The examinations authority has come under fire for "unfair treatment" of candidates in a major English listening exam this month.
Students have complained of unclear instructions in one question in the Hong Kong Advanced level Use of English listening paper on April 5. The paper was worth 18 per cent of total marks for the subject.
In the question, candidates were given a taped conversation between the host of a survivor contest and competitors, and asked to "put ticks or crosses" to identify which of 11 items the competitors were allowed to use in the contest. The Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority said candidates were required to "tick" items allowed and "cross" items not allowed.
But candidates later complained that they did not put crosses for items not allowed because the instruction was unclear, the authority said. After a markers' meeting, the authority agreed there were candidates who had misunderstood the instructions and decided that they be given the benefit of the doubt.
"If candidates used ticks only to indicate items allowed, blank boxes would be treated as indication of items not allowed. If they used both ticks and crosses, then blanks would be treated as omissions and not awarded any marks," a spokeswoman said. "An initial study showed that the majority of candidates used ticks to indicate items allowed and crosses to indicate items not allowed. Only a minority of candidates failed to use crosses to indicate items that were not allowed."
However, the decision to give certain students the benefit of the doubt has angered other candidates.
"Following instructions is a basic thing to do for people sitting exams. It would be unfair to give marks to those who failed to do so," said student Corah Chiu Yuk-yun.
A group named "Against giving benefit of the doubt to people who don't read instructions" has been opened on the social networking website Facebook. It has 348 members and 30 messages criticising the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority about its marking decision.
A message posted by the group read: "Candidates failed to put crosses probably because they had problems comprehending the question or they did not know the answer. The HKEAA decision allows for the luck factor, a departure from the aim of the listening exam."
The authority spokeswoman said marking of the papers had begun, but she could not say how many complaints about the question had been received.
SCMP. Apr. 29, 2008.
5 comments:
I have read this news already but I don't understand some parts of the article. Shall I ask you tomorrow?
According to the objective of the listening test, candidates are strictly required to comprehend the instructions carefully. Therefore this decision is considered unreasonable.
In my first attempt of this paper, I myself had also fallen into this trap. Due to my carelessness, I have fogotten to cross the boxes as well. For candidates who experienced the same, they would have rejoiced after hearing this news. However, I believe they are only luckly for this time.
As form 7 candidates, they should be well prepared and highly experienced in question understanding and examination traps, thus this decision is unfair to whom who followed the intructions.
actually, when i was doing this part, i didn't hv such problem that candidate face....
as the question request us to put tick/ cross, in common sense, you can think that tick is related to the right think, and for this question it should means the things that allowed to bring....
is thing not think...-.-"
sorry
This event shows us that there is no real objectivity. After all, there is an element of luckiness in all public exams.
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