Dr. Tim Desmond:

We closed the last meeting in June with the observation that we had the ultimate feedback because we had scripts from every candidate. Interestingly, and a slight digression, we moved to online marking this year. Therefore, the scripts were marked onscreen by viewing images of the script. One advantage is quality control. Another advantage is that one ends up with a phenomenal amount of data because data is trapped on every part of every question. At the time of the last meeting as many as 10,000 random scripts would have been marked or in the process of being marked, and we got some statistics. We considered the data in two ways. First, the attempt rate across the questions and across the paper linearly. There was no indication of candidates running out of puff or time from the point of doing things.

Second, we considered the statistics for the type of scoring that happened across the questions and across the paper linearly. We noticed that there was no noticeable drop in performance rates either. When one combines the two, whereby the questions were attempted and there was no reduction in quality, then the only conclusion to be reached was that there was not an issue.