15 minutes extra in Maths and Computer Science at Oxford

[anotherdad]

If I were to get into a rocket, I'd rather that the calculations were double checked by a woman afraid of getting something wrong than a man who assumes his own genius and is right MOST of the time.

On that subject, for anyone who hasn't seen it I would recommend watching the film "Hidden Figures", the story of the female mathematicians who made NASA's first manned space missions possible in the early 1960s. They manually carried out the vital calculations required for the trajectories needed to ensure the safe return of astronauts to Earth, and did so working under conditions of racial segregation and constant distrust from their male colleagues, some of whose work they needed to correct.

[shootmenow]

Michigan probably didn't have the insane time pressure for their exams that Oxford does.

[Surferfish]

Oxford are doing the right thing but for the wrong reason IMO.

What they should have done/said is simply that they are increasing the time of the exam to make it fairer to those students who work more accurately and slowly rather than make it a test of speed which is a less important measure of excellence in these fields. If this happens to benefit more female students than male then so be it, but to specifically state this is their intention seems patronizing and sexist to both men and women. (Implying that women are slow and cautious, men are quick, arrogant and careless etc).

Unless its for a very specific job which requires speed of thought under pressure, I think every exam should give all students sufficient time to give their best answer. DS (a boy!) often struggles in tests/exams because he runs out of time. The 11plus itself was actually a prime example.

[ToadMum]

Cue an increase in men who identify as being gender fluid....

Quite.

I'm afraid that's a don't get me started here

See Oxford's website for an actual explanation . Women seem to run out of time because they are more fastidious about checking their answers at every stage. If I were to get into a rocket, I'd rather that the calculations were double checked by a woman afraid of getting something wrong than a man who assumes his own genius and is right MOST of the time. DD1's DP is doing Maths and thinks it's a good idea.

Just a Maths / CompSci issue, though? Female Engineering and Physics undergrads being content to be just as slapdash as their male counterparts?

[Jean.Brodie]

As a parent with a daughter, I'm glad that a high profile university is trying something.

Our daughter is at Cambridge,reading for an Arts-Humanities degree. That university has recently announced its intention to consider the US 'GPS' (Grade Point Average) marking system in place of the current 'class' classification.

Each of these universities is desperate to be accurate, fair and try to reach a position where, broadly, gender is not a factor in degree marks/grades/class. Cambridge colleges went mostly co-ed in the late 1970s, with now only 3 women's colleges left. (I believe Oxford is fully co-ed.) And yet Cambridge knows that its women at women's colleges do better in Finals than its women at co-ed colleges and men do best overall. So they've introduced a few more modules ('papers') which are chunky Dissertations/Projects and count towards Finals.

Accuracy and fairness in assessment remain a challenge and a work in progress.

Individual sexism and structural sexism at university,as at school, also remain a challenge.