Journal of Research in Medical Education & Ethics

Awarding marks by university administration as a grace over and above the marks given by the valuing teachers is not rare. Practice of moderation continues overriding the higher education committee's recommendations. Students’ and teachers’ organisations remain silent on it. The pattern of marks received by students before moderations was examined and observations presented. This study is the first from India on the matters related to moderations in health science courses.

One paper of one subject selected at random from all UG courses of Kerala University of Health Sciences. Results of 2011 and 2012 examinations were included. Marks assigned by the valuators for each answer paper were gathered from the tabulation register, recorded directly at the valuation camp, prior to pass board meeting. It did not include grace marks. The marks of each course were plotted in separate graphs with marks in the X axis and number of students receiving that mark in the Y axis.

None of the graphs showed bell curve. The marks of all the six subjects showed a gradual dip just before the cut-off marks and an abrupt rise at that level. It then showed sharp fall immediately after that. The remaining part of fall was slow and smooth. The pattern points that all those marks near the cut-off received rounding off to higher point. This ‘hidden moderation’ was awarded by valuators who were blind to the identity of students.

Grace marks make the construction of assessment irrelevant. Beneficence of giving pass marks to an undeserving student is malfeasance to the society, whom the student is going to treat. Moderations make the assessments not comparable and calibration of teachers useless. It actually discourages other non-beneficiary students who are the hard-working majority and takes away the accountability of teachers.