Assessment in PSYU3332 is made up of a Midsession Exam, a Written Report, and the Final Exam.

​Midsession Exam

An online midsession exam will be conducted in week 7 (Tuesday 7th April). The online exam will be delivered via an iLearn quiz that will be made available for a 24 hour period (12am until 11.59pm). Within that 24 hour period, once the quiz has been started, students will have 40 minutes to complete 20 multiple choice quiz questions (some involving calculation). Students must start the exam by 11.19pm at the latest in order to have the full 40-minutes to complete the exam.

The midsession exam will test students’ ability to apply and analyse the statistics introduced in the lectures in weeks 2 – 5. Students will not be required to recall formulae – a sheet containing formulae will be provided. Questions will require students to use data to generate the statistics and to use the results of their calculations to make judgements about test scores. Different question sets will be generated for students to reduce the chance that students can copy directly from one another. Worked examples of the sorts of questions asked on the test will be demonstrated in the lectures. Students will be provided with their mark via the iLearn page for the unit after the exam closes.

Written Report

A written report (maximum 1500 words), in APA format, will be due by close of business (5pm) on Tuesday 28th April. Students should submit their assignment via Turnitin on the iLearn webpage for the Unit. Feedback on the report will be returned via iLearn at the end of week 12. No submissions will be accepted after 5pm on Friday 29th May.

The report will be based on Practical 1 and 2 and will report on the construction and psychometric properties of a brief test developed in the practical exercises. The requirements of the assignment will be covered in a recorded lecture made available via iLearn by the end of Week 6.  Students will be able to self-assess their performance prior to submission of the assignment against the criteria which will be used by the tutors marking the assignment and will be available via the iLearn webpage for the unit prior to the submission date. Feedback will be provided relative to those criteria. A penalty will be applied for going over the word limit of 1500 words: 5% of the maximum assignment mark (i.e., 35/100) for every 100 words written over the word limit. For example, if the assignment is 100-199 words over the word limit, 1.75 marks out of 35 will be deducted; if the assignment is 200-299 words over the word limit, 3.5 marks out of 35 will be deducted etc.  The word limit excludes the title page, tables and figures, and References pages.

Final Examination

During the final exam period, students will complete a 1.5-hour multiple choice exam (60 questions) which will assess recall, understanding, and application of material presented in lectures 8 to 12 inclusive and in practicals 3 to 6 inclusive, as well as any required readings associated with those lectures and practicals. 

Special Consideration

If you experience serious and unavoidable difficulties at exam time or when assessment tasks are due, you can consider applying for Special Consideration. There is a link to the policy in the Policies and Procedures section of this Unit Guide. Procedures specific to this unit are noted below.

Macquarie University operates under a ‘Fit to Sit’ model. This means that, in sitting an examination and/or in-class test or otherwise submitting an assessment, a student is declaring that they are fit to do so. It is the responsibility of the student to determine whether they are fit to sit an examination or test, or otherwise submit an assessment. Therefore, if a student is feeling unfit to sit the examination or test, or otherwise submit the assessment, they should not do so.

• If you are unable to complete the Midsession Exam: Students who are unable to complete the online midsession exam at the specified time due to serious and unavoidable circumstances must make a claim for Special Consideration via ask.mq.edu.au attaching appropriate supporting documents  within five (5) working days from the day of the midsession examination. The unit convenor will determine eligibility for a late midsession exam and eligible students will be notified via email (using the official university email address for the student) about the time (likely to be during week 8; this date is subject to change) of the late midsession exam. The format of the late midsession exam is at the unit convenor's discretion and is subject to change from the original midsession examination. There will be only one alternative time.
• If you are unable to submit the Written Report on time: Ordinarily, no extensions of time for submission of written work will be granted since ample time for its preparation will have been given. If an extension is required for medical or other extenuating circumstances, students may request Special Consideration via ask.mq.edu.au with supporting documentary evidence (such as medical certificate, counsellor note, or similar) within five (5) working days after the due date for the assignment.  Assignments submitted after the due date where an extension has not been granted will be penalised at the rate of 5% of the maximum assignment mark (i.e., 35/100) for every day late. That is, 1.75 marks will be deducted from the assignment mark for every day the assignment is late. Assignments will not be accepted after 5pm on Friday 29th May.
• If you are unable to sit the Final Exam at the scheduled time: Students who are unable to complete the final exam at the specified time due to serious and unavoidable circumstances must make a claim for Special Consideration via ask.mq.edu.au attaching appropriate supporting documents  within five (5) working days from the day of the examination. The unit convenor will determine eligibility for a supplementary final exam and eligible students will be notified via email (using the official university email address for the student) about the time of the supplementary final exam. There will be only one alternative time. Supplementary exams for all units in the Department of Psychology will be held on Thursday 9th July and Friday 10th July. The format of the supplementary exam is at the unit convenor's discretion and is subject to change from the original examination.

Lectures

There is one 2-hour lecture each week of the session, apart from weeks 7 and 13. Students can attend the lecture on-campus or listen to the live stream or recording of the lecture available via the link on the iLearn page to Echo360.

Readings associated with lectures will be listed in the lecture outlines posted on iLearn and most will be made available via Unit Readings on the Library webpage.

All lecture material is examinable (either in the midsession exam or in the final exam).

Practicals

There are six 2-hour practicals. Students attend one 2-hour practical each fortnight. Practicals begin in week 2 or week 3 (depending on the stream). Set reading will be required prior to some practicals - the readings will be listed in the practical outlines posted on iLearn and made available via Unit Readings on the Library webpage.

Attendance at practicals is strongly advised - the material will be assessed, but more importantly, it is in the practical classes that application of the material from lectures is discussed and demonstrated.

All practical material is assessable (either in the assignment or in the final exam).

Recommended Text

Any recent text on Psychological Testing or Psychological Assessment will more than likely cover the main content of the unit. The text recommended for the unit in 2020 is:

Shum, D., O'Gorman, J., Myors, B., & Creed, P. (2017). Psychological Testing and Assessment (Third Edition). Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press.