Show questions in advance to cut exam stress, say advisers

Universities should consider giving students examination questions in advance and allow them to use prompt sheets, the University Mental Health Advisors Network has said.

A policy paper adopted by the network says: "Allowing students to know what questions they are going to be asked in an examination beforehand ... significantly reduces the fear factor associated with the unknown."

The practice could help universities meet the needs of students with mental-health problems, as they are required to do by law, but it could also provide benefits for all students.

"As this method is likely to more accurately assess students' knowledge ... it is arguably a better way to assess students in general," the paper says.

The Disability Discrimination Act requires universities to make "anticipatory adjustments" where disabled students' needs can be predicted. But the paper notes that such adjustments are "fairly few and far between" in the sector.

It recommends that universities take a "portfolio approach" to assessment, allowing students to choose how they demonstrate their abilities. For example, a student may elect to undertake a piece of coursework, a presentation or an examination.

"If such an approach were adopted across a whole course, the need for reactive adjustments would become minimal," the paper says.

An argument frequently used against adopting such an approach is that it would benefit all students. The paper's author, the advisers' network chairman Philip Scarffe, a mental-health adviser at Nottingham Trent University, said: "The perception of our members was that sometimes tutors were unsure about making an adjustment for a student with mental-health difficulties, because they believed such an adjustment would be of benefit to students in general.

"This should perhaps be seen as an argument for approaching assessment in a different way more generally."

Law firm Pinsent Masons said that universities may be concerned about treating disabled students substantially more favourably than non-disabled students. But the Disability Discrimination Act requires more favourable treatment, it said.

The DDA, in contrast to other equality legislation such as the Sex Discrimination Act and the Race Relations Act, does not regard the differences between disabled people and others as irrelevant.

Quoting from a recent legal judgment, Pinsent Masons said: "(The law) expects reasonable adjustments to be made to cater for the special needs of disabled people. It necessarily entails an element of more favourable treatment."

The advisers' body also disputes the view that exams are the most robust way of testing students' ability. "Where a student is unable to demonstrate ability in this way, the tool of an examination is not serving its purpose," the policy paper notes.

The vice-chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire, Patricia Broadfoot, announced plans last year to scrap first-year exams and substantially reduce exams in other years. But her proposals were put on hold after staff and students objected.

melanie.newman@tsleducation.com.