For two months, Progress showed nineteen students who took the course Psychology in the workplace a passing grade, only for them to suddenly be told they’d failed the exam anyway.
The students all had a grade between 5.45 and 5.49, which had been rounded up to 5.5 – a pass. But last Tuesday, they received an email from the exam committee secretary informing them that ‘the department of psychology does not issue 5.5 as a grade’ and that their grade had been rounded down to a 5.
The lecturer who had graded the exams – taken on January 19 – was ‘unfortunately not aware’ of the rule, according to the email. The Student Service Desk only recently discovered the mistake.
Unfair
Second-year psychology student Daniela Lofajová (21) doesn’t think it’s fair she has to take a resit. ‘I don’t really see how this is my problem, especially after two months of complete silence. I don’t believe it is my responsibility to bear the consequences of the lecturer’s mistake.’
It’s concerning that a lecturer is unaware of what constitutes an acceptable grade, she says. Franka Bergmann (21), one of the others with a 5.5 grade, agrees. ‘I doubt she was the only one involved with the calculation of the grades.’
Later date
The regular resit of this exam is in two weeks, but the exam committee writes that it understands that this may not be enough time to prepare. The students will therefore get the chance to take their resit at a later date.
But Franka feels that there shouldn’t be a resit at all: ‘I’m planning to appeal this decision; I’m just figuring out how to go about it.’