This year students were given 15 minutes extra in Maths and Computer Science finals at Oxford.

This was an attempt to address the issue of male students getting twice as many First Class degrees.

It was felt that women would benefit more from the extra time. Apparently women find time pressure harder to deal with than men???

Why would women do better with extra time rather than men? DG

I think I’ll refer to that excellent informed source, Danny Mills (ex Leeds United and England defender), who, when interviewed this week about the appointment of a male manager of the England Women’s football team, said that he [the new manager] might struggle because “men think logically and women think more emotionally.” His quote was somehow lost in the furore around the sleazy men’s charity event in London.

Presumably, the extra time allows the female undergraduates time to blub and get into a frightful state as well as answer the questions?

As you can tell, in reality I have no idea

I think it is so that they can adjust their make up and ensure that their underwear matches their tight dresses. After all, they want to be looking their best for when the male students decide to get their, er, body parts, out on display.

Me neither.

I do wonder why exams have time limits though. Really.

If you're going that far you have to wonder "why exams?". Given that in my daily routine I'm rarely banned from using my phone/laptop to look up the "answers" (I made it to nearly 10am this morning before resorting to Google). Can't help thinking there are more meaningful ways of assessing ability than sitting in isolation trying to remember something said to you six months ago by someone with no obvious personality or talent for public speaking.

All perfectly normal and acceptable, as long as the beneficiaries are charitable.

I agree with your point about timing. I understand the risks of being under anaesthetic for longer than necessary, but I’d rather my operation was carried out by a surgeon for whom technical ability was more important than speed.

Oh absolutely. It is such an altruistic and public-spirited thing to do, to expose yourself in the name of charity. There is a whole untapped market out there - forget charity walks and parachute jumps eh? I'm sure someone could come up with a catchy phrase in the spirit of 'take your kids to work' or 'jeans for genes' to sell the idea (I was tempted, but this is a respectable forum!).

And yeah Mike, why exams? I have long spoken out against GCSEs, which have to be the most pointless stress makers now there is no jump off point at 16.

In terms of the explanation given by Oxford, it was that females might feel the pressure more than males. The effect has been to reduce the overall number of 2:2s and increase the number of males who got firsts. So what does that prove then? Everyone does better when they are given more time. Shock finding.

Only 15 minutes? They're taking the pi55.

I'd need far longer than that to update my instagram with all my selfies.

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

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.

Since you mentioned rockets...

Margaret Hamilton (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margare ... (scientist) )

She got men to the moon. Well her coding did. I think at the time coding was seen as a ‘woman’s job’.

I suspect she was very thorough with her checking.