Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 36, Number 24. 26th September 1973
[Introduction]
It's the exam time of year again. Many students are in the process of twisting and warping their brains by indulging in the practice of cramming. And what for? It is all to get that little scrap of paper which tells an employer you have made the grade.
The degree awarded after successful completion of studies is meant to be proof that a person has acquired a certain level of proficiency in a field of study. Underlying the success of a student in any given field is the assumption that the degree of success obtained is a reflection of the student native intelligence. Thus, in a society where jobs are stratified into hierarchies of complexity, success at school and university ensures the student of a complex top job. As well as this, when he leaves university, the student who succeeds will get more status and material rewards than the failure will get. The failures in the great education gamble get low level jobs in the hierarchy and are subject to the authority of the successes.
The tables show that between universities and between years in the same university, there is considerable variation in pass rates. This means that either there is a corresponding variation between years and between universities in intellectual ability, or that the degree does not accurately specify levels of intelligence between students who have not studied the same courses in the same university in the same year. It is unlikely that IQ varies so much that in VUW's Accountancy Department pass rates for stage three could change by 25% in one year. Employers hire graduates on the basis of their degree. If the proceeding reasoning is correct then it is unimportant for that degree to reflect accurately either ability in a field of study, or IQ. This being correct, what determines the pass fail rate, and why is it necessary to have exams?