Hi all,
I heard a lot of teachers and students say that the Methods Exam last year was super hard. How hard was it really?
An easy way to compare is to check the graded distributions for last year relative to most years.
An A+ for last year is 33/40 (66/80) and 61.5/80 (123/160) for Exam 1 and 2 respectively.
If you compare that with 2017 which was perceived as a pretty difficult year at the time you had 34.5/40 and 63/80 for Exam 1 and 2 respectively then. Note in 2017 a 116/120 was a 50 (which is usually pretty unprecedented).
So it was indeed probably one of the most difficult years but not exceptionally difficult. I'd personally say last years' was a bit easier than 2013 (where although the A+ cutoff for E2 was the same at 61.5, in 2013 you could drop ~12 marks and still get a 48 raw). In 2020, dropping 12 marks was around a 46. That being said, in 2006 dropping 12 marks was a 43 so it was definitely difficult. All about how the distribution is skewed.