A Report on Impact of In-Term Assessment at Victoria University

By Philip O'Donogthue

Why In-Term Assessment was Introduced.

Since, what is variously known as "continuous", "internal" and "in-term assessment" has been in widespread use at V.U.W. since 1972, its implementation and impact at Victoria forms a useful comparative test case for assessment in other universities.

In-term assessment was introduced at Victoria in 1972 largely in response to student demand over the previous few years. Firstly, some students wanted recognition of work done during courses so that rather than counting only for "terms" requirements, course work should contribute towards final marks and grades. Secondly, allied to this was considerable student feeling that the end-of-course pass or fail pressures leading to panicky "swot" before finals exams be spread out during the course.