ATAR Notes: Forum
Administration => Announcements => Topic started by: enwiabe on March 11, 2008, 07:32:23 pm
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I was utterly horrified to read the following letter that appeared in today's Age:
"Exam timetable change is too tough
I WONDER if VCE students, their teachers and parents are aware that at its December meeting the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority approved a change to the policy on students timetabled with three examinations in one day?
The new policy states that in order to "maintain the integrity of the VCE examination process, students will now be required to sit all three examinations in one day" (VCAA Bulletin, No. 57, March 2008, page 4).
In past years students were allowed to sit one of the examinations on the following morning.
I know that examinations are by definition meant to be testing but to ask students to sit three examinations in the one day really does seem not only overly demanding, but also unfair.
I think that the VCAA should review this decision.
Bill Anderson, senior fellow, University of Melbourne"
I would appreciate your thoughts on the matter before I fire off an angry e-mail on behalf of the VCE Notes community. I was also thinking of, after my e-mail is replied to, if nothing happens - you guys might like to fire off a similar one, citing mine. Anyway, I will take action, but I would like your thoughts and opinions before I do.
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I rekon it is horrible to sit 3 exams in one day. Two is more than enough
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I read that today too. I wasn't soo much horrified. More disappointed and sympathetic for the people who are affected by this bureaucracy. Simply a convenient way for VCAA to simplify the exam procedure with very little consideration given to the considerable disadvantage students are placed in when it comes to determining their ENTER.
Poor effort by VCAA.
Suggestion: Maybe attach some opinions by VCEnotes members in your e-mail to them to show the general consensus of VCEnotes users.
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Good idea! Will do. I was thinking of a poll, but that's even better. I'll probably hunt down posters for their full names and screenshot the post.
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you have got to be kidding me.
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I definitely agree that it is too tough. I'm pretty certain that majority of the VCE students feels the same way. Last year i was in the position of sitting two exams on the one day and boy was i under a lot of stress!
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Yeah, I've sat 4 exams in the space of 2 days and that itself was terrible. I don't know whether or not my performance was affected (I suspect it may have been in the fourth exam). Exams themselves are mentally stressful things, this change will make them physically stressful as well.
I think if we're seriously committed to this, just an email is not enough. We need to get the word out that the VCAA has changed this rule, without even consulting those who are most affected by it (i.e. the students).
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Which was your 4th exam if you don't mind me asking?
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One question though, when is this 'three examinations' policy going to be in act? In 2008 or 9?
The '08 exam timetable is fully defined and locked right? :P :(
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Which was your 4th exam if you don't mind me asking?
Economics. That said, I don't think my study score would have been impacted very much if indeed it was at all.
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That's utterly ridiculous! By all means fire off an angry letter or a million to VCAA dan :)
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Yeah, I've sat 4 exams in the space of 2 days and that itself was terrible. I don't know whether or not my performance was affected (I suspect it may have been in the fourth exam). Exams themselves are mentally stressful things, this change will make them physically stressful as well.
I think if we're seriously committed to this, just an email is not enough. We need to get the word out that the VCAA has changed this rule, without even consulting those who are most affected by it (i.e. the students).
Got any ideas re: spreading the word? I don't have much access to methods of spreading material other than this website. :-/
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They should improve their timetabling abilities so that the situation doesn't arise in the first place, eg keep similar subjects apart. Eg don't run physics/chem/spec on consecutive days (though I guess I have nothing to complain about vs people who have more than one exam/day)
And I'll edit this post to have a well thought out point of view, but my general gist is: over recent years vcaa has made many improvements to their system (special consideration vs sorry, come back and do the exam next year) etc. This is a step backwards, because undoubtedly it is easier to manage. but their primary concern should be the students, not making more money, so they should keep what was in place.
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Yeah, I've sat 4 exams in the space of 2 days and that itself was terrible. I don't know whether or not my performance was affected (I suspect it may have been in the fourth exam). Exams themselves are mentally stressful things, this change will make them physically stressful as well.
I think if we're seriously committed to this, just an email is not enough. We need to get the word out that the VCAA has changed this rule, without even consulting those who are most affected by it (i.e. the students).
Got any ideas re: spreading the word? I don't have much access to methods of spreading material other than this website. :-/
The only thing I can think of right now is a flyer drop. Perhaps in schools?
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Resources, Eriny. I'm full time uni, also helping to run a major Victorian debating competition, maintaining this site etc. I just don't have the time. However, the 30 minutes - an hour it would take to draft a cogent letter containing user sentiment would be pretty effective without the time input.
