Since the exam has moved to online, we are able to keep a copy of our answer script. We are also able to receive our exam mark from the result letter, and the marks breakdown from SAR. I am just curious to know for those who failed the ST/SA exams in April and September 2020, did you ever mark your answer script against the examiner's report and compare the marks you got with the marks in the SAR? In theory your self-awarded mark should be same or close to the SAR exam marks. So somehow that should give you an idea what you have missed in your answers in order to get a higher mark, without the need to apply for exam counselling.
I did exactly this after the September exams. I failed SP7 by 3.5 marks on average (one marker failed by 1 mark, one by 6 marks) I went through each question and highlighted in the answer scheme the points I thought I'd got, and then compared my overall mark for that question against my SAR breakdown. It was quite interesting actually, as I think most of my problem was in HOW I was saying things rather than WHAT I was saying. For some questions, I was pretty certain I should have gotten full marks but both markers hadn't score me full. So clearly my wording/communication of my ideas wasn't clear enough or I was missing particular key words etc. I ended up coming out with my own self-mark as failing by 1 mark, so in line with one of the markers. Although most questions I differed in one way or another - for some I wasn't sure why I'd gotten any marks, for others I felt they had marked quite harshly. But it came out to a similar place overall. For me it showed that exam technique was my weakness, as I was thinking of a lot of the right ideas but just not structuring/wording my answer in the best way to ensure the examiner was clear that I understood the idea. Hopefully identifying that and working on it over the past few months was enough to get me over the line in April.
Thanks Nynaeve. It's good to know that your self-awarded mark was similar to the exam mark you received. I think this is the best way to learn about your weakest area and improve on them. Let's hope we could both pass our exams this time!
