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I often worry about exam questions (even at my age!). I think there is still a tendency, more prevalent in some disciplines than others, for some of the questions to be written in a 'clever' way, so that the clever students will read between the lines and know how to go about answering them, while the less clever students will miss the ball (to mix a few metaphors). There are still people around in universities (some more than others) who applaud such questions, and explain that after all we want to sort out the really bright students from the others, don't we? Part of my worry overlaps with an earlier discussion on 'academic language', and the fact that students whose 2nd or 3rd language happens to be English are disadvantaged at the game of second-guessing the real meaning of 'clever' questions. [As indeed are students with some level of dyslexia, and so on]. Under SENDA, it can be claimed that a question containing 'tricks' which disadvantage someone with special educational needs (dyslexia - and in my reckoning less developed levels of English?) are technically 'unlawful', and ripe for appeals by unsuccessful students. I could of course rifle the exam question banks of a few universities to provide some ammunition for this debate. However, I think it will be more fun (and more learning for us all) to try to compose delberately some 'clever' questions, alongside what they are intended to mean, and (for good measure) what they could have been construed to be intended to mean by a particular candidate. So please compose your three versions below: ORIGINAL CLEVER QUESTION.... WHAT IT IS ACTUALLY INTENDED TO MEAN.... WHAT SOME POOR CANDIDATE MAY HAVE THOUGHT IT MAY MEAN..... Entries will be rigorously doubly-blind and anonymously judged by participants at a couple of my workshops next year, using some clever criteria they will have had fun inventing, and the winning entry will earn its owner a signed copy of one of my least clever books. With your permission, I'd also like to illustrate the debate by pulling together some of the questions either on my website or in this list or both. thanks, and seasons greetings, Phil www.phil-race.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- from: Professor Phil Race www.phil-race.com