Poor students

The Herald reports:

An “outrageous” mistake with yesterday's Level 1 German exam has alarmed the Qualifications Authority and sparked an inquiry.

The entire exam paper – apart from the instructions – was printed in German, even though the specifications given to the 450 students and their months ago said the questions would be in too.

Level 1 students had to learn about 1000 German words throughout their course. But due to the lack of English-language questions, they were left to decipher some German words they had never been taught and were not expected to know.

Mt Albert Grammar German teacher Warwick Gibbs, who has taught the subject for 41 years, said the mistake was “quite outrageous”.

“It means that the question hasn't even been checked by someone who's competent to act as a moderator,” said Mr Gibbs.

How can this happen. If the entire school system has been told the questions will be in English, how on earth could the exam be prepared and approved in conflict with that. can understand that checking may not pick up an error in an isolated question, but to not pick up an error of this magnitude suggests a fundamentally flawed process.

He said the marking process would make sure that no student was disadvantaged by the mistake.

How? Unless you give every one a pass mark automatically.