University examinations

A factual enquiry into the assessment methods used for the award of degrees in physics has shown that most of the sixteen institutions consulted adopt a common pattern. The assessment relies on written papers taken at the end of the final year and a rough analysis of these papers indicates that high marks might be gained on them by use of a well-organized memory. It is suggested that the effects of assessment methods on students' attitudes, and the validity of the results, could both be improved if individual lecturers had a less direct control over the assessment of their own courses and if the methods were constructed in the light of a systematic and explicit analysis of the abilities expected of physics graduates.