A plea from an academic, dear student please do not break the rubric ...

There is a perpetual myth that makes academics from our module team sad. Not the one about Unicorns running the Internet - instead it is the insistence of some students that it is okay to break the rubric on the examination - as it is an excellent spread betting technique to guarantee good results.

Please - STOP IT!!!

Tantrum over and here is the informed explanation - firstly if you do not know what a rubric is, it is the rule/guide of the examination paper. We have two sections, Part A, you have to answer all questions. Part B, answer two from the three questions.

So Part A, is straight forward - Part B, you MUST do as asked.

Part B, is worth 40 marks (40%), each question is worth 20 marks. We estimate that you have 35 minutes per question. If you answer all three, you now drop that to 23 minutes. Worse is that often students who answer all three invariable get worse marks per question.

Part of the myth declares that our examinations office will pick out the best two of three - in fact it is a calculation based on the three scores. You have now lowered your average for this significant section then fall foul of the calculation.

Does this make sense - I hope so, if not please simply take my word for it and read the flipping paper. Read the first page and understand the rubric - it will save you considerable effort and may even offer you the chance to glean some extra marks.

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