To: Jenny Hamilton Jenny.Hamilton@lon.ac.

uk Date: Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 7:23 PM Subject: URGENT AND IMPORTANT Request from Moshe Y. Admon SRN: 090389029 From: Me

Moshe Y. Admon LL.B. Candidate, 2013 ma183@student.london.ac.uk Professor Jenny Hamilton Undergraduate Laws Programme Director University of London International Programmes

August 19, 2011

Dear Professor Hamilton,

Prior to enrolling in the external LLB program I was well aware of its difficulty, and spent several weeks inquiring about English law tutors, contacting learning institutions, and even contacted other universities in the UK to recommend tutors. I found several, but the price of their services was inaccessible. As a result of this, I called the main office of the external program in London several times to ask if it was necessary or advisable to register in a learning institution or hire a private tutor for the sake of achieving first class marks, or if this goal was achievable studying completely independently. I was assured on each occasion that attending an institution or hiring a private tutor was not necessary, and that the course was designed to be self contained, whereby all an external student needs to achieve first class results can be found in the course material provided. Taking to heart the assurances from those I had approached at the University, I enrolled and proceeded to study completely on my own, with absolute devotion.

Today after a long wait, I received my course grades for my first year LLB studies which are as follow: Paper Mark/Grade Result Pass Pass Pass

912650010 54 912650031 64 912650040 63

To be frank, I am very disappointed all around and actually shocked at my low grade in criminal law. I invested many hundreds of hours in independent study without any guidance outside that provided in our study materials, and without having a tutor to guide my exam preparation or comment on my sample exam answers. I (as many others) relied solely on the sample answers given in the guidebooks and examiner reports provided on the VLE as models on which to base how exam questions should be answered.

After receiving these results, which although not bad, are not nearly what I expected, I can state with confidence that both the sample exam answers in the guide books and the examiner reports provided to us are very lacking and in no way reflect what current examiners consider to be First Class answers. I am adamant on this point for two reasons: 1) I personally took every single practice exam found in the guidebook for each of my courses SEVERAL TIMES and completed every exam spanning back to 2004 IN FULL, relying on the examiner reports as a benchmark, and

2) I personally know several other students who studied with the same rigor and devotion as me, and also achieved lower marks than they expected, especially in criminal law. What I and these other students share in common are the following: we hold degrees in complex subjects such as engineering, economics, mathematics, accounting etc. from well ranked universities, we studied a minimum of 4 hours per day every day since enrolling, we devoted a minimum of 7 hours per day every day to revision two months prior to exams, and we studied completely independent of an institution and without the assistance tutors, relying fully on sample exam answers in the guidebook and examiner reports. Additionally, none of us were able to attend revision courses in Cambridge or London.

If I were given the option to re-sit my exams today, logic dictates that I should have the benefit of hindsight and fare better, but alas, I (and many others) am still in the dark as to where I made mistakes, how to correct those mistakes, and what a complete First Class paper actually looks like. With this said, I am left baffled on how to approach exam questions to achieve better (and hopefully First Class) marks in my future years of study, and have no basis on which to gauge my future studies and revisions.

It is apparent to me that the problem I face as a self-learner without any outside guidance other than our prescribed books and the VLE is that I lack any complete model on which to base my approach to writing exam papers. Because of the opaqueness as to what qualities an elusive First Class paper actually consists of, and given the great diversity of our student body, and in the spirit of openness and fairness, I am formally requesting the University take the following steps to give us the guidance necessary to help us achieve our goals: 1) The University should post complete first class exam answers from each subject, going back several years, on the VLE. (Of course, to respect the identity of the authors, any personal information such as names, ID numbers etc, should be removed.) 2) Additionally, it will be just and fair towards the lonely self-learner for examiners to express their opinions in a section of the VLE on what the difference is between a first class paper and second class paper, so students can get some idea as to what examiners are looking for. (I can only sympathize with someone who received a 69 instead of a 70 what makes that slim difference?) 3) The University should create a section in the VLE devoted to a review of how to properly answer exam questions, in detail. This will serve as a guide to those of us who have no other guidance, and will give the feeling to students that University is doing its utmost to be fair to us.

I feel that these actions are both necessary and urgent and request that the University carry them out PRIOR TO 2012 EXAMS. I am sure that there will be a catch all rebuttal my request which might state: each answer is unique and graded subjectively, but somehow the examiners must look for specific qualities when they mark, or there wouldnt be such a wide disparity in grades. An additional fact which favors my line of reasoning is that I am aware of certain institutions whose professors have many years of experience instructing the LLB program, and teach a honed test taking methodology to their students who consistently achieve First Class marks annually (and English is not their first language). I am quite certain you will agree that no particular group has a monopoly on intellect, but somehow these institutions seem to have created a technique to score high grades, and it is only reasonable to deduce that this emanates from years of combined experience and insight into how examiners mark papers, which these professors pass on to their students.

Sadly, self-learner students without this type of assistance and advantage have no way to benefit from any examination experience other than the information provided to us by our University. Since this is the case, I feel the least our University can do to address this disparity is to heed my recommendations so self-learners can begin to unearth what qualities these exams contain and use these exams as tools to assist us in learning how to

approach exams in our future years of study. Leaving us in the dark is a disservice to our education, goes against any principle of openness and fairness, and only serves to dampen our motivation to study and strive for high marks in the future. I will appreciate a timely response, and again ask that these simple requests be met early this year prior to 2012 exams. I feel that doing so will be your greatest service as Dean to the student body of our University, and will be appreciated and remembered by those who decide to study on their own and those that are incapable of paying for additional assistance.

Sincerely Yours, Moshe Admon B.Sc., Mechanical Engineering, B.A., Economics LL.B. Candidate 2013

REPLY
From: Jenny Hamilton Jenny.Hamilton@lon.ac.uk To: Jeff Admon ma183@student.london.ac.uk Date: Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 2:15 AM Subject: RE: URGENT AND IMPORTANT Request from Moshe Y. Admon SRN: 090389029

Dear Jeff Thank you for your email, and I am sorry you are disappointed with your grades (including your two very good marks). In terms of your requests: we are not able to publish past student examinations scripts by reason of the Data Protection legislation. In addition, there are important pedagogic issues we would need to carefully consider before we could introduce such an option. However, we are exploring whether there are ways we can increase the value of the Chief Examiner reports for students. This is under active consideration at present and I will certainly forward your email to the members of the Examination Panel for consideration at its next meeting when it discusses this issue. I can reassure you that we do review our learning and teachng materials and we are keen to explore new ways of enhancing the learning experience for our students as we do recognise the commitment and dedication that students demonstrate in studying at a distance. Thank you for your suggestions, and I do appreciate the time you have taken to communicate them to me.

Prof Jenny Hamilton Director Undergraduate Laws Programme University of London International Programmes Stewart House | 32 Russell Square | London Tel: +44 (0)20 78628384 Web: www.londoninternational.ac.uk

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