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true that. Although a collaborative effort would probably get the job done. That said, it seems kind of unnecessary. I was just entertaining the idea of VCE Notes being a student force which was able to exercise some power over the VCAA. Kind of like a union or something. How awesome would that be? Anyway, sending letters to newspapers could be a good idea as well, and maybe members of the state government.
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We should never have power over VCAA. That would be terrible. In terms of being a force, it'd be nice if it could be a tool to express student sentiment. The goal is not to intimidate VCAA but rather to express the collective dismay of the student body and hope that it makes the correct decision.
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I just meant having some power, not sovereignty. Because youth in general are pretty powerless, particularly under 18s.
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Kind of like a union or something.
lol like a student union...
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Kind of like a union or something.
lol like a student union...
LOL. I was expecting you to come, guns ablaze, 'it's your choice if you want to do VCE....stuff stuff...if you don't like the rules then you have a choice not to do it...' :P
In all seriousness / back on-topic, it is quite harsh that a student should have to sit 3 exams...but what do you propose of those who decide to cheat the system and find out the examination contents for the supplementary exam from their peers? Perhaps we should adopt a system, like at uni, where the supplementary paper is different from the original paper. Of course that will raise questions as 'what if that exam is easier/harder', but can you suggest anything better? That they're supervised until the next day? Heh. Sounds very 1984 to me.
Besides, a person's performance on the exam is based around their knowledge on unknown sets of questions. Is it truly fair to say that an exam is 'easier/harder' as much as it is to say that 'all students will find this exam easy/hard'? Each student comes into the exam room with a different skill set, and so the perception of easy and hard is most likely normally distributed in both regular and supplementary examinations (as are the results, typically).
What I'm trying to say is, basically, you walk into the exam room with a element of 'luck' (ok, so it's predetermined, but you don't know what's on the exam). You may be weak in some areas, but stronger in others. You don't know what's on the exam paper - you may get something hard, you may get something easy - to YOU. So what difference does it make if a *different* exam was set for these students? From the student's perspective, the exam contents are unknown and 'random'.
Also, I don't see why VCAA would change their stance unless someone had messed up with their system...or there was reasonable suspicion (and quite rightly so, given it's the VCE) that people were using the extra time to their advantage.
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I don't see why VCAA can't delay results day by a few days (or make marking results speedier and more efficient) and spread out the exam timetable further.
I'm sure it wouldn't affect VTAC affairs too much.
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3 exams in one day is way too much stress for one person. VCAA are just assholes
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AHHH! whats happening with this? was it used this year for 08's end of year exams? because i ahve to sit my exams at the end of next year and now i'm getting paranoid. So what happened with this angry email? and what about VCAA's desicion?
Aimee :)
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3 exams in one day is too strenuous even for the best of students. Let's bring fair play back into the vce system!
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Wow, this thread was like...resurrected. :S From March to now!
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but people doing it the next day can just ask people what was on it....how do you solve that?
you move the exam to another day or something
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Sorry for the bump, but my mate had 3 last thursday and two on the following friday :S
5 in 2 days :<
I think they were:
Psych, Accounting, Lit
Methods, Economics
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My friend has all her exams in like 3 days or something, 1 week break between her first one and her last 4-5.
The co-coordinators from what I understood said she has to do them all in one day and an examiner has to be with her for the hour or two until her exam.
I don't think exams should be shifted to another day (runs and hides), >>>UNLESS<<< those students are not given access to other students who have done the exam.
Because as wombifat said, students can ask pplz form another school what was on there.
So in conclusion all exams should be laid out to ensure no day has more than 1 or 2 max on the same day.
Also, term 4.....exams can be brought in earlier, because at school only the first week or two is actualyl USEFUL revision, we stayed till 4 weeks in term 4, and it was useless and a waste of time, so there is the ability as Coblin said, sorry Collin :P, to stretch them out.
I know doing exams earlier sounds bad, but I don't THINK they can be pushed 1 week later? Because of VTAC etc? Or maybe they can. hmm. dunno.
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I don't see why VCAA can't delay results day by a few days (or make marking results speedier and more efficient) and spread out the exam timetable further.
I'm sure it wouldn't affect VTAC affairs too much.
I believe this is the best option.
I was so lucky to not have two or three exams in one day. This is aweful, how could someone be expected to sit 3 exams? It's good how uni's can run supplementary exams, but with VCE to derive study scores for everyone you need people to sit the same paper.
