RE: Philosophy and exams

[Nick Dippie <nd603@soton.ac.uk>]

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i think we need exams and assessment. whilst it would be good if people only
ever did philosophy for its own sake, to be a good philosopher involves a
certain type of analytical skill ,and the only way to effectively train us
in this is through exams and coursework. i've jsut firnished a set of
essays (4) and can definitely say that not only has it been good practice
for my analytical skills, but it has deepened and broadened my knowledge of
all the subjects. interested as i am in philosophy, the fact is that i need
to be pushed to do any actual work (and lets face it, no matter how
exciting and interesting reading philosophy can be, its often pretty tough
going.)this is especially true for the harder units - like the heidegger i
was one i'm doing. without the threat of failure i don't think i'd ever
actually read that mans writings out of choice. now that i have though, i'm
glad i did.

most students need to be pushed a bit, and without the challenge of
assessment, most would never develop very far as philosophers.

nick



Quoting Bernie Doeser <bernie@doeser.org>:

> Being an OU student ? our academic year begins in January with exams at
> the
> end of October ? I?m ahead of you here, having already done my end of
> year
> exams.
>
> I see a real problem with philosophy exams, which however does not mean
> they
> should not be used, but does say the conditions need to be correctly set
> and
> communicated to the students. A really good physicist needs to
> demonstrate a
> good grasp of the accepted truth of his science, but a philosophy student
> needs to demonstrate a good grasp of philosophical analysis and
> communication as well as a good understanding of the arguments on either
> side of key issues and debates. As a result a ?pat? answer to an exam
> question should get a mediocre score, but an original and insightful
> answer
> should get a good score, but might also risk get a bad score. Therefore
> the
> philosophy student has a different risk profile. My approach is to go for
> the ?original? essay as if you do badly as a result of skilfully
> demonstrating your originality then the qualification, in my opinion, is
> worth little.
>
> The comforting advice I got from my OU tutor was that I would score marks
> for good analysis and communication, raising the relevant issues,
> addressing
> the pros and cons of either approach and not for ?giving the right
> answer?.
> (e.g. one of our exam questions was ?Is the mind immaterial, as dualists
> claim? ? now the current view might be no, but marks for the actual
> result
> of the argument should be insignificant compared to the marks for
> incisive
> deconstruction and assessment of the alternative positions). He also
> suggested a modicum of humour would help, apparently marking
> philosophical
> essays can be rather boring and the markers appreciate a little
> entertainment.
>
> Half our score was based on continuous assessment through submitted
> essays,
> but ones final grade related to the worst score ? i.e. score 70% in the
> essays and 40% in the exam and get a Grade 4, scrape through pass, score
> 70%
> in the essays and 70% in the exam and get a Grade 2 pass (2/1
> equivalent).
> This meant that if you plagiarised your essays e.g. from the internet,
> you?d
> get caught out in the exam. I think this is a good and fair way of
> working.
>
> I think assessing a students verbal skills would not be productive ?
> although some great philosophers were great orators, others were poor. I
> think the real test is the use of language, and the written word allows
> proper consideration and adjustment of ideas before communicating them.
> Having said that all courses should give the opportunity for verbal
> debate,
> both to improve verbal skills and also to better understand arguments.
>
> By the way, my tutor?s advice was sound, and my continuous essay (TMA?s
> we
> call them) and exam marks were within 3% of each other.
>
> Bernie Doeser
> Sandiway, Cheshire, UK.
>
>
>
>
>





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