But some professors reluctant to make deposit
By Rob Granatstein
Finally, a bank designed to help students.
Instead of having a bank manager breathing down their necks about loan repayment, this bank will give Ryerson students the option of withdrawing copies of past exams.
“We wanted something for all students,” said Greg Thomas, RyeSAC’s v-p Education. “Using liberal-study courses, which every student at Ryerson must take, seemed like the most equitable way to institute this program.”
The exam bank is a pilot project being set up by RyeSAC.
The bank was originally to be tested on business students, but resistance from the business faculty and the opportunity to have the exam bank reach all students changed RyeSAC’s plan.
“This is the way we should have gone from the start,” Thomas said.
The exam bank will operate out of CopyRite in Jorgenson Hall. Each exam page will cost 15 cents. The bank is a non-profit venture and any revenue will be reinvested.
The goal is to have past exams from all elective courses ready in time for fall exams in December. There are almost 125 elective courses at Ryerson.
“The hardest part is collecting all the exams,” Thomas said.
But not all professors are willing to turn over their exams.
“I don’t know if I’d turn over multiple-choice exams,” said philosophy professor Ken Montague. “I like to spring those on students.”
But Montague said he’d have no problem turning over past essay-type exams.
“If they want samples – sure,” he said. “I’ve given them out before, when students have asked for them.”
Thomas said the deans of all Ryerson faculties favor the project, but some professors are adamantly opposed.
“I’ve already talked to profs who are going to resist,” Thomas said.
RyeSAC plans to publish a complete list of professors who resist releasing exams.
Montague isn’t sure how much students will benefit from an exam bank.
“As a study guide, I kind of wonder about their effectiveness,” he said. “I’m not clear on the perceived benefits, but if people acquaint themselves with the type of exam questions, that’s fine.”
Rob Boltman, a second-year Landscape Architecture student, said the exam bank would help focus his studying.
“Teachers try to help us out, but it would take a lot of the guess work out of studying,” he said.
“I wouldn’t sit down and say AHHHH, what do I study?”
Boltman also said an exam bank would prevent professors from falling into a pattern of laziness. “Teachers shouldn’t be using the same exam every year the same way (students shouldn’t write the same paper every year.”
RyeSAC members begin collecting exams Monday. If all goes according to Thomas’ plan, the exam bank will be ready for business in the middle of November.
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