Who else had unsupervised exams during lockdown? (1 Viewer)

[Thomidog]

Hi, I'm the parent of a Year 12 student in NSW. Just wondering if anyone here knows of other schools which held unsupervised online Mid-Course exams during lockdown back in May? My son's school did and it caused a lot of stress. Was this a common thing? Thanks.

 

[Kyufruit]

Hi, I'm the parent of a Year 12 student in NSW. Just wondering if anyone here knows of other schools which held unsupervised online Mid-Course exams during lockdown back in May? My son's school did and it caused a lot of stress. Was this a common thing? Thanks.

Like actual exams? Or just exams to test and revise your knowledge (and don’t go towards anything)?

 

[idkkdi]

Hi, I'm the parent of a Year 12 student in NSW. Just wondering if anyone here knows of other schools which held unsupervised online Mid-Course exams during lockdown back in May? My son's school did and it caused a lot of stress. Was this a common thing? Thanks.

Online exams during lockdown were common. Not sure what you mean by unsupervised?

 

[Thomidog]

Well, no monitoring via Zoom or Teams. So students are in touch with other on phones etc and can cheat - ie look things up, give each other answers etc when it's meant to be a timed exam done in isolation.

 

[Thomidog]

Like actual exams? Or just exams to test and revise your knowledge (and don’t go towards anything)?

Actual formal exams with the marks going towards internal HSC marks.

 

[Drdusk]

Well, no monitoring via Zoom or Teams. So students are in touch with other on phones etc and can cheat - ie look things up, give each other answers etc when it's meant to be a timed exam done in isolation.

This is actually happening in year 12?? I would have never thought. Are you sure it wasn’t an ‘open book’ exam?

I swear it had to be an open book, there’s no way a school would allow this.

 

[idkkdi]

Well, no monitoring via Zoom or Teams. So students are in touch with other on phones etc and can cheat - ie look things up, give each other answers etc when it's meant to be a timed exam done in isolation.

This is actually happening in year 12?? I would have never thought. Are you sure it wasn’t an ‘open book’ exam?

I swear it had to be an open book, there’s no way a school would allow this.

Meant to be closed book.

This happened at my school with very rampant cheating (i.e. over half the grade cheated including a proportion who had the intention then chickened out, ridiculously high averages). Pretty sure the same scenario applied to the yr 12's at my school.

I was pretty pissed, my ranks were way below what they should have been, albeit this was for yr 11 and not yr 12.

As a parent, I would be pretty mad and would complain to the school, which I assume is what Thomidog is considering. However, do note that the school is inclined to not overturn those exams unless sufficient proof is provided of cheating occurring. Make sure that if the cheating is revealed, that your kid is anonymous and not labelled as the 'snitch'.
Personally, I doubt complaining would be very fruitful, unless it is a collective action with a decent amount of evidence. It is also likely too late to complain now. Given that your child is able, ranks could have definitely been regained in the following assessment tasks. If however, the marks are the difference between being a doctor/lawyer, it might be advisable to complain and bring it to P&C etc.

 

[Thomidog]

Meant to be closed book.

This happened at my school with very rampant cheating (i.e. over half the grade cheated including a proportion who had the intention then chickened out, ridiculously high averages). Pretty sure the same scenario applied to the yr 12's at my school.

I was pretty pissed, my ranks were way below what they should have been, albeit this was for yr 11 and not yr 12.

As a parent, I would be pretty mad and would complain to the school, which I assume is what Thomidog is considering. However, do note that the school is inclined to not overturn those exams unless sufficient proof is provided of cheating occurring. Make sure that if the cheating is revealed, that your kid is anonymous and not labelled as the 'snitch'.
Personally, I doubt complaining would be very fruitful, unless it is a collective action with a decent amount of evidence. It is also likely too late to complain now. Given that your child is able, ranks could have definitely been regained in the following assessment tasks. If however, the marks are the difference between being a doctor/lawyer, it might be advisable to complain and bring it to P&C etc.

Thanks idkkdi. The School did actually abolish the marks or rather downgrade the task to a formative assessment task only, in school-speak, but not before an awful lot of people complained. My son was just incredibly stressed out and couldn't believe it was happening as it was obvious to him that everyone would cheat, and everyone did, so the rankings were so messed up they had to be scrapped. But they weren't supervised. It's the equivalent of letting everyone into the Hall with the papers on the desks, walking out leaving no supervisor and shutting the door. Just really dumb, we felt, and educational malpractice. It's a selective school, you might expect better judgement on their part. My son had been aiming really high.

 

[Thomidog]

This is actually happening in year 12?? I would have never thought. Are you sure it wasn’t an ‘open book’ exam?

I swear it had to be an open book, there’s no way a school would allow this.

It wasn't open book. Students were meant to be doing the exams for real. We couldn't believe it either.

 

[BLIT2014]

I'd suggest ringing BOSTE (i.e reporting it if possible).

Does your child expect to perform better in externals? Not sure if it will be possible, but might be worth checking to see if it may be possible to apply for misadventure and only have externals count?

 

[BLIT2014]

I'd suggest ringing BOSTE (i.e reporting it if possible).

Does your child expect to perform better in externals? Not sure if it will be possible, but might be worth checking to see if it may be possible to apply for misadventure and only have externals count?

If you have tangible proof.

 

[beetree1]

I'd suggest ringing BOSTE

Now called NESA

why do they keep changing the name anyways

 

[shashysha]

my school had exams for a timed period i.e they give the exam at 3, hand in by 5 although I think some subjects was a day to do it. Of course, people cheated which was to be expected (even teachers were aware) but I'm still salty cause it killed one of my ranks lol

 

[erucibon]

The fact that schools even had exams is wild to me. For my school, the exams were just temporarily cancelled and if possible, some were made into hand in tasks rather than exams like for english

 

[BLIT2014]

Now called NESA

why do they keep changing the name anyways

Yes, you are correct. Hard to keep up when you are as old as me

 

[Thomidog]

I'd suggest ringing BOSTE (i.e reporting it if possible).

Does your child expect to perform better in externals? Not sure if it will be possible, but might be worth checking to see if it may be possible to apply for misadventure and only have externals count?

I didn't know that was even possible.

 

[Thomidog]

my school had exams for a timed period i.e they give the exam at 3, hand in by 5 although I think some subjects was a day to do it. Of course, people cheated which was to be expected (even teachers were aware) but I'm still salty cause it killed one of my ranks lol

Lousy on the school's part. I feel for you, but I wonder what the overall rankings were like? Ours held the tasks and then abolished them 2 weeks later because the ranks were so messed up.

 

[shashysha]

Lousy on the school's part. I feel for you, but I wonder what the overall rankings were like? Ours held the tasks and then abolished them 2 weeks later because the ranks were so messed up.

30% 4U task on a hand in... they didn't change the rankings and I'm still salty about it

 

[Thomidog]

30% 4U task on a hand in... they didn't change the rankings and I'm still salty about it

What would your marks usually be like on a task like that?

 

[shashysha]

What would your marks usually be like on a task like that?

Mostly ranged from 90-100%, but each mark was around 4-5 in trials which absolutely messed with some kids who definitely belong at the top.