Guess again.
Once more, they've proven that they will go to any extent to rip the students off, even if it means lowering our final marks.
Want proof? Check out page 17 of
this presentation of the recent administrative developments.
For those who are too lazy to click the link, here's what it says:
Article 19: Enquiry upon results
- The current article 19.2 states: Re-marking a candidate’s externally assessed material may lead to a higher grade for a subject, but not to a lower grade.
- Coordinators may request a re-mark of externally assessed material (category 1), the return of externally assessed material (category 2) and/or a report on the moderation of internal assessment (category 3). This service is known as an enquiry upon results. In previous examination sessions a candidate’s grade would only remain the same or be raised as a result of a category 1 re-mark. With effect from the May 2009 session a candidate’s grade may also be lowered as a consequence of a re-mark.
- The new wording for Article 19.2 states: Re-marking a candidate’s externally assessed material may lead to a higher or lower grade for a subject.
The old arrangement was wonderful. Pay to ensure, when in doubt about it, that you got the most reliable marking results the first time around by getting marked by a senior examiner who knows what (s)he's doing. If you didn't get it the first time, your grade improves. If you did, then your mark stays the way it is, no harm done, and IB gets a little bit of money in the process. So everyone's happy.
Now everything will be completely unfair for us candidates. We have no idea who marked our exams the first time, so if we want to get a remark, instead of it being an extra assurance of original marker reliability, it now becomes a huge gamble in which not even our original marks are guaranteed. Now even more power is in the hands of the senior examiner who remarks, and his or her judgement of our paper can even bring our mark down, in spite of the fact that the contents of the paper have not changed in any way. So much for objectivity.
I get that they want to also be able to address marking that was originally too generous as well as that which may have been too harsh. But (since nothing was mentioned in the powerpoint to suggest otherwise) the money is still coming from OUR pockets, and WE shouldn't have to pay for THEIR quality control issues that they've discovered in hindsight. If they want to adopt this new policy "up OR down", then remarks shouldn't have a fee attached to them, since we're not actually paying for anything intrinsically valuable anymore. But of course, IB will look at every opportunity to take money from our pockets, even to the extent that they'll make us pay for them to—rather than give us something—instead potentially take something from us away.
Maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit. I wasn't even anticipating requesting a remark after getting my exam results next year, since I'm going into uni right away and by then they're way past caring about my final marks. Now I know not to even contemplate it.
I don't know about you guys, but I expected better from the people that are supposed to be determining my future in this world.
Last edited by Mr. Shiver : 20-08-2008 at 05:50.
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