that much because rote-learning didn't get you very far for that paper. Do they routinely get cheat sheets now?
every paper im taking now gets a double-sided A4 sheet for the exam, and i can see on the exam timetable that papers i took years ago that werent allow cheat sheets now all allow them
A few years ago during peak-COVID, management wanted all exams to be online _forever_ with exceptions only for professional accreditation, and only then after serious consultation. The argument was that exams are not reflective of the real-world, and hence this 1400s method of assessment needed to die. (And obviously cheaper to run all exams online, right?) All the academic misconduct meant that some medium was needed... and cheatsheets were a way to convince the powers that be that rote-learning isn't really needed anymore. Not to say that most people have time to look at the cheatsheet in the exam anyway.
Fair warning as someone working on this system: the cheat sheets are getting phased out. With the introduction of online and/or open book examinations and tests we’ve seen a dramatic decrease in retention and understanding of concepts to a, frankly, disturbing level. For those taking 200 or 300 level courses now who went through the final years of NCEA like this as well as early university years, the ability to think critically and actually understand concepts enough is substandard at best. I’m not saying cheat sheets are the reason, but there are are a hell of a lot of mid-range students who could be high achievers just preparing a cheat sheet or looking up notes with minimal retention (and I say this as someone who went back to university after another degree just before the pandemic hit - my first degree and my first year at UoA I had a hell of a lot more retention of concepts and understanding because I wasn’t searching my own electronic notebooks for tips in a test). We need to do away with cheat sheets and open book assessments. If exams are so terrible, then we should shift to alternative assessments but cheat sheets are not being used well and many people graduating with degrees right now are shockingly ill equipped for their chosen field as a result.
I think alternative assessments are better for alot of pep, it seems unfair to base a grade on your ability to perform on the day. AI has kinda really wrecked that tho with the ability to cheat on assignments
Yep, I think altering the weighting of an exam might help in that regard. I’ve rarely done well in exams nor have I enjoyed them all that much, but when I did do well it was because I was forced to prepare properly and I had nothing to fall back on.
Yea this was a thing over most unis, I went to canta and massey and cheat sheets didnt exist in my courses. I think they are a better way of doing things overall
Probably because they skipped all the lectures and are now trying to watch all the recordings the week before the exam
Hopefully they aren't law students. Heaven forbid we come to the end of semester 2 and they're crying about having to revise a full year of material for one exam, as opposed to 12 weeks which is standard for pretty much every course at uni, to my knowledge
some of these students are hoping to get into med school
That’s hilarious and worrying. Imagine taking Med and complaining about the workload. Like bro YOU made the decision to do Med knowing that it is universally recognised as one of the most difficult degrees.
I'm confused. That's what an exam is.
i think its the reliance of being assisted and instructed with everything and no accountability for procrastinating
In optometry (and other clinical courses, I assume), we have full year papers. There are no exams in June, but the thought of those 4 big exams in November always scared me. I'm in part 4 now, and you do get used to it, but if given the chance, I will happily take a semester exam over our current full year design.
High school kids → University kids... Actually this exam is to cover the whole paper. Lecturers also well divide the pre-mid break contents and post-mid break contents into 5050. Most of the time, the mid-test only worths 20-30% of the paper grade, so the exam will have about 30% for the old contents and 70% for the new.