Petition for exams to be removed for English students in their final degree cycle.

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Comments

#12

I’m signing this because I feel that the current decision to exam final year students for the first time against their wishes stands in opposition of Maynooth’s ethos as a student focused university. I strongly urge the English department to reconsider and allow the students to be assessed on their performance in a manner they feel is appropriate.

The Covid 19 pandemic has fractured our university experience as it stands, an experience many of us will not have the luxury to repeat. I urge the department to consider the the unique position of our year group and the impacts that the pandemic had on our capability to perform in examination settings.

This petition serves an example of the unity and collective action that our English course has taught and inspired in us. With this in mind, I hope the department can place faith in their students not to avail of artificial intelligence during their assignments, considering this is the current rationalisation for the introduction of exams this year. If the current Turnitin software is equipped to detect AI in other assessments throughout the year, I fail to see why it would be inadequate to do so with our Christmas and summer assignments.

The English department should strongly reconsider their current stance on grading a cohort of students already placed at a disadvantage in comparison to previous students.

Michaela McGovern (Dublin , 2023-11-21)

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#16

I do not appreciate having exams in last year when I need a 2.1 to get my masters. This is the most important year for all of us. The pressure of performing well is already at an all-time high so introducing exams adds to the pressure. A lot of people haven't done exams in years. And even though lecturers are going to prepare us for the exam, how prepared could we actually be? English exams haven't existed since 2019, so previous exams are irrelevant. We have never had English exams so bringing in this new concept (for us) adds even more pressure and makes us not being able to perform well. Even having mid-term assignments that are worth 60% of our grade is ridiculous. It gives us no room to improve whatsoever since CA is different from exams. How can my first essay in my final year be the main contributor for my final grade in the module? My education is not a joke and I wish the English department would feel the same. Please feel free to introduce exams for first years or second years but please do not give us exams.

Elin Hempel (Kildare, 2023-11-21)

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#27

I am both a mature student and a non native English speaker. Exams are a big reason for anxiety both for language barriers and my unfamiliarity with them.

Diana Frasiloaia (Maynooth, 2023-11-21)

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#32

Terrible choice of measuring your students intellectual abilities considered they haven’t been taught by the college to complete an English exam.

Aaron Shelley (Newbridge, 2023-11-21)

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#33

I am a final year student and the English exams being introduced this year I feel is extremely stressful and unfair as this year holds the most weight in our three years and we have not had experience in sitting English exams since leaving cert level. We have no clear idea on what to expect and our lecturers are struggling as well as they want us to do as well as possible but can only tell us so much.

Hollie Moore (Dublin , 2023-11-21)

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#42

I’m signing here to petition for the final year students to have assignments rather than exams at the end of the semester as it is a huge change, especially considering that many of the students are not familiar with this form of assessment in a university setting.

Aria Disney (Dublin, 2023-11-21)

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#45

I think it is unfair to expect final year students to do exams after the two previous years consisted of continuous assessment. It adds additional stress to students and negatively affects their education.

Ileana Finegan (Edgeworthstown, 2023-11-21)

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#65

I'm a second year student in Maynooth English and don't think exams should be a thing

Steph Collins (Maynooth , 2023-11-22)

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#74

This is ridiculously unfair and will hamper people's education

Mia Daly (Dublin, 2023-11-22)

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#82

English can be graded and marked through continuous assessment and it would be a far most appropriate representation of an English students merit. Forcing students to sit exams in the most important year that ways 70% of total results after not sitting an exam is incredibly unfair. Usually first year English students have a year of exams to practice that don’t weigh anything but these students were not given that.

Aideen Kelly (Longford , 2023-11-22)

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#85

Less stress
An exam doesn’t define you as a person

Michelle Power (Navan, 2023-11-22)

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#87

We have not had any exams in English for the last two years and I think it is rather unfair of the department to throw one at us in our final year when so much is at stake for us!

Séamus Ó Cléirigh (Dublin, 2023-11-22)

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#91

I chose English with the intention of learning more about a subject I love. I did not choose it to repeat the leaving cert. Exam based learning is an ineffective way to study a language such as English as it takes away from the amount of reading/ knowledge you will retain in a high stress environment.

Molly Bridgeman (Dublin , 2023-11-22)

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#106

The anxiety is killing me. I have no real experience taking exams, and there's no previous English exams for me to study from. As a commuter with a busy timetable who lives far from Maynooth i'm already struggling to find time to do all of my assignments, I genuinely don't know how i'll find time to study.

Tyrone Ward (Virginia, 2023-11-24)

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