{"id":157,"date":"2008-08-05T09:24:46","date_gmt":"2008-08-04T21:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2008\/08\/a_general_piece_on_scholarship\/"},"modified":"2018-09-17T17:25:26","modified_gmt":"2018-09-17T05:25:26","slug":"a-general-piece-on-scholarship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2008\/08\/a-general-piece-on-scholarship\/","title":{"rendered":"a general piece on Scholarship"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been asked to give a general talk to a group of visiting students about Scholarship exams – eek! Anyway, what follows is what they’ll be getting (my biology schol presentation without any biology…) The basic details come from the Scholarship section<\/a> on the NZQA website.<\/p>\n

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First up, an overview: you can expect that Scholarship exams will be challenging and demanding for the most able students in each subject. The assessment schedule will allow for ranking of students, & it will also provide clear descriptions to assess candidates’ achievement over several levels of performance. Scholarships will be awarded to the best students in each of the 27 subjects examined – and the number of awards will be equal to 3% of the number of students entered for at least 14 level 3 credits in each subject (as long as they meet Scholarship standards, of course).<\/p>\n

What sort of\u00a0content<\/b> wil be covered? It will be related to the Level 3 standards\u00a0– up to level 8 of the curriculum material covered by year 13 students.<\/p>\n

But the\u00a0skills <\/b>&\u00a0understanding <\/b>required are much more advanced. Candidates need to show high-level\u00a0critical thinking<\/b>; high-level abstract thinking; and the application of their knowledge & ideas to novel, complex situations.<\/p>\n

Assessment:<\/b> each question in a paper will be marked on a scale from 0 to 8. The marks are related to the performance descriptors for each subject. Someone who gets an 8 will have written an\u00a0outstanding answer in all respects. Strong evidence of\u00a0integration<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0synthesis<\/b>. As good as could be expected under examination conditions.\u00a0Accurate, comprehensive, coherent, lucid, perceptive<\/b>. <\/i>(The italicised bits are from the QA website, but the emphasis is mine.) A marker will give ‘1’ for\u00a0meagre understanding relevant to question.<\/i>. (Someone would get a ‘0’ for an irrelevant answer, or no answer at all.) Each subject marking panel will review the highest-scoring papers to determine the top candidate in each subject, & they’ll also re-mark papers which lie on the cut-off between getting a Scholarship & not getting one.<\/p>\n

So, a student receiving Scholarship in a subject will have demonstrated high-level critical thinking, abstraction & generalisation\u00a0and<\/i> the ability to integrate, synthesise and apply knowledge, skills, understanding & ideas to complex situations. They’ll also show: comprehensive subject knowledge (both breadth & depth); effective communication skills; original or sophisticated solutions, performances or approaches; & flexible thinking in unfamiliar or unexpected contexts.<\/p>\n

In other words, success requires:<\/p>\n