SCHOOLS: History students confused by Hitler 'despotic tyranny' exam question (From News Shopper)
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SCHOOLS: History students confused by Hitler 'despotic tyranny' exam question
2:05pm Friday 19th June 2009 in Bromley By Alexis Thompson
STUDENTS who failed to understand the words “despotic tyranny” have been complaining about their history A-level exam.
It is claimed the question “How far do you agree that Hitler’s role 1933-45 was one of despotic tyranny?” was too confusing for some students to understand.
A protest group called Despotic Tyranny Ruined My Life has been set up on Facebook.
So far 1,151 people have joined the group, leaving comments such as “My life is DESTROYED because of this exam. Seriously” and “This exam made me sad”.
The essay question featured on an Edexcel A Level exam paper sat last week.
A number of teachers have also posted comments on an online history teachers’ discussion forum, claiming that their students would not know what the words “despotic” and “tyranny” meant.
Many Year 13 students across the country are now concerned they will lose their university places because they were unable to answer the question properly.
Were you a student who sat the exam, or a concerned parent or teacher? Tell us your thoughts by leaving a post below or call newsdesk on 01689 885703.
Comments(48)
Pampam1950
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3:08pm Fri 19 Jun 09
Dartfordian
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3:30pm Fri 19 Jun 09
"That Hitler bloke was a right nasty geezer who never listened to no-one, yeah?"
despot tyranny
HIstoryStudent
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5:20pm Fri 19 Jun 09
This distress is heightened when you consider the amount of work we have put in for the last two years, and the university places which now hang in jeopardy because of the use of one word.
MarkSamuda
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5:52pm Fri 19 Jun 09
bexleyman
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6:17pm Fri 19 Jun 09
You suggest that you feel "edexcel seem to think one can have varying degrees tyranny is, in itself, a joke" shows that you don't much deserve the higher marks, to hit the A, for some kind of evaluation you have to analyse to what extent Hitler was a despotic tyrant, make comparisons with other tyrannical leaders across a broad range of history, not just Hitler, and state just how tyrannical you thought he was, and why.
The exam DOES require you to use appropriate and good english, including 'specialist vocabulary', which 'despotic tyrant' I suppose you could say is.
HIstoryStudent
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6:27pm Fri 19 Jun 09
MarkSamuda
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7:49pm Fri 19 Jun 09
Atmydesk
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7:50pm Fri 19 Jun 09
One of the condition placed upon us as A-Level students was to have a basic command of the english language having acheived a grade C or above at GCSE Level.
These are words used regulary in Modern History, Perhaps if you spent more time revising and less time on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, you may have performed better in your exams!
HIstoryStudent
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7:55pm Fri 19 Jun 09
shergars ghost
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8:15pm Fri 19 Jun 09
or could relate to them in that context.
Very Sad.
MarkSamuda
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8:18pm Fri 19 Jun 09
Mother Sidcup
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8:39pm Fri 19 Jun 09
This was an exam on on Hitler and history...not on swallowing a dictionary.
Despotic tyranny actually means tyrannical tyranny which means both words mean exactly the same thing... it is a bit like asking "do you enjoy past History" and was very confusing for students and for this reason alone Edexcel have some explaining! Another problem was the source with the question which directed most students thinking the question was about all about chaos.
What is more distressing for students like my daughter is that facebook is claiming many schools were either read the meaning before the exam or were allowed to take a dictionary into the exam with them!!
Edexcel have been bombarded with complaints from teachers/students and parents.
Edexcel have played the despotic tyrant by playing god in this exam and consequently ruined many students dreams
of going to great university.
HIstoryStudent
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8:51pm Fri 19 Jun 09
shergars ghost wrote:Yes it is sad. "Very sad." That is exactly why I had students in tears around me during the exam and around me after the exam. Thank you for your concern. Ha.
I genuinely find it remarkable that the History Students did not know the terms, 'despot' and 'tyranny'
or could relate to them in that context.
Very Sad.
AlexP
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10:13pm Fri 19 Jun 09
steph_7
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10:23pm Fri 19 Jun 09
Foxy123
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10:48pm Fri 19 Jun 09
madras
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10:49am Sat 20 Jun 09
madras
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10:52am Sat 20 Jun 09
ggjonny
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1:01pm Sat 20 Jun 09
But it's 'despotic', the word that up to this point in my life, I have still never seen on a documentary, news programme, or even used in conversation. That was the problem, and the context of the source made it out to mean something totally different to what it actually did!
HIstoryStudent
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1:35pm Sat 20 Jun 09
madras wrote:You don't seem to grasp the point that the source we were given used despotic tyranny in a way which indicated a chaotic ruler, which by all means Hitler was. We knew what tyranny was, it was the way despotic was used which caused the problem and judgements really cannot be made from people who did not read the source it came from.
cannot believe A level students don't at least understand the word 'tyrant' and have the ability to transpose this into 'tyrany'. And even if you don't understand 'despot' and 'despotic' you ought at least to be able to grasp the context. But this illustrates the 'joke' of exams where students are expected to learn parrot fashion from recommended reading and not understand wider context...
Gosh, ignorance.
madras
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2:07pm Sat 20 Jun 09
JohnS-UK
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3:29pm Sat 20 Jun 09
Firstly, the article states that students were confused by the term 'tyranny'. Wrong, students were confused by the combined term 'despotic tyranny'. This is sloppy journalism (through creating a poor quotation) to create a reaction of mockery from the reader to be directed at the students. The combined term, we feel as students, were poorly linked to the sources.
Secondly, Edexcel has a responsibility as an examining body to create an exam for the broad spectrum of students who sit the paper. The use of the term 'despotic tyranny' excludes students of a lower ability. Considering this paper gives no choice of question, and is not structured into tiers of ability, it is a clear failure of purpