dr strangelove said:
As for the foreign students, I already knew about the easier entry requirements, but I've just read your post on the other thread and I must say, I'm shocked (and in disbelief) about the advantages that foreign students get as they go through their degree. Can you back it up with anything?
Last year's 2nd professional Pathology Final consisted of 100MCQ and an essay paper. A week before the exam, word got round that the essay topic was going to be "Liver Cirrhosis."
And the topic was Liver Cirrhosis.
This year's 2nd professional exam Pathology final was also 100MCQ and an essay paper. A week before the exam, again, word got round that the essay topic was "Renal Cell Carcinoma."
And the topic was Renal Cell Carcinoma.
Turned out a Kuwaiti doctor had been leaking the essay topic to students -- I won't mention any names.. but wow. "Brown." Gets things done.
("Brown" = the foreign students -- RCSI can get pretty cliquey. A big we/they mentality exists and it's not uncommon for international students to have copies of past papers, topics for essays, OSCE questions in advance of an exam -- but somehow forget to share the info with the white kids. Everyone's very nice -- there's no bitterness or anything -- it's just kind of a black market in information exchange that white kids aren't necessarily privvy to..)
Ok, so students know the essay topic is Liver Cirrhosis. Everyone studies it (just in case) and absolutely OBLITERATE the topic, right?
Wrong.
Everyone studied it. Everyone wrote so much on the damn topic they were burrowing down into genetics. But the pathology department "adjusted" the essay grade.
See, the MCQ had been a repeat of past questions. That year, unbeknownst to the Pathology dept., RCSI instituted a policy of making past papers available to students. Students studied past papers, saw questions repeated VERBATIM on the MCQ and crushed it.
Average mark was 71/100 which is First Class Honors over here in auld Eire.
So the Pathology department, deciding that there was "no possible way the MEDIAN score in the class was a First Class Honors" marked people's essay grades more harshly, to compensate for "inflated marks" on their MCQ exam.
I received a failing mark. I went in to talk to the head of the department, she looked at my paper and said, "Ordinarily, this would be a 2:1 or First Class -- but we marked things down to compensate for the high MCQ grades. You don't honestly think every student in the class could earn first class honors, did you?"
"Ordinarily" this would have been an honors mark, instead it's a fail?
Regardless of what they actually score on an MCQ exam, "students can't be first class?" so we'll just jigger those scores down a bit?
They did the same thing this year on the Renal Cell Carcinoma essay. After receiving a failing mark, a friend of mine demanded to see his paper (they don't return papers back to you here -- just the mark) -- saw "EXCELLENT!" written across the top with the number "70!" circled in red pen.
Then crossed out and replaced with "60!".
Then crossed out and replaced with "45!"
Right, so from Excellent with first class honors, I've just been adjusted down to a failing mark? Burrito?