VCAA is best off extending the exam period instead of trying to run heaps of exams per day.
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My friend last year couldnt sit the english exam on the perscribed date due to a medical condition, so what VCAA did was lock him in a hotel with no communications for the night and let him sit it on saturday
No joke
If only they made this option open to people with 3 subjects on a day
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Sorry if I missed something. Does this new policy mean that if you currently have 2 subjects in 1 day for the current time table and 1 of them is a math subject then you will need to do exam 1 and 2 on the same day hence 3 exams?
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Sorry if I missed something. Does this new policy mean that if you currently have 2 subjects in 1 day for the current time table and 1 of them is a math subject then you will need to do exam 1 and 2 on the same day hence 3 exams?
No... Math Exam 1 and Exam 2's are always on different days. Why would VCAA make you do exam 2 earlier than everyone else?
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Everyone would do it the same day if its changed. I am saying that if the exam 2 gets changed to the same day as exam 1 and as a coincidence, the person does another subject too, that means he has 3 subjects?
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Everyone would do it the same day if its changed. I am saying that if the exam 2 gets changed to the same day as exam 1 and as a coincidence, the person does another subject too, that means he has 3 subjects?
Huh, since when was this ever about changing the day of exam 2? It's just all about VCAA not giving leniency for people to move exams who happen to have 3 exams on the same day. VCAA obviously tries to avoid this, but some people just have unusual combinations of subjects so this can happen. With something as common as the Asian 5, VCAA's never going to let a triple exam day occur.
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Does this years exam time table apply to next years students?
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Does this years exam time table apply to next years students?
Well of course the dates will change a little (shifts one day forward or so), but the overall structure in terms of whether it's Monday, Tuesday etc. tends to stay roughly the same.
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Even the subjects on each day?
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Eh, it's pretty bad but my friend whose doing IB said they had to six 6 hours of exams in one day. If they've been doing this for IB, with IB students having to cover a whole spectrum of subjects (whereas some VCE students may just decide to focus on humanities, sciences, etc.), I'm sure VCE students can do it. :P
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3 exams is absolutely ridiculous - it's not giving the student a chance and will definitely give them an unfair disadvantage.... Don't know who's caling the shots at the VCAA but they clearly do not understand the energy and concentration that is required to perform well under exam conditions. Terrible decision, they must reconsider it!
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Does this years exam time table apply to next years students?
Nope, not really except for what shinny said before.
That's why there was this whole uproar about English and Spesh exam 1 being on the same day this year. Last year it was English and Drama.
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I had two exams in one day and I was absolutely fucked afterwards.
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Does this years exam time table apply to next years students?
Nope, not really except for what shinny said before.
That's why there was this whole uproar about English and Spesh exam 1 being on the same day this year. Last year it was English and Drama.
I've heard English and spesh was on the same day for a while. Maybe last year was an exception?
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Does this years exam time table apply to next years students?
Nope, not really except for what shinny said before.
That's why there was this whole uproar about English and Spesh exam 1 being on the same day this year. Last year it was English and Drama.
I've heard English and spesh was on the same day for a while. Maybe last year was an exception?
In 2007, English, VET: Furnishing, VET Information Technology and VET: Sport and Recreation were on the same day.
Only in 2006 was English and Spesh were on the same day. In 2005, it was English and two other VET subjects.
So maybe it was just luck of the draw. I wouldn't say "...English and spesh was on the same day for a while" though.
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Does it mean next year its not likely spesh is on the same day?
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Does it mean next year its not likely spesh is on the same day?
yes, thats what it means. I doubt they would put spesh and english on the same day again.
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Hard to tell now. I would doubt it, but wait until early next year for official confirmation. Right now, VCAA has only decided on the following:
2010 VCE Examination periods
- June Written Examinations
Tuesday 8 June – Thursday 10 June (GAT)
- October Performance and LOTE Oral Examinations
Monday 4 October – Sunday 31 October
- CCAFL Written Examinations
Tuesday 19 October
- November Written Examinations
Thursday 28 October – Friday 19 November
Note: The above exam periods have been approved by VCAA Board.
Source: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/exams/future_exams.html
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Did english normall start thursday?
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Did english normall start thursday?
The days of the week change depending on the dates. But I can tell you that English has always been on the first day.
Why? Because pretty much everyone in the state does English and they need time to mark the exams. So that's why VCAA want to get it over and done with. :)
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Three exams on the same day is way too much stress, two is stressful enough so let alone three