Job Discussion Forums

[moonpie]

Ok, I stand corrected. To fail in the Oman Colleges of Applied Technology a student has to achieve less than 26 out of a 100 in the final marks for the semester. Does anyone have a lower bar?

[johnslat]

Dear moonpie,

It could be worse:

"South Africa's university graduation rate of 15% is one of the lowest in the world."

http://www.hsrc.ac.za/Document-2717.phtml

But that was on 2008 - maybe it's improved since then (Of course, it could also have gotten even worse.)

Regards,
John

[Nolan Chance]

[veiledsentiments]

I'm not clear whether Mr/Ms Moon meant that only 26% of the CAT students passed...

or

Whether the passing grade was 26% (which suggests that they got 74% of the questions wrong)

VS

[Nolan Chance]

[veiledsentiments]

I see that I was correct... 26% is the passing grade... not the percentage of students who passed as Nolan and John interpreted it.

VS
(and no... I was sure that it wasn't clear... but I see that s/he clarified it)

[rainbowprof]

if it's 26% passing grade maybe the examinations are a fraction difficult. Maybe they need some bonus points like 5 points if your name is spelt correctly and extra points if the date makes sense... Extra points if they answer every question (regardless if they are right or wrong). Maybe a sentence gets full points even if it has up to three errors. If you don't pass students in a compulsory course not enough people will graduate. And you get stuck with the same students who keep failing. If I failed that many students it would be hard to keep my job. There might be questions as to my suitability.

[veiledsentiments]

You really need to have taught in the Gulf to see how this sort of thing works. It could be that the exam was too difficult... or didn't cover what they were taught... or it could have been at the level that it should have been and covered exactly what they were taught, but the grades reflect how little the students are working.

Or it could be that the management is unrealistic as to what ability the students can reach in one semester... or two. And when the reality of the test results slap them in the face, passing grade is quietly lowered rather than change the system.

I recall many years ago at HCT, there would be system-wide exams written to give to both the men's and women's colleges. The women would have a normal pass/fail number... and 60+% of the men would fail. So, a quickie summer course would be created... and miraculously, at the end of that month, the men would pass a "new" exam with a normal pass/fail rate.

The system is smoke and mirrors... and politics and family often matter more than what the students have actually learned... or not. Now if only one teacher's students tank, trouble may ensue for that teacher. But if all classes under-perform, as is the norm, it becomes a management fix.

VS

[rainbowprof]

Not so unusual. Works quite similarly at most of the universities where I have taught. Bell curving and normalizing scores is instituted at the majority of educational establishments- just a matter of degree, I expect.

[veiledsentiments]

Rarely saw anything resembling a normal bell curve. I'm not sure that language testing would commonly do a curve similar to an academic subject. ...and "normalizing" usually means... like this case... lowering the pass number.

VS