Guidelines on Good Practice in Examination Feedback
Examination feedback should always be constructive and developmental. Feedback falls
short of students’ needs and expectations if it only provides students with a mark, and not
providing feedback to students on examinations is a missed opportunity to support student
learning and help improve their future work.
Examination feedback can be delivered in a variety of ways and it is important that the
characteristics of individual modules and programmes are recognised when choosing which
method is most appropriate. There is therefore a need for a degree of flexibility to enable
Schools/ programmes to choose what works best for them.
However, the following premise is the minimum that Schools/programmes should provide
for their students:
All programmes should provide generic feedback for the whole cohort (usually via the VLE)
which highlights the strengths and weaknesses emerging across the range of scripts,
indicating what are the common mistakes and what can be done to rectify these.
If Schools wish to strengthen their examination feedback further, the following mechanisms
may be of great value:
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Model answers: the provision of model answers can be very useful as they allow
students to understand marking schemes
Optional seminars to discuss recent exams: this can be an efficient way for
lecturers to provide verbal feedback and enable students to ask questions and
discuss solutions with their peers.
The opportunity for students to review their examination scripts with comment
sheets: this personalised feedback allows students to reflect on their answers and
consider what they did well and not so well. Scripts are returned immediately after
this session.
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It should be noted that students have a right to receive feedback on their examinations
and the current statement that students can request a meeting with the internal marker
still stands. However, whilst this may be criticised for being an unrealistic demand on
lecturers’ time, it is anticipated that if other forms of feedback (outlined above) are
provided effectively, a minority of students will opt for one to one feedback, meaning there
will be less time demand on tutors.