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 5th 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 the 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.

If you are unable to sit the Midsession Exam at the specified time: 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.

Written Report

A written report (maximum 1500 words), in APA format, will be due by close of business (5pm) on Tuesday 26th April. Students should submit their assignment via Turnitin on the iLearn webpage for the Unit. Feedback on the report will be returned via iLearn during week 12. 

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. 

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. An additional 99 words beyond the limit can be written without penalty. 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.

If you are unable to submit the Written Report on time: Assignments submitted after the due date, without an approved extension, will receive a 5% per day penalty including weekends and public holidays. That is, 1.75 marks out of 35 will be deducted from the assignment mark for every day the assignment is late. No late submissions will be accepted more than 5 days after the submission deadline, unless special consideration has been granted.  That is, assignments submitted after 5pm on Sunday 1st May will not be accepted and a mark of zero will be given for the assignment. 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.  If you have an approved extension, submission after the extended due date will receive a 5% per day penalty including weekends and public holidays. No extensions will be granted beyond 5pm on Friday 20th May.

Final Examination

During the final exam period, students will complete a 1 hour multiple choice exam, 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.

Students are expected to make themselves available for the final exam at the date and time set by the University, in line with the Assessment Policy and Procedure.Sitting the final exam is compulsory in order to be eligible to pass the unit. Any student who does not attempt the final exam will be granted a Fail Absent grade.

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.

This unit is offered in two ways: in-person-scheduled-weekday (F2F) and in-person/online-scheduled weekday (F2F/ONL). The lectures for PSYU3332 are delivered in the same way for both offerings of the unit, but the practicals differ. Please read the following sections carefully so that you understand attendance requirements for the offering you are enrolled in. For general informatiom on unit versions, see this website: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/enrolling/choosing-units

Students should not attend on-campus classes if you are unwell or have any cold and flu-like symptoms. Ensure you follow the most recent University COVID-19 advice https://www.mq.edu.au/about/coronavirus-faqs/information-for-students

Lectures

For both the F2F and F2F/ONL offerings, there are no on-campus lectures. Two lectures (Week 1 and Week 6) will be conducted live on Zoom on a Tuesday from 12 - 2pm. The other lectures are delivered as pre-recorded material. Recorded lecture material (up to 2-hours duration) will be available via iLearn each week of the session, apart from weeks 7 and 13. On occasion, a question and answer session may be delivered online (via Zoom) during the timetabled lecture time (Tuesday 12 - 2pm); sessions will be recorded and made available via iLearn.

Required readings associated with lectures will be listed in the lecture outlines posted on iLearn and 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 1.5-hour practicals. Students attend one 1.5-hour practical each fortnight.

For students enrolled in the F2F offering, practicals are on-campus. For students enrolled in the F2F/ONL offering you will attend on-campus classes or online (via Zoom) classe depending on the class you are enrolled in. There are only limited online class times. Online practical class options are intended to be reserved for students with genuine need to study online (for example, those who are studying offshore, or those who have other exceptional circumstances that prevent on-campus attendance for the entire session). The online practicals should not be attended by students who simply prefer to study online. Class availability can be seen via eStudent class enrolment: the location of the class indicates if it is an online class or an on-campus class. Note that enrolment in online classes does not mean that the entire unit will be taken online. Certain assessment tasks (for example, final exams) can still be scheduled to have compulsory on-campus attendance.

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 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 2022 is:

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