Exams and CAs

In an earlier blog post, I had mentioned that NUS has been progressively moving towards decreasing the weightage of final exams.

 

I thought it might be interesting to share this table which shows the distribution of CA-weightage across modules offered in AY2010/11. One-third of the modules have 100% CA, and more than half our modules have CA components of 60% or higher. 

 

Table on Number of Modules by Level in AY2010/11 and the CA Component

Level

Modules with CA at 100%

Modules with CA at 80% to 99%

Modules with CA at 60% to 79%

Modules with CA at 40% to 59%

Modules with CA at 20% to 39%

Modules with CA at 0% to 19%

Total

Level 1000

111

0

67

147

30

5

360

Level 2000

120

2

128

251

66

4

571

Level 3000

288

1

145

251

81

5

771

Level 4000

274

2

107

214

68

14

679

Total

793

5

447

863

245

28

2381

Percentage

33%

0%

19%

36%

10%

1%

100%

 

There are however, some variations between the Faculties/Schools, as there are differences in the content and nature between the disciplines. The final exam weightage tends to be higher for the science and technology courses, than for the arts or humanities. In the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Business School, 70% or more of the modules have CA components comprising at least 60% of the final grade. In Faculty of Engineering, slightly more than a quarter of modules offered have CA components comprising at least 60% of the final grade (and for the Faculty of Science, the corresponding percentage is 33%). This is probably not surprising as intuitively, many are aware that presentations, group case studies and discussions have traditionally been part of the pedagogies employed at business schools, whereas exams are the traditional testing method for technical subjects like mathematics, hard sciences and engineering. 

 

Table on Number of Modules by Faculty in AY2010/11 and the CA Component

Faculty/School

Modules with CA at 100%

Modules with CA at 80% to 99%

Modules with CA at 60% to 79%

Modules with CA at 40% to 59%

Modules with CA at 20% to 39%

Modules with CA at 0% to 19%

Total

Arts & Social Sci

304

2

291

278

3

878

Engineering

88

1

27

162

133

12

423

Science

131

32

232

102

2

499

Business

143

2

28

60

1

234

Computing

41

48

68

1

158

Design and Environment

51

19

63

6

13

152

CELC

35

2

37

 

There is a place for exams, and in many level 1000 or 2000 classes, exams will remain as an important assessment tool. But for the level 3000 and 4000 classes, we are moving towards placing more emphasis on continual assessment.