Thursday, April 03, 2008

Exam results: Should they make public or keep in private?

I got two of my exam results and I still couldn't get used to "everyone can see your grade" kind of mentality. One of our professors literally sent the result directly to us, so everyone in the class knows the note of everyone else.

As contrast, when I was working in my University in USA, I have to help my professor to key in one by one quiz, test and exam results online. Students can then consult their results through internet. They need password to login to their account so they won't know others' results except told by others. In Malaysia, my University sent me the semester results by post.

It is hard to understand this concept as the French emphasis privacy principle a lot but this practice is certainly against it.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:37 AM

    I was not told of my classmates' results at Paris V. It depends on the univ / courses perhaps.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous2:18 PM

    private........always keep it private.........

    ReplyDelete
  3. BE,
    I prefer privacy.
    I am surprise that French who emphasis privacy principle but do it this way.
    I remembered our form 3 results were published all over the Newspaper and also on our school notice board.
    I did not have problem because my grade was good but I wondered how would those people whose grades are not ?

    In America, they take it way to the extreme. It is illegal for a job interviewer to ask the candidate about :
    a. marital status
    b. age
    c. have kids or not ?
    d. pregnant or not
    etc.. and a lot of other private biodata.
    You can sue them and win the case easily.

    In a way, if democracy is way to the other end, it can be costly to a society and I think American society is wasting a lot of $ on freedom and the only person who earn a lot of $ in the process are lawyers.

    It is hard to be an employer if democracy is being exploited too far.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous1:13 PM

    In my former university (in France), they used to make public the results, but instead of the name of the students, they used an id. If you don't known the id of a student, you can't know his mark.

    ReplyDelete
  5. nathalie,

    How did they communicate your grade to you then? You are right many it depends on the University. In my faculty I always see exams results all over the notice boards. For my French classes the same practice.

    alvin,
    Yes I personally prefer privacy too.

    Jamy,
    In France you are encouraged to state your age and marital status on the CV. Wow form 3 results over the newspaper? It must had given big pressure to all the students. Parents would lose face if their children don't have good grades.

    anonymous,
    Cool using ID is a lot better I think. It was probably practiced in Malaysia local Unis but I don't remember anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous12:15 AM

    Bee Ean,

    the secretary called me to inform me the results and when I asked her who got the highest marks, she was just beating around the bush.

    For my French classes in Sorbonne Nouvelle, they just put "admis" on the notice board. And the marks were on the exam papers returned back to us.

    I guess it depends on the faculty's policy. Perhaps it's good to suggest to them for not displaying the students' results without prior consent. Just my 2 cents.

    ReplyDelete