Studies of Religion- Board of Studies response to Section 3 (1 Viewer)

[raniaaa]

Error in the Studies of Religion exam - Board of Studies responds. | Daily Telegraph Maralyn Parker Blog read and weep friends, read and weep.

 

[Libby01P]

That's really interesting, I found the question was good because it meant i could include all aspects of my depth study - I was a bit apprehensive of only doing a significant practice/ person/ ethic for 20 marks. But I can see how the Islam question especially was a bit weird. They will take it into account and hey- isn't that good for scaling if the paper was harder?

 

[raniaaa]

which religion did you write about?not sure about the scaling.. guess if you've answered it well then yeah it'd be great for you

 

[Cloesd]

which religion did you write about?not sure about the scaling.. guess if you've answered it well then yeah it'd be great for you

I think this question was;

"Not the question we deserved, but the question we needed"

 

[eucalyptblaze]

Am I in the minority in thinking that after reading that article that it was simply a harder question and not an 'outrage' as many claim it to be? Isn't it obvious that the BOS was looking for a way to challenge the students by giving an unpredictable question (which definetly was from the syllabus, if you did more then simply glance at it), and therefore would be more discriminatory, which is the point of testing all students.

I sat the exam and became mildly paniced at first glance of the question, but after simply calming down, reading it again, and giving it some more thought, it really wasn't too hard at all. I think it just threw a lot of people off, and subsequently they gave up on it because they failed to understand it, and are now trying to make it seem like it was the BOS fault. Seriously, no one has been disadvantaged if everyone was in the same boat.

 

[Cloesd]

Am I in the minority in thinking that after reading that article that it was simply a harder question and not an 'outrage' as many claim it to be? Isn't it obvious that the BOS was looking for a way to challenge the students by giving an unpredictable question (which definetly was from the syllabus, if you did more then simply glance at it), and therefore would be more discriminatory, which is the point of testing all students.

I sat the exam and became mildly paniced at first glance of the question, but after simply calming down, reading it again, and giving it some more thought, it really wasn't too hard at all. I think it just threw a lot of people off, and subsequently they gave up on it because they failed to understand it, and are now trying to make it seem like it was the BOS fault. Seriously, no one has been disadvantaged if everyone was in the same boat.

I posted this elsewhere but:

The problem with the SOR question this year is it asked a question an inteligent human would be able to answer, but a regurgitating machine that had a prepared answer wouldn't.

and i think that's the problem. The Board of studies is confused on their opinion on regurgitation vs a complete understanding of the topic.

In some subjects and even some questions within that SOR exam (section 1, 2) regurgitation was the way to go. A quick, mindless answer that wouldn't evne need to be thought about in the exam. I could go into the exam having my own mental fantasy and just write what i memorized the night before, and still get full marks, and finish much sooner than expected.

The board of studies has in a way "trained" students (like how you'd train dogs, but replace treats with marks), to regurgitate; but the Board doesn't know they're training students to do this. They sending mixed messages, saying "No, don't regurgitate essays" and then turning around and giving those who do full marks.

So when one of the Examiners wrote up section 3, he set a question that if you had studied whatever you did, with the purpose of LEARNING MORE ABOUT THE TRADITION, rather than with the purpose of writing a pre-planned answer for the sake of a mark, THEN you would have had no issues.


I propose that the Board of studies needs to decide which one they want, an accurate, mechanical, and well written response.

Or

A thoughtful, creative, but messy and at points inaccurate style response.

Any attempt to "mix" these two together, will leave those who are used to regurgitating whining about how there we're DIFFERENT WORDS USED IN THE QUESTION THIS YEAR.

and those who write un-regurgitated thoughtful responses whining because they got a 7/20 as the marker didn't read (memorized)"key-words" and "key ideas" in their essay.


I suggest them to take the latter approach.

Regurgitation may have worked in the industrial age, where the entire workforce's job was to repeat the same task with little thought. But in todays age, computers will regurgitate any essay, formula, hospitality recipe much better than a human can. It is our Creativity and ingenuity as a species which will drive us into the future from now, and that needs to be reflected in our education systems.

 

[ekoolish]

I posted this elsewhere but:

The problem with the SOR question this year is it asked a question an inteligent human would be able to answer, but a regurgitating machine that had a prepared answer wouldn't.

and i think that's the problem. The Board of studies is confused on their opinion on regurgitation vs a complete understanding of the topic.

