Seen exams and disabled students

sali_mali

In my course, most exams are 30% MCQs or short answer questions, 30% disclosed esay and 30% undisclosed essay, or something similar. The disclosed essay titles are given out at the beginning of every semester so you've got about 3 months to work on them! However they have to be perfect and very long so the difficulty is in remembering it all for when it has to be written in the exam.

I do have a point I promise! If all courses did this then surely than would be plently of time for everyone to get the essay done? Also, there would be a practical problem in disclosing the exam questions to disabled students before non-disabled students - what stops the disabled students telling their non-disabled friends what's coming up? Then the friends have an unfair advantage over the rest of the year

crazy_guy

I think another one of studentphils wonderful equality plans have been shot down into flames....again! Right back to the ol' revision for me!!

Gingernutmeg

studentphil wrote: »

I am not that different from most normal people. I just can not write very well, have good balance- I am not that different from anyone else. My life is not really anymore harder than anyone else's. That is because I have had time to find ways around problems or to just not do something if I really can not do it.

But don't you see phil that this is the same for everyone? We all have problems that we have to overcome, or things that we have to accept that we just can't do. Of course people have this to differing extents, but everyone has to be realistic about their abilities at some point, painful as that is.

For example, I love ballet - for years I took lessons and wished with all of my heart that I could one day be a dancer. I struggled with dancing as I have no co-ordination, and bad knees and ankles which meant that I found even the simple moves hard, and the kind of body that's definitely built for comfort and not speed. I thought that if I worked hard I'd overcome all this, but eventually I had to accept that dancing wasn't for me. I got terrible marks in my dance exams, not because I didn't try but because I just wasn't any good at it. I had to accept that if I wanted to compete at a certain level (ie take a dance exam) then I would be assessed against everyone else on the same level, and I was going to loose out because of things I could do nothing about - my basic physiology. It's harsh, and it was painful, but I found other things that I AM good at and now I work at those. I also had to develop enough honesty to say to myself that I didn't want something if I was only going to get it if it was made easier for me.

What I'm trying to say here is that we all have talents and we all have things that we're absolutely terrible at. No matter how many allowances are made, there are some things that we're never going to be able to do as well as other people, able-bodied or not. I'm all in favour of removing physical barriers so that people, whatever their ability, can integrate and work together, but we all, disabled or not, have to accept that sometimes having allowances made for us still won't allow us all to be at the same level.

And I hope I haven't offended anyone here, that's certainly not my intention

sali_mali

crazy_guy wrote: »

I think another one of studentphils wonderful equality plans have been shot down into flames....again! Right back to the ol' revision for me!!

Off topic but hello Crazy guy :hello:

Hope the rest of your exams are going well. I'm a complete stresshead these days! Never mind - two more to go and I an get out of the library and join civilisation again :rolleyes:

melancholly

i've been away from MSE for a week or so (actually getting work done for a change!) so it's good to see that nothing has changed - we're going over the same old ground again!

phil - now really is the time to get revising and to stop looking for get-out clauses. i know i've been telling you this for weeks/months already, but it is time to get your head into books to learn things. revision is never fun but you really need to get into it now - an extra hour in an exam is no good if you don't know anything to write about!

Bamber19

studentphil wrote: »

It is a mooting point that is all.

How is it taking the micky when a disability could slow you down writing plans and doing drafts or could slow you down in thinking about the answer?
That is a clear disadvantage due to your disability I am affaid.

If your disability slows you down in thinking about the answer then i don't believe you have cause to complain. I'm all for a student having a scribe or being allowed to type if they have a disability that affects their ability to write. In these situations we have an intelligent person who is unable to do things because of a physical condition (or condition such as dyslexia), albeit the steps taken are dissproportionate to those likely to be required in a workplace, for example it is not going to be deemed reasonable for a small company to hire someone on an £18,000 post and pay a second person £12,000 p/a to type for them when one non disabled person could do the job for £18,000 p/a alone

However where the problem is with the time taken to think about the answer it seems ridiculous to give extra time as i find it exceptionally hard in that situation to differentiate between this person and someone who is not intelligent enough to do the question in the time. A line has to be drawn somewhere as if it's not then a few years from now, once Phil has graduated we will have a replacement for him on here claiming that not being given the answers before the exam is a disadvantage to disabled students.

studentphil

I have spoken to someone dyslexic and they say I am barking up the wrong tree. They say they would get full help from a dyslexia tutor to help them with all the planning. Plus, they might be able to get special consideration in marking as well as they were disadvantaged in prep time.

But where that leaves you with a physical disability as you get no suppot tutor I don't know.

studentphil

melancholly wrote: »

i've been away from MSE for a week or so (actually getting work done for a change!) so it's good to see that nothing has changed - we're going over the same old ground again!

phil - now really is the time to get revising and to stop looking for get-out clauses. i know i've been telling you this for weeks/months already, but it is time to get your head into books to learn things. revision is never fun but you really need to get into it now - an extra hour in an exam is no good if you don't know anything to write about!

For me getting worked up about an issue has a useful by product in that it clears all my rage about the stupid course and hating it. That has given me a clear mind to revise this afternoon.

DjSatansfury

As someone who lurks the student board, dear god, you dont have like to whinge dont you Phil?

Tam_Lin

studentphil wrote: »

For me getting worked up about an issue has a useful by product in that it clears all my rage about the stupid course and hating it.

Not a very mature way of handling stress, is it? It all sounds so artificial and contrived, and I don't like being a guinea-pig to help you with your self-induced angst; I thought this was going to be a proper discussion but I should have known better.