Subject: Use of calculators
in examinations
Origin: PDQ Team;
Academic Registry
The PDQ Team at its meeting on 29 January 2007 considered issues arising
from the implementation of the ‘approved list’ of calculators for
University examinations. A note of its
discussion is included below for the information of LTC.
Noted
(i) That
confusion had arisen, for both students and staff, from the following
statement:
‘Students
who wish to know whether any calculator that is not on the approved list will
be allowed in a particular examination should seek advice from their module
lecturers.’
and before the start of the S.1 examinations, it had been replaced with
the following:
‘The only situation where a calculator not on
the approved list will be permitted in the examination hall is where it is
explicitly specified in the examination rubric and included in the relevant
module specification.’
(ii) That there were students who felt it
unreasonable they could not continue using a calculator they had been using in
previous years, and others uncertain of the implications of having an old model
that was listed as ‘now superseded’.
(iii)
That there were difficulties over keeping the list up to
date and in step with manufacturers’ changes.
(iv) That
students who were using ‘unapproved’ calculators at the current S.1
examinations were being allowed to continue using them, but students were being
notified that if they used a calculator not on the approved list at the S.2
examinations it would be confiscated during the examination.
(v)
That invigilators were collecting data on the number of
people who were using unapproved calculators in S.1: over the first twelve
examination sessions, there had been 205 instances.
(vi)
That there was a request outstanding that the Examinations
Office explore the feasibility of purchasing a stock of calculators for use in
University examinations; some members of PDQ were of the view that this would
be the best solution.
Agreed
(viii) That sufficient warnings had been given of the policy and the
approved list should be enforced in S.2.
(ix) To
ask the Examinations Office to explore the possibility of adopting a list of
approved models from one of the A-level examining boards as a means of
addressing the updating issue.
Author – Robert
Bowyer
Date – January 2007
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