In some subjects and even some questions within that SOR exam (section 1, 2) regurgitation was the way to go. A quick, mindless answer that wouldn't evne need to be thought about in the exam. I could go into the exam having my own mental fantasy and just write what i memorized the night before.

The board of studies has in a way "trained" students (like how you'd train dogs, but replace treats with marks), to regurgitate; but the Board doesn't know they're training students to do this, they sending mixed messages, saying "No don't regurgitate essays" and then turning around and giving those who do regurgitate full marks.

So when one of the Examiners wrote up section 3, he set a question that if you had studied the quotes in the Quran, the Hajj, baptism, whatever you did, with the purpose of LEARNING MORE ABOUT THE TRADITION, rather than with the purpose of writing a pre-planned answer for the sake of a mark, THEN you would have had no issues.


I propose that the Board of studies needs to decide which one they want, an accurate, mechanical, and well written response.

Or

A thoughtful, creative, but messy and at points inaccurate style response.

Any attempt to "mix" these two together, will leave those who are used to regurgitating whining about how there we're DIFFERENT WORDS USED IN THE QUESTION THIS YEAR.

and those who write creative response with great insight and an encompassing but not detailed concepts, will whine because they got a 7/20 because the marker didn't read (memorized)"key-words" and "key ideas" in their essay.


I suggest them to take the latter approach. Regurgitation may have worked in the industrial age, where the entire workforces job was to repeat the same task with little thought. But in todays age, computers will regurgitate any essay, formula, hospitality recipe much better than a human can. It is our Creativity and ingenuity as a species which will drive us into the future from now, and that needs to be reflected in our education systems.

Who is going to build my dream home?

 

[Cloesd]

Who is going to build my dream home?

A machine.

Im more worried about who's going to design it.

 

[eucalyptblaze]

I agree with what you say, Cloesd, but I just get the feeling that the BOS must have thought that SoR was getting too easy and most people's marks were too close together or something (For me at least I have always considered it my easiest exam), and s they decided this year to be harsh and spread people's results around a bit more by throwing many people off with an unexpected question that required higher order thinking. Nonetheless, I agree with what you said, I'm just a bit annoyed that so many people think it was an 'outrage' or 'horribly unfair', forgetting that exams are meant to be heavily discriminatory, and that BOS have somehow done something terribly innapropriate.

 

[Cloesd]

I agree with what you say, Cloesd, but I just get the feeling that the BOS must have thought that SoR was getting too easy and most people's marks were too close together or something (For me at least I have always considered it my easiest exam), and s they decided this year to be harsh and spread people's results around a bit more by throwing many people off with an unexpected question that required higher order thinking. Nonetheless, I agree with what you said, I'm just a bit annoyed that so many people think it was an 'outrage' or 'horribly unfair', forgetting that exams are meant to be heavily discriminatory, and that BOS have somehow done something terribly innapropriate.

The only thing i can blame the BOS for is "training" these students to regurgitate answers, and reinforcing this behavior with marks, and then swiftly crippling people's ability to regurgitate.


I don't even think this was done intentionally by the BOS, to the man/woman who wrote this exam, he/she probably wasn't even aware the controversy this would stir up. Thinking people would read the question on the Quran, or whatever, think for a minute on what it was asking, and then proceed to make a coherent argument.

What instead probably happened was, the students rapidly skimmed the questions hoping for a keyword like "practice" or "Ethic", and when he/she didn't find one, sat there hopelessly whining with a mentality of: "if i haven't memorized an answer for this, i can't POSSIBLY answer it."

I must say i DO blame the BOS. Not for setting the question as many other people do, but for rewarding regurgitation in every other facet, and then swiftly doing the opposite here. The BOS did do something terribly inappropriate, but it was not done during the exam... It was done all year, and all preceding years in encouraging a regurgitated response.

 

[raniaaa]

eh i blame my school who repeatedly told us to write prepared responses and memorise them cos that's all we're gonna get. darn them, darn them to heck. i swear i've never head the phrase "living religious tradition" over the past two years of SOR... and i'm one of those nerdish students who hangs off the teachers every word (exaggeration but you get the point). anyways what's done is done, can't be bothered caring any more

 

[arnajoan]

nahh its a really intresting subject, its gonna get me the marks
itsss soo cooolllddddd toooo