The reason for this petition is the highly skewed distribution of marks that we received for our assessed essays, returned on January 29, 2014. Not a single First class mark was awarded, and only 5 of the 26 essays were marked in the Upper Second class band. The majority of marks awarded were Lower Second class. Such low performance across the whole module is a clear indication of an underlying problem, such as miscommunication about expectations between the staff and the students, difficulty of questions, or others.

In order to get to the bottom of the problem, we request the following:

1. General feedback from the staff about the essays so as to identify a reason for the low marks.

2. Any External Examiners, Exam Boards, or other relevant authorities to consider the re-scaling of all marks of the module.

For the fairness and transparency in the module, we ask that both requests be met in a timely manner.