All Test Paper Has Been Destoryed

Received this email from EG1108 Electrical Engineering lecturer.

1. A number of you have emailed me directly, soon after the release of the grades, with requests for release of the raw marks, review of the answer scripts, release of questions and solutions, among others. Some of these requests are also posted on the IVLE.
2. I hope you understand that I am not able to respond to you individually.
3. Setting a normal exam paper (6 questions) and grading some 700 scripts is a big exercise, involving many lecturer-hours: marking, checking the marks, processing the marks etc, taking easily 10 days.
4. The MCQ paper shortcuts this process and saves time as computers can be used to grade the answers.
5. Unlike the "normal" paper, MCQ papers provide valuable feedback for the instructors on what students do not know through the award of negative marks, over which some of you have displayed much passion, not unreasonably.
6. As I mentioned in my note that accompanied the release of the test results, I am satisfied that the raw marks fall on a very well-behaved bell-shape curve, as can be expected from a student population of 700. The shape tells us that we have some very good students in the P band, some very weak students in the T band and the bulk of the population lying between these two bands. It's a bit like wealth distribution in a population: a small percentage that are filthy rich, a small percentage dirt poor, and the bulk managing 3 meals a day.
7. Raw marks are not very meaningful. They must be viewed in relation to the rest of the student population. We use a band of marks for the simple reason that a student with a score of 75 need not necessarily be better than a student who scores 73. Further there is always some uncertainly in the grading (not for MCQ papers), between
markers, over time for the same marker (before or after lunch, depending whether it's a good or a bad lunch), etc. Markers are subject to the same human weaknesses as everyone else including students.
8. Marking on the curve is a standard NUS procedure. And this is also practised in many enlightened universities in the world. One Canadian professor remarked: "We don't give the students the raw marks, because if we do, they all fail." A bit of an exaggeration, of course.
9. All the Midterm test papers have been destroyed.

C H Ling

Hmm, interesting eh? Nobody will know if they (markers) make mistakes during marking. Anyway, my mark falls in R Band. There is no way to check my own mistakes at all.