[lilyrawstorne]

So in a free whilst going through a Psychology A research methods paper with a friend I emailed aqa informing them how vague their questions are ... I'm being ridiculously para thinking they'll find a way to blacklist my name for my exams this June ... yeah?


This was the email -

After going through past papers for Psychology A exam Unit 3 and 4 I have found that your questions don’t clarify the requirements students must meet to obtain full marks. It seems stating the obvious, repeating yourself and looking for ‘implied’ questions within actual questions is the only way to be successful in Psychology a-level.

I’ll be taking the exam this year and hope by that point I’ll have worked out how to answer questions in way that satisfies your ludicrous mark scheme.

It would be just lovely if you could address this for future students though.


Lily Rawstorne

[najinaji]

A little arrogant. You also probably should have made it anonymous just to save the embarrassment.

That being said, I think it's probably illegal for them to blacklist you from taking an exam based on a critical email.

[im so academic]

They won't give a ****. Don't bother.

[Alexandra's Box]

It seems like a casual little moan as opposed to a proper complaint. It isn't very detailed and appears to only want to insult. Well, ANYWAY, they wouldn't really care - just think that you are a moron or rather conceited. Keep the moral high ground and just leave it.

[j0hn]

They won't care, they'll just ignore it or send some vague email back. They have more important priorities than your personal issues with the course. You really should spend your time trying to learn how to answer the questions rather than questioning the system that you have virtually no input in.

[bananaterracottapie]

you wasted your breath/ or hand movement, whatever. they probably wont even remember you, and whilst i agree with your email it doesn't exactly give examples so doesn't hold much weight :P

[lilyrawstorne]

Marvellous - and yes the email was arrogant but the papers and text books are ****ed so I felt I was a little entitled

[Formerly Helpful_C]

(Original post by lilyrawstorne)
Marvellous - and yes the email was arrogant but the papers and text books are ****ed so I felt I was a little entitled

I'm quite alarmed at how frequently you're swearing. You may be annoyed, but that isn't an excuse.

Did it ever occur to you that the questions are vague because they want you to actually utilise all of what you've learnt? If that's not the case, why didn't you consult with a teacher before sending a petulant email? AQA have more important issues to deal with than 'blacklisting' a student. I'd imagine so anyway.

[Hippysnake]

They can ban you from sitting papers with their board. It's actually in the terms and conditions of the AQA-Student relationship contract.

[+ polarity -]

(Original post by Hippysnake)
They can ban you from sitting papers with their board. It's actually in the terms and conditions of the AQA-Student relationship contract.

if OP gets banned

[pikaboo]

You should have provided examples of the questions.

But I agree - doing my Psych AQA coursework in 2004 was a nightmare, I can't imagine it's much better now.

[pratstercs]

If they email back, you must post it here.

[najinaji]

(Original post by Hippysnake)
They can ban you from sitting papers with their board. It's actually in the terms and conditions of the AQA-Student relationship contract.

[Chrisofsmeg]

(Original post by Formerly Helpful_C)
I'm quite alarmed at how frequently you're swearing. You may be annoyed, but that isn't an excuse.

Did it ever occur to you that the questions are vague because they want you to actually utilise all of what you've learnt? If that's not the case, why didn't you consult with a teacher before sending a petulant email? AQA have more important issues to deal with than 'blacklisting' a student. I'd imagine so anyway.

Oh grow up. That's why there's a swear filter. Besides, she swore once. Yes, incredibly frequently. I'm not saying it's a wonderful thing, but the majority of people swear. If you don't, good for you. However, that doesn't give you the right to be all high and mighty because others do. Simply put, deal with it.

Back to the issue at hand, however, if she's annoyed with the exam board, why on earth doesn't she have the right to express her concens to said exam board? It probably wont do any good, but if it makes her feel better, so what? If she feels better because of it, then that's all that matters.

OP - there will be no backlash from the exam board. They probably wont do anything about it or you'll a get a form reply from AQA, but there's no way they can stop you from sitting the exam or anything remotely similar - fear not

[Formerly Helpful_C]

(Original post by Chrisofsmeg)
Oh grow up. That's why there's a swear filter. Besides, she swore once. Yes, incredibly frequently. I'm not saying it's a wonderful thing, but the majority of people swear. If you don't, good for you. However, that doesn't give you the right to be all high and mighty because others do. Simply put, deal with it.

Back to the issue at hand, however, if she's annoyed with the exam board, why on earth doesn't she have the right to express her concens to said exam board? It probably wont do any good, but if it makes her feel better, so what? If she feels better because of it, then that's all that matters.

OP - there will be no backlash from the exam board. They probably wont do anything about it or you'll a get a form reply from AQA, but there's no way they can stop you from sitting the exam or anything remotely similar - fear not

Right, I need to grow up because they swear. She actually swore twice - once in the title and once in the thread so, when you consider that she's only made 2 posts, that's frequently.

[badumdumtscht]

What motivated you to send that anyway? Can't you just suck it up and get on with it like everyone else has to?

[Chrisofsmeg]

(Original post by Formerly Helpful_C)
Right, I need to grow up because they swear. She actually swore twice - once in the title and once in the thread so, when you consider that she's only made 2 posts, that's frequently.

I suppose you and I differ in what constitutes swearing.

But yes, you do need to grow up because others swear, because like it or not, they're always going to swear and there's nothing you can do about it because it's their choice. As I said, deal with it.

[Firecrackerchild]

Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Lily!

[CJAW]

(Original post by lilyrawstorne)
So in a free whilst going through a Psychology A research methods paper with a friend I emailed aqa informing them how vague their questions are ... I'm being ridiculously para thinking they'll find a way to blacklist my name for my exams this June ... yeah?
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/imag...olondollar.gif

This was the email -

After going through past papers for Psychology A exam Unit 3 and 4 I have found that your questions don’t clarify the requirements students must meet to obtain full marks. It seems stating the obvious, repeating yourself and looking for ‘implied’ questions within actual questions is the only way to be successful in Psychology a-level.

I’ll be taking the exam this year and hope by that point I’ll have worked out how to answer questions in way that satisfies your ludicrous mark scheme.

It would be just lovely if you could address this for future students though.


Lily Rawstorne

Haha excellent! No, I don't think you need to worry. If it helps, someone in my school spent a page on one of his exams in January complaining about various aspects of OCR's maths papers. He was in trouble with the exam board, only because he annoyed the examiner and wasted their time - the issue wasn't the fact that he had complained. Even then they let him off.
You made an acceptable complaint though - you did it through the proper channels and not in a silly situation like in an exam.

[Xiomara]

Wish I'd thought of that. Sick of being penalised for not quoting the mark scheme word for word.