Focus on chemistry

The Chemistry A-level examination featured prominently in the correspondence columns of local papers in the past few weeks. The bone of contention in many of these complaints was whether or not a periodic table should have been provided or rather should not have been withdrawn during the A-level Chemistry Matsec examination.

This periodic table dilemma gave rise to other questions. There was that odd student who could not possibly understand that page 5 of 6 means that there is a page 6 of 6 and that this page 6 could possibly be empty but it did not occur to the student that it was also possible that page 6 was not empty and in fact had the last question on it.

Probably if the examiners opted to put another question in the empty space on page 5 some other parent would have complained that his or her daughter or son had too crammed a page and certainly this was the cause for the student not to get the required grade B to join the medical course and in this way, since grade B has to be obtained in the June session only, and could not be obtained in the September session, this student was denied the opportunity to serve in five years' time the public as a doctor on the successful completion of the medical course.

Probably the parent would also lament that the poorer are those patients her sibling could have served if that paper II Chemistry May session 2007 did not have an empty space on page 5 and instead had the last question put on page 5 rather than on page 6.

There is a 50 per cent chance that the student denied entry into the medical school course would have obtained a grade C and could join the course in Pharmacy or a B.Sc with chemistry as an option. These courses are considered to require an inferior grade for entry when compared to medicine, dentistry and physiotherapy.

One may ask who can honestly decide that to join the course of medicine candidates should require a dose of chemistry higher than those who would be working all their careers as chemists or even possibly be tomorrow's teachers of chemistry if they opt to join the B.Ed course specialising in Chemistry.

But, surprisingly, none of the correspondents complained about these illogical entry requirements to the University. Their concern is that the periodic table ought to have been provided to the candidates of the examination Paper II in Chemistry, whether they needed it or not and this especially since the Gozitan colleagues one way or another managed not only to obtain a copy of this periodic table, but also succeeded to hold firmly to it throughout the whole ordeal of the second paper of the Chemistry A-level examination - an examination that will probably haunt those 'culprits' or 'supposed culprits' accused of denying a chance to those who wished to opt to take up that noble profession (not the inferior B.Pharm, B.Sc. or B.Ed) because, due to the lack of the periodic table (sic), they managed to obtain a Grade C and not a Grade B in this all or none chemistry examination.

But seriously, it is also strange that few correspondents, if any, put the crucial question to the readers. Why do we need to create such a massive stress and tension culminating in the written examinations, affecting even more the parents rather than their children?

The real problem hitting parents, again rather more than the younger generation themselves, is the fact that their child could not become a medical doctor with emphasis on the title 'Dr.' This is more plausible to be the reason for their invitation to the Education Minister and the rector to look into this 'serious' omission of denying the periodic table to their children.

Few, if any, asked why there is a numerus clausus for dentistry and for physiotherapy courses and whether the reason sometimes given that there are not enough chairs for dentists to practise or couches for physiotherapists to examine their parents is the real reason behind this exclusion exercise.

One must admit that dentists have a whole faculty to cater for a few students and the physiotherapy unit is very well equipped. If any one really believes that the B.Pharm and B.Sc. courses are so well equipped that they can take any number of students compared to medicine, physiotherapy and dentistry, then he or she must be living in cuckooland.

Another correspondent even went as far to state that surprises happen quite often during Matsec exams. He also claimed to remember the days when we used to sit for London or Oxford University exams and at that time we used to go to our examinations with our minds at rest as we never had any of these unpleasant surprises (no doubt at that time none used to label those pages clearly as page one of six, so students could easily identify that there are six pages in the examination paper!).

These days, the correspondent continues to explain, our students are frequently exposed to anything during their exams, whether it is lack of working paper, silly questions, unavailable material etc. This case undoubtedly continues to shed serious doubts on local examinations.

Is this the way we want to treat our students? Is this the way we try to alleviate the stress these students already have? Does the university rector know anything about this particular case? Is the Director of Education aware of what happened during this examination?

Another correspondent concludes by asking if the Minister was going to investigate this particular case, which has put our students at a huge disadvantage and which may lead to a major blow to their career?

But seriously, does this correspondent believes that the Minister ought to get involved in the use, misuse, lack of, or presence of a periodic table in an examination? Does this correspondent believe that all that is done in the UK is infallible? If so, he should also ask the Minister why does the University of Malta admit students to some of its courses which require a special understanding of chemistry with such low grades of C or D when no university in the UK would even consider looking at such applications.

Why should the University admit students to its courses where professionals on graduation must know how to react to many life or death decisions and to innumerable surprises, not knowing how to deal with a missing periodic table in time of stress?

How would such a person who cannot decide that he does not need to use a periodic table in a chemistry examination learn how to deal with a seriously ill difficult patient?

The message sent in this correspondence on the Chemistry A-level examination points more to lack of preparation for tertiary education and for chemistry-based courses on the part of some candidates rather than real deficiencies in the examination system. No wonder that some of the students taking chemistry-based courses, especially in recent years, are not well prepared and do not have a sound basic chemistry background, not enough to build upon it the applied aspects of chemistry-based subjects, at tertiary education level.

One surprising aspect, however, in the setting of papers, not that it makes a crucial difference in assessment, is a statement made in a letter by Professor F. Ventura, which read: "Regarding layout, it must be pointed out that students who sit for the A-level Chemistry examination are well aware of the structure of Paper II, as it is clearly indicated in the syllabus and in the examination papers of the past 25 years or so."

One may ask in this day and age of scientific development, is it possible that no need was found in 25 years (incidentally since the time when students had to learn most of the periodic table by heart) to revisit the structure of the Chemistry A-level paper. Perhaps a good feature that could come out of this is that the syllabus and the papers concerned require some updating to match the needs of science-based courses at tertiary level.

Some students are joining the University with a level in Chemistry too low to build knowledge on it of chemistry-based subjects without the need of a super extraordinary effort both on the part of students and academics alike. We also need to increase the entry A-level grades in Chemistry required to join certain courses to the level of other top European universities.