gair rhydd Monday January 31 2011 | freeword – Est. 1972 | Issue 940
PHOTO: JAKE YORATH
Under pressure Stressed students are exhausted by cramped exam timetabling Hannah Pendleton News Editor A gair rhydd investigation into exam scheduling has shown that Cardiff University is imposing hectic exam timetables upon students. As the autumn semester’s examination period draws to a close, exhausted students have argued that demanding exam schedules, arduous days of revision, stress and sleepless nights could potentially affect their academic performance. Two of the worst affected groups of students are from the School of Mathematics and the School of Chemistry. Many students from
these schools have complained of compact timetables which often feature lengthy examinations on consecutive days. An anonymous student from the School of Mathematics had six two hour examinations in two weeks. The student told gair rhydd of the stress that this was causing her: “I had exams on January 17, 19, 20, 24, 25 and 28. Having so many important exams over such a small space of time is incredibly stressful and tiring. “Even though I’m revising for at least eight hours a day, both in the day, through the evening and into the night, I feel like I am only aiming to pass the exams and I am not
going to be reaching my full potential in any of the exams I take. “I think the fact that Maths students have to take 12 modules a year is where the problem stems from, as I have heard of no other degrees with so many modules a year, and hence such hectic exam timetables. Even with the best timetabling possible, six exams over two weeks is still far too much pressure for any student.” The School of Mathematics admitted that scheduling maths exams has proved a recurrent hurdle due to the modular degree programme and they described it as a “perennial problem”. In January, Maths students have
12 final year papers (of which most students will sit six) to schedule over a period of 11 available days. This year, the School of Mathematics are not aware of any Maths student being required to sit two exams on the same day, although in some previous years this has happened. The Academic and University Affairs Officer, Sarah Ingram has commented on the gruelling schedules faced by students on modular degree programmes: “Every year students struggle with the amount of exams and the proximity to each other with which they occur. I have no doubt that having a lot of exams within days of each other does negatively affect students’ perfor-
mance, however, it is the Schools that offer the most choice in modules that then cannot timetable their exams in a suitable way for every student.” Two years ago a gair rhydd investigation revealed that students from Engineering, Geoscience and Business and Accounting were being placed under increasing pressure due to demanding exam timetables. Despite the Education and Welfare Officer investigating the issue at the time, it appears that students are still facing similarly cramped exam timetabling.
Continued on page 3