What are the implications of the whole class failing an exam?

Question

I am an MSc student and in my class are 10 people. The module has been taught exceptionally poorly and as a result none of us can see ourselves passing the module. The exam is in two days time. By failing the exam we will have to retake it in the summer because we will not met the threshold to pass the module.

The lecturer mentioned that the department was thinking of scrapping this module so this may be the last time it is run. Also throughout the module we got the impression the lecturer was really concerned about us and we got the impression people have done really badly in this module in previous years to cause him concern. Talking to other lecturers in private, have supported the fact that this professor is very bad and has not taught the module well enough to prepare us for the exam.

In the open book homework assignments, the class average has been high, around the 60%-70% region. But these assignments in total only account for 20% of the final module grade. The final exam accounts for 80% of the final grade.

What are the implications, if any, for the lecturer or the university if everyone in the class fails the final exam?

I am in the UK.

Answer 1

Your question is about the consequences for the lecturer, but you've asked in comments what you should do.

In the UK, if it's felt that noone has reached the required standard then noone will pass. The basic paradigm is that everyone is measure against a standard, unlike in North America where it's more about measuring students against the others in the class. Still, it would not be a popular move to fail a whole class. What the effect on the lecturer would be will depend on their position, and what the uni is like.

Given it's two days from the exam, and I'm guessing it's in maths or similar, I think you should start memorising. The pass mark is 40% (usually), and with high homework scores you can pass with slightly less than that. You're more likely to convince someone you deserve to pass if you can show you've understood the basic ideas of the topic. Make sure you can reproduce the key definitions and theorems, and have at least an intuitive understanding on the methods of proof appropriate to what you are doing.

Answer 2

First, to make sure that we are talking about the same thing, let me make clear that my answer pertains to a scenario in which the entire class failed after making a sincere, good faith effort to study and do as well as possible on the exam. (If you are talking about something else, like students conspiring with each other to all fail the exam as a form of protest of the bad quality of teaching or because they believe it is pointless to even try to study for it, my answer would be very different.)

Now that we got that clarification out of the way: if all the students failed, that would certainly be a very clear warning sign to the professor and department that something has gone seriously wrong with the course. What I would recommend in that case is for the students to document their grievances in a very clear way, including any relevant evidence, and take the matter up with the department chair or head or other appropriate university authority. Assuming that you are in a reputable department at a reputable university, what I expect to happen is that the department will initiate some kind of external review of what took place by people other than your professor. Assuming that your claims are found to be reasonable, I believe the department will be strongly motivated to take steps to address the situation in a way that repairs at least some of the harm that was done to the students. This could be in the form of a change to some or all of the grades, or, if it turns out the grades are essentially meaningless and no useful information can be salvaged from them, some other creative solution.

If the department is unwilling to address your complaints, you can try to enlist the help of your student union, go to other university authorities (e.g., dean, grade appeal committee, ombuds office), and, if else fails, even try to use social media to create a scandal and rally support for your cause. However, if you really have a strong case with good evidence that you have been mistreated, I doubt that will be necessary, since no sensible department will want to risk having its reputation tarnished by mistreating its students in a blatantly unfair way.

Finally, let me add that in my opinion the right thing for you to do right now is to concentrate on studying for the exam and not worry too much about emailing the professor with your concerns or about what will happen in the aftermath. It may turn out that your concerns were unwarranted and a good number of students end up doing just fine, so all this energy that you are spending right now on worrying would have been better spent on studying. Good luck!

Answer 3

Everything will depend on individual university policies.

I can say that at my institution, more than a few eye brows would be raised and the professor would have to have a very good basis for failing more prone than the very unofficial maximum of about 15-20%. If it's because no one turned in their final paper, or everyone were caught cheating, the failing grades would be justified. If the final paper were unreasonable ("write a three hundred page paper, topic to be assigned two weeks before it's due"), then students should go through standard grievance channels.

If this were an undergraduate intro class with departmental exams and several other instructors teaching the same course, then if a pattern of poor exam performance is established, then if the professor were non-tenure track, they'd likely not have their contract renewed.

For graduate level classes, I'll admit, I've never seen or heard of such a thing. If students could document genuine pedagogical incompetency, then perhaps the department could arrange a solution, though what that would be, I'm not sure. If it's incompetent assessment (but not instruction) they could probably just give an alternate assessment and have other faculty grade it. Something similar happened to me when a professor died towards the end of the course although we didn't actually have to rewrite the paper thankfully.

In all cases, though, merely having all failing grades will only pique the interest of your instructor's colleagues/department head. Everything else will depend on department policies, the instructor's status in the department, the reason for the failing grades, etc.

Answer 4

It is very difficult to write an exam that everyone fails and still adhere to departmental rules and the office of the dean. In organic chemistry it is quite common actually for the majority of the class to fail just by the difficulty and amount of material. That is the purpose of the curve. I taught at the most prestigious engineering school in the country and it was mandated that a C- (70%) must be the average at the end of the semester. How that was done was not difficult as there is always some type of normal distribution unless there is an exceptionally small class, in which case the few in the course would earn a C-.

However there was a situation recently wherein the professor by deliberate choice failed his entire management class and there was a great deal of fallout. His reasoning was simply this:

None of you, in my opinion, given the behavior in this class, deserve to pass, or graduate to become an Aggie, as you do not in any way embody the honor that the university holds graduates should have within their personal character. It is thus for these reasons why I am officially walking away from this course. I am frankly and completely disgusted. You all lack the honor and maturity to live up to the standards that Texas A&M holds, and the competence and/or desire to do the quality work necessary to pass the course just on a grade level ... I will no longer be teaching the course, and all are being awarded a failing grade.

As predicted, a higher-up in administration didn't elaborate but his pompous outburst was quashed as the university reported that his intentions would not come to fruition.

Answer 5

I have a suspicious mind. One possible cause of all students failing is the students deciding to fail in order to make trouble for the instructor. I am finding it difficult to see how the OP and the OP's peers can know they are going to fail unless that is what may be happening. They got good average grades on the homeworks, so it is not a case of unfairly harsh grading. If, in past years, everyone failed the exam they would know what happens afterwards.

That would be a very bad strategy, as well as dishonest. People experienced in grading exams in the subject are likely to be able to distinguish deliberate failure from students failing due to excessive difficulty of the exam despite doing their best.

I hope I am wrong, and the OP intends best effort on the exam.

Answer 6

The OP indicates they are in an MSc (Masters ?) program. As such, one would expect to have sufficient academic experience and familiarity with both the college's, the faculty's and the professor's expectations by now. In a class full of experienced students someone should have been able to the identify teaching gap and raise the concerns with the lecturer or department faculty earlier. It seems rather too late to deal with now in an impartial manner

I had one such experience in my first year in a 100-level. By the end of the third week the class took their concerns to the department head and within 2 weeks they completed an assessment, validated our concerns, assigned a replacement lecturer and gave due consideration in the final grading that we could not reasonably complete the entire curricula under the circumstances in contrast to the other classes.

It's your education; take charge. If you sit there like a lump on a log, you get as much out of it as the mushroom does.

As for the actual grading question, again you should understand what are the expectations. My brother took a Master's level astrophysics course where the professor indicated at the outset: This was probably the toughest course in the department and the college. In turn they were some of the brightest students in the school. The point of the course was to stretch the students understanding of the subject. His exams (mid and final) would be 3 questions each, 3 marks each. Expect almost all students to fail. Answering a question correctly would get you one mark; demonstrating an in-depth understanding of the material got you 2. If you got 3, you probably wrote the theory/book and are auditing the course. Most students were expected to get 3 marks (1/1/1) or (2/1/0). The class final average was ~ 2.7; yet all but was given a pass. That grade was not based on a curve, rather the professor's assessment of whether the students truly demonstrated they learned the material. Everyone understood the terms and expectations from outset.