Assessment in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics
The Department uses assessment for four main and different purposes. Being aware of the purposes for which a particular assessment item is intended will help you understand why it is timed and weighted as it is, and why it is marked the way it is.
Assessment purposes
Feedback assessment usually in the form of a series of regular assignments throughout semester, is your chance to find out how you are going in developing the skills and understanding the new ideas as the unit goes along.
Diagnostic assessment usually in the form of short tests, may be offered in some units. This assessment is intended to determine whether you have, at your immediate recall and under your mastery, specific knowledge or skills which are needed constantly, so that you can remedy this if necessary.
Final assessment usually a written exam after the end of semester, is your chance to demonstrate that you have put together all the skills and knowledge for a particular unit (in some third or fourth year units, essays or large projects may serve this purpose).
The fourth purpose of assessment is to facilitate your development of the general capabilities that all La Trobe University graduates should take with them to their future occupations. These include the ability to manage your time to complete a task to an appropriate standard, to critique your own work, and to communicate your reasoning clearly to experts and non-experts.
Timing
It is clearly important that feedback is provided while the task is fresh in your mind and in time for you to act on it before your next assessment. We undertake to return assignments to you in a timely manner, generally at your next tutorial. The number and spacing of assignments ensures that you get feedback throughout semester, from as early as week two or three of a unit. Similarly, diagnostic assessment must be completed with sufficient time for you to act appropriately on the diagnosis.
Weighting
Feedback and diagnostic assessment intentionally do not carry a great deal of weight in calculating your final mark. This means that you are not overly penalised when you are still working towards developing certain skills and knowledge. You are also welcome to seek help with assignments from your tutor or in a HAC session. But don’t think a low weighting means that submitting these forms of assessment is not important – they carry value well above their weight, because they give you so much information about what you may need to work on, and what standards are expected. Similarly, it is not intended that the time it may take you to complete an assignment is reflected in its weighting; the work required to get to the stage where you can answer the questions is also a major contribution to your preparation for the final assessment.
Marking
On each assignment, your tutor will mark in detail some of the arguments you put forward in your solutions. You will be provided with complete model answers, and you will get most benefit from the assignment if you self-assess the other parts of your work against these. You need to develop confidence in your ability to check your own work both for the final assessment, and in your future career. You will also be assessed on how well you have planned your work to complete the whole assignment. Your use of writing and the grammar of mathematics in presenting your reasoning makes up the third component of your mark. Your tutor will explain your mark with brief written comments.
To demonstrate mastery of skills on a diagnostic test, a mark of 50% is insufficient, and the pass mark is set higher than this. On final assessment, all parts and aspects of your work will be marked.