Thank you for your email to [1][University of Warwick request email] which has been
received by the University's Legal and Compliance Services team. 
We endeavour to respond to Freedom of Information requests within 20
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and [3]data protection, you may find our webpages to be helpful.

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Dear Samuel

Thank you for submitting an FOI request, requesting information from the
University of Warwick. In order to comply with your request, we would be
grateful if you could please clarify the following:

o Please can you specify further as to what is meant by 'future
assessment plan' as it is currently unclear.

Please be advised that the University will be unable to proceed with your
request until you have provided the requested clarifications and the 20
working day statutory time limit does not begin until clarification has
been received. Should we not receive a reply to this email, your request
will be closed in 20 working days.

Kind Regards

Legal and Compliance Services

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Dear Samuel

Thank you for coming back to us so quickly. We note that you are
requesting this information in respect of Physics students - please could
you specify whether you are just interested in the 3 year Physics
undergraduate degree, or whether you are also interested in any other
Physics courses? I have attached a link to our Physics brochure for
reference
-[1]https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/pr...

Please be advised that the University will be unable to proceed with your
request until you have provided the requested clarifications and the 20
working day statutory time limit does not begin until clarification has
been received. Should we not receive a reply to this email, your request
will be closed in 20 working days.

Kind Regards

Legal and Compliance Services

show quoted sections

Dear Samuel,

Thank you for your response. We note that you have not clarified the specific course that you are interested in, however we understand your request to be in relation to the following:

Students studying for their third year in the academic year 2020/21, and students studying for their fourth year in the academic year 2021/22, for the Physics undergraduate degree.

Please can you confirm whether our understanding is correct.

Kind regards

Legal and Compliance Services

show quoted sections

Samuel

Thank you for your email dated 29 July 2021 requesting information from
the University of Warwick under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please find below your request and the University’s response.

FOI Request

I am requesting a spreadsheet of the maximum moderation percentages
applicable to a raw mark in the physics exams at your university (for the
academic year 2020/21) and if possible the future assessment plan for the
academic year 2021/22.

After the University sought clarification from you on 29 July and 30 July,
you provided the following further information:

By future assessment plan I mean: if you have already outlined for the
next year how you are going to assess your physics students and how
moderation will work.

For example: Next year students will have an exam in person or online that
is worth 80% of their mark and the other 20% are from continuous
assessment. Moderation will be capped to a maximum of 10% off their raw
mark.

I am requesting the information about moderation for the academic year
20/21 regarding the 3rd year students. Additionally, I would like to know
the future assessment plan (2021/22) for those 3rd year students that are
now in a 4th year (i.e. how they will be assessed in terms of coursework
and exams and their respective percentages -like it was explained in the
last post).

Response

Scaling is applied to 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th year PX examined modules, and
not to the 1^st year. The main feature of the process enables the raw
marks to be adjusted by the scaling procedure to produce a “fair” outcome
for students, balancing different optional module choices and accounting
for variation in difficulty of the questions set. It is the scaled marks
that are appropriately utilised in the calculation of the final degree
classifications. The scaling procedure is published on the website -
[1]https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/cu...
-which is visible to anyone inside Warwick and has been included as one of
the PDF documents listed below.

Other key features of note at departmental level application of scaling
include:

o Where module marks are a combination of assessed course work and
examination, only the examination component is subject to the scaling
procedure.
o Up and down scaling are different, such that a raw pass mark can never
become a fail i.e. less than 40 as a result of scaling, although a raw
fail mark can become a pass mark.
o The maximum extent to which a mark can change is determined by the
piecewise linear scaling algorithm and varies depending on where in
the distribution a mark falls, but can never be greater than |S-1|x
(raw average). For example, the maximum amount any mark was adjusted
in 2021 was upwards by 6 marks and downwards by 5 marks, as indicated
by the attached spreadsheet.

Details of the scheme of assessment and moderation applicable to 2021/22
are available to students at
[2]https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/cu...
which includes an explanation of the scaling procedure. There is no
algorithmic limit to the amount of scaling that can be applied, but in
practice exams are set and marked to an appropriate standard such that
scaling is almost never as much as 10%.

Whether a module is assessed by coursework or examination, and the
relevant split of these elements, varies with the module in question. The
details can be found at
[3]https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/cu... and by
following the “syllabus” links to the University Module Catalogue at
[4]https://courses.warwick.ac.uk/. All PX4xx modules available to the 4^th
year physics students will be assessed 100% by examination, apart from
PX402 (Physics Project) and PX425 (High Performance Computing in Physics)
which are both 100% coursework.

The University is not currently able to confirm whether exams will be in
person or online as this depends on how the Covid-19 pandemic develops
between now and April 2022; however, the Department of Physics has a
strong preference for closed book, in-person exams and will implement
these if possible.

Please refer to the following attached documents for further information:

o FOI request – F531.20-21 – Guidance of Scaling
o FOI request – F531.20-21 – Mark Scaling in Physics
o FOI request – F531.20-21 – Moderation Guidance
o FOI request – F531.20-21 – Physics Mark Shift 2021

I trust that this information will be helpful to you, however, should you
be dissatisfied with the way in which your request has been handled you
can request an internal review within 40 working days of our response and,
in the first instance, you are advised to follow the procedure outlined
here:
[5]https://warwick.ac.uk/services/legalandc...

If you remain dissatisfied with how your request has been handled, you
have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at: The Information
Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Walter Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire,
SK9 5AF (0303 123 1113) ([6]https://ico.org.uk/).

Yours sincerely,

Jane Furze
Director, Marketing and Communications, Regional Strategy and Warwick
Institute of Engagement
University House | Kirby Corner Road | CV4 8UW | Coventry | UK | Strategy
Group

References

Visible links
1. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/cu...
2. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/cu...
3. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/cu...
4. https://courses.warwick.ac.uk/
5. https://warwick.ac.uk/services/legalandc...
6. https://ico.org.uk/