Dear Professor Kwan,
This letter is to inform you, and the exam review board, of the general feeling of the students, indicated below, who sat the examination for Structural Analysis and Solid Mechanics, EN2306, on the 10th May 2010.
The exam paper of this year was far more difficult than those of the previous years. The questions were fair in the sense that they were examining us on material covered in the semester, but the problem arose when the questions set were more difficult than in the previous years. One obvious example in this module was question one, which was examining us on Energy Methods. In the past 4 years the papers have asked 3 questions on arches, asking many questions worth around 5-10 marks each. The one exception asked a question about a supported beam, and more than a third of the marks were for the diagrams for the beam. This year the question asked us to find the reactions for a cantilever beam. The notes did have examples for this type of beam, but they were few and far between, and none as complicated. Also all the marks were for calculations more difficult than the diagrams asked in previous years.
The other questions were similar to those is previous years, with a few extra complications thrown in. Previous years give show question 3 to be more understandable, and the last part of question three to be simpler. For example this year the question was about fatigue life, but not as we had seen it before. This allowed you to test our knowledge of the course, but also increased the difficulty.
Although I did not choose to do question 4 I have been informed that it was also unfairly difficult.........
Other universities offer the chance to undertake the Masters degree, or to undertake a year abroad, with an average of 55%. It seems as though this exam paper should be used in other universities, where the mark needed to progress is lower. It feels as though our year has been very unlucky with our timing, as the exam papers have been harder, and yet the average needed to progress is still the same. It also seems as though the year’s overall graduation will be hit by the extra difficulty, with the number of 1sts and 2:1s greatly reduced. A bad grade in the second year not only puts us onto the BEng degree, but also greatly hampers our chance of improving our grade, as our morale would be greatly hit.
The main complaint of this exam was the difficulty of the first question, which I believe most people felt hard done by. The format made the question more difficult, even if the material had all been covered in the lectures, and the addition of a cantilever built in at one end and a support in the middle was too much to introduce into the exam while still making the exam fair.
Below is a list of names, including myself, who feel the increase in difficulty of the questions is more than noticeable, and unfair without any warning.
TORY VOTERS MAKE ME LAUGH! He has now put on facebook that because he's failed this exam he might not get a masters and not be able to get a job as an engineer.......the 'thats what you get for voting tory' was a very satisfying statement for me to make
