UNIVERSITY MARKING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 129, 1 May 1940, Page 6

UNIVERSITY MARKING.

ARITHMETIC PAPERS. ADDITIONAL PASSES. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, April 30. The executive committee of the University Senate, in a statement; issued with the resolution expressing its strong disapproval of the lack of re- \ spousibility and •of reasonable care shown by the examiners of arithmetic in the 1939 University entrance examination, states that it met on January 24 to consider the results of the University entrance examination before they were issued. At this meeting, which was held before any publicity had been given to the. matter, it was noticed that the marks in arithmetic presented anomalous features. It was, however, considered inadvisable to postpone the publication of all the results on tin's .account’ butin order to ensure that no candidate suffered injustice from the marking in arithmetic a special investigation wps ordered. In the first place 50 scrips selected at random were submitted to one of the professors of mathematics for comment. As this preliminary scrutiny showed that the fears of the committee were justified, it was resolved to invite the senior professor of mathematics and his assistants to ■ re-examine all the scrips in which an alteration in (the arithmetic marks might benefit an unsuccessful candidate. This re-examina-tion, although 'carried out with all possible dispatch, unfortunately, involved considerable delay- in the final adjustment of the results. The re-exam-ination disclosed a number of errors of various descriptions involving a very large number/of cases. Altogether 170 additional candidates passed the entrance examination as a result of the remarking. “The committee is well aware of the hardships that may have resulted from the unavoidable delay in teaching the final result of the entrance examination, but is of the opinion that no other course than that adopted would have done justice to all the candidates. It may be explained that since 1931 the Senate has had in operation a scheme of scaling to ensure that the results in the different subjects marked by different examiners in succeeding years do not vary too widely. In the case under review the low average in arithmetic necessitated a generous scaling allowance. The differences in the marks announced to the candidates after remarking are due to the result of the remarking taken in conjunction with the scaling allowances. “As the remarking of the scrips in this ease was not a reconsideration in the ordinary sense no reconsideration fee has been charged in the case of those candidates who sent in the usual deposit fee for a reconsideration in arithmetic, and the fee is being refunded.” ■ ■ ' ,