[cataphract]

I think the only defense of the new model is that it forces students to learn throughout the semester, rather than just before the exam. Which is easier and more effectively engages long term memory (like doing more rounds of spaced repetition).

I definitely could tell the difference, though most of the time I just studied full 4-7 days before the exam.

[wongarsu]

When I studied CS in Germany in the 2010s (also in the Bologna Bachelor/Master system) most courses had weekly graded assignments. But the assignments didn't count towards your grade, instead you needed to reach a certain total of points to be allowed to take the exam. The actual grade was entirely composed of midterm and final exam (pen and paper exams, no computers, no multiple choice).

It was easy to cheat on the assignments. Working on them in groups was common and sometimes encouraged. The only person you could really cheat was yourself (and a TA who had to grade one more exam)

[mattmanser]

In the UK they claimed that girls did worse on one-off exams and so the one-off exams structure favoured boys. When course had more graded coursework, girls did better.

So that was the justification used to switching to a less impactful final exam.

No idea how true that is.

We were also told learning a phonetic alphabet was better for young children learning to read than using the old ABC system.

As far as I have heard, that turned out to be based on one person's fantasy and zero evidence and has actually had negative impact on children learning to read.

[cornholio]

That sounds like a good reason to keep the exam model, since boys are already at a strong and widening educational disadvantage compared to girls.

[andai]

That would make sense if the stated goals were the actual goals.

[inemesitaffia]

You can still (with some difficulty) take the old style exam

[kelipso]

Getting the feeling most education research papers are written by high school teachers lol.

[rgblambda]

The UK has a real problem with pseudoscientific nonsense invading the education system.

To my knowledge they still teach about audio/visual/kinetic learners and how you should structure the way you learn around which one you are. This has been debunked for decades.

[seanmcdirmid]

> The UK has a real problem with pseudoscientific nonsense invading the education system.

Not just the UK, pedagogy/education is a very soft science, along with any other field that revolves around human behavior (psychology, sociology, etc...).

Using AIs in experiments and studies will be an improvement even if they do not accurately reflect human behavior, just because you don't need a harm review and you can repeat your experiments multiple times under different variables.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

Yes, it does have some advantages. Apart from what you mention, another one is that it's not so consequential to e.g. sleep badly the night before an important exam. It's just that I find the disadvantages to be much greater than the advantages.

[Telemakhos]

If seven days of study are sufficient to pass the class, why is so little material being taught in one semester? It sounds like the exams are far too easy.

[Eisenstein]

They are cramming for 5-7 days. This is not sustainable for an entire semester.

[necovek]

Cramming and thus not keeping almost any of it in long-term memory or operational knowledge.