Rhetorics Written Exam - PPLE Class of 2020

Comments

#4

Bc The grading is shite

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#7

I’m signing this because I wholeheartedly agree with what was stated above.

(AMSTERDAM , 2018-01-25)

#9

Not fair grading regarding what was taught throughout the course.
They tell you to write 10-15 lines max and then take away 7 points cause you didn’t include everything from the 20-25 lines long model answer

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#17

I feel like there is a huge inconsistency when comparing lectures and tutorials (which were entertaining at best but not very informative, where the focus was mostly on either anecdotes or warm-up exercises) and the exam, where great detail was expected. Either give meaninful tutorials and lectures focused on the academic side of the readings, or an exam comparable to the tone of the rest of the course, the current combination however, doesnt work.

(UTRECHT, 2018-01-25)

#21

I sign because the grading scheme does not truly reflect what we have learned in this course. Further it often misses details and coherence in the way we should answer these questions. I literally do not even know how to address issues within my answers.

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#22

during the tutorials and lectures the teachers didn’t prepare us at all for such a difficult exam and therefore I think the harsh grading is not at all justified

(Hamburg , 2018-01-25)

#25

Reasons mentioned in email

(Purmerend, 2018-01-25)

#27

I'm signing this petition because I definitely agree with what has been said above. Furthermore, I feel like there is a very big inequality between this course itself and what they were expecting from us. The grading has also been a bit unfair.
It is okay with deciding this year to make us take an exam, but with such a change, other changes have to come too, like for example, a totally different structure of how the tutorials+lectures are arranged.
If the structure of the lectures+tutorials can't/won't be changed, I definitely believe that there must have been a better way to test our knowledge for this course. We paid way to much attention to things like "public speaking", which is very interesting, but didn't get us anywhere.

(Amersfoort , 2018-01-25)

#32

1 The exam was in NO way in accordance with the the content of the tutorials
2 The Answer models are so much bullshit and you know it

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#34

The grading of the rhetorics exam hasn’t only been very strict (harsh), but most importantly not fair. The grading criteria that was applied weren’t made to see whether the students showed that they knew what they were talking about and understood rhetorics, but it simply looked at whether the answer contained the same literal words as the grading criteria, something that’s not very academical.

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#36

I’m signing this because after looking at the exam, I though the model answers contained a level of detail that was never mentioned in the reader or the lectures. Also the amount of lines which were recommended was not representative of what was expected to be included. Furthermore, the phrasing of the questions were sometimes quite obscurre and unclear which made it difficult to know what exactly was expected. (Question 3, 7a and b)

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#37

The questions were direct references to both lectures and readings. I do not think the complexity of the questions posed a problem, however, I am under the impression that the markingscheme is highly flawed. Offering an answer which includes most relevant information is rewarded with a rather minimal amount of points.

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#47

Even though I passed the exam, I want to support my fellow PPLE students

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#52

When looking at the model answers I was surprised what kind of in-depth answers were expected from us. Although the course (the lectures as well as the tutorials) taught me lot and gave interesting insights, the model answers and therefore the expectations of the lecturers/tutors towards the exam don't reflect what we actually learned during the course.

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#59

The focus and tone of the lectures and tutorials was in no way reflected in the difficulty of the exam. In all previous courses the material discussed in lectures was most likely to be asked on the exam with minor additions from the readings which were not covered, whereas here the lectures only covered a relatively small segment of the reading which was then required on the exam in great detail. The exam also did not match the length of answers to the details required. In 10 lines it is impossible to write down some of the model answers that were 20 lines long, and I got severely marked down for not including information that I considered less relevant on the basis of the approx. 10 lines limit.

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#60

The rhetoric grading was villanous

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#67

I too feel as thought the rhetoric exam was graded too harshly

(Amsterdam , 2018-01-25)

#70

in my answers I clearly implied the same answers as were in the model answer, just used different wording. I feel like I was not given enough marks simply for the reason that my answer was not exactly the same wording as the model answer, and I think this is unfair therefore the exam should be re-evaluated.

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#74

for the reasons mentioned above

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#75

Together with several others, I found the question on "the three mechanisms of storytelling" particularly ambiguous, which in turn affected the following question on their application.

(Ostuni, 2018-01-25)

#84

The answers required in the exam were not representative of what was taught in in the lectures or the tutorial. Furthermore there was no indicator of how much detail was required. (line indicator in exam was faulty)

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#88

Although I did pass the exam I strongly agree with my peers that the exam did not match the length of answers to the details required. Some of the model answers could hardly be expressed in 10-15 lines, which a lot of people got marked down on severely. Due to the approx. limit of lines (which should serve as a guideline), information which was considered to be less relevant was not expressed in too much detail resulting in a huge loss of points.

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#92

As the grading was unfair

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#94

Some of the questions were vague, led to misunderstanding. Grading scheme too specific

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#98

I’m unhappy with the grading rubrique and formulation of questions in the exam.

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#100

This exam is unfair in a sense that it is not a test of understanding but rather a test of memory. Thus, this defeats the purpose of the rhetoric course which should be an application focused course.

(Diemen, 2018-01-25)

#101

This exam is unfair in a sense that it is not a test of understanding but rather a test of memory. Thus, this defeats the purpose of the rhetoric course which should be an application focused course.

(Diemen, 2018-01-25)

#103

I agree with the critique of the discrepancy between what has been communicated during the lectures and tutorials and what was actually expected in the exam. To be fair, everything that was in the exam had at least been mentioned somewhere in the course. Still, the focus on public speaking skills (and rather irrelevant games) in the tutorials and the focus on anecdotes in the lectures did by no means prepare us for such a level of detail. One may now argue that as University students it is our own responsibility to prepare ourselves for exams - and I can´t object - but in order to do so, we need to know what is expected.

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#107

The model answers in the practice exam did not reflect the model answers that we were supposed to give in the exam. The model answers that we were given did not show us that we had to give such detailed answers. Also the readings were never discussed in the lectures or the tutorial so it was very hard to know what was important and was not.

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#109

I do not think the grading was done fairly. It was not because of the tutors but rather because of the super harsh model answers which we cannot be expected to get right word by word.

(Amsterdam , 2018-01-25)

#111

Contradictions in the material for the exam (arbitrariness of signs vs sound symbolism), ambiguous/unclear questions, not taking into account the extra writing space even though it was clearly written that the notes are a continuation of the question, grading the answers lower because of minor details that were not asked in the question,....

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#116

I find it illogical to ask for, for instance, an approx. 10 lines answer but then provide a model answer of double the amount. The provided guidelines should help us in the exam and not put us to a disadvantage.

(Amsterdam, 2018-01-25)

#121

Inconsistency between course content and exam mark scheme.

(Amsterdam , 2018-01-26)