3.2 Types of assessment

Assessment of your academic performance will be measured via a variety of different assessment types; assessments are designed to be authentic and reflect professional practice and requirements. On some programmes assessment by exam will predominate, while on others you’ll be asked to complete a range of alternative assignments that may involve group work.

Let’s take a look at some of the commonly used assessment types across our programmes:

Essays

Some of our students arrive with lots of experience of writing essays, while others have almost none. Even if you are familiar with the format, you might have questions about what we expect in an essay. You might be particularly worried about how to tackle referencing and how to integrate the critical approach that attracts high grades. Through your programme you’ll be directed towards bespoke guides and workshops to help you to understand how to approach essay writing with confidence. All of the same guidance that you probably received at school still applies – the essential features of a good essay are structure, argument, logic and a strong conclusion. What might be different is how you find information sources as you do your research, and then how you use them as evidence to back up your ideas and analysis. To get good marks, you’ll need to go beyond description of a problem or issue; we’re looking for you to answer a question by analysing and evaluating different approaches, by comparing alternative viewpoints, and then reaching your own conclusions. As in other types of assignment, in an essay you’ll need to acknowledge these sources via proper referencing. Training and support for referencing is provided through the programmes and via the library support team so you can feel confident in understanding how to avoid plagiarism or any other form of academic misconduct.

Reports

Reports can take many different formats depending on the requirements of the assignment, but they usually require some independent research on a topic, company or case study. The report will be written in sections (rather than the continuous prose of an essay), and often contain data presented as tables or graphics to back up your analysis and conclusions. Sometimes you’ll be asked to produce a report as a group, closely modelling the kind of work you might undertake within a research group. Part of the assignment might require you to make recommendations to solve a medical challenge or improve knowledge of a particular pathway, based on your synthesis of available data.

Presentations

Scientific communication is often in the form of presentation this may be in the oral form or a poster. On our programmes you will be required to prepare and deliver presentations, either individually or as part of a small group. Sometimes these might be linked to a report assignment. Many students feel nervous about presenting to an audience for the first time, but with practice this becomes one of the most important ways for you to develop the confidence in public speaking that many of your future employers will be looking for. In some cases you’ll be asked to pre-record a presentation, which may feel less intimidating and also gives you the opportunity to develop your digital skills. We have lots of support available to help you get better at presenting.

Exams

Most of you will be very familiar with exams, and there’s certainly no escaping them as a student here at Exeter! We offer many opportunities to work on exam technique, and if you experience exam-related anxiety our wellbeing teams can provide all sorts of ways to help with this, so don’t be afraid to seek support. At the moment most of our exams are taking place remotely, or have been replaced by coursework-style assessments. If you are concerned about any potential changes to the way you’ll be assessed please reach out to your module tutor - or Academic (Personal) Tutor - so that we can support you.

Portfolios

Sometimes a module will lend itself to a more unique approach to assessment, with less conventional formats via which you can demonstrate your achievement of the module’s intended learning objectives. For these, you are more likely to see much more emphasis on the development of skills rather than the learning of ‘content’, and this can also allow those of you who especially dislike the pressure of traditional exams to choose optional modules where the assessment mode better suits your needs.

Clinical assessments

For some of our programmes you will undergo a number of Clinical assessments. Further details on the types of clinical assessments will be communicated to you as part of your programme inductions, as these vary programme to programme.

Any questions?

Now use the Forum below to ask any questions you might have about tackling different types of assessment – our current students will be able to give you insights into how all of these work in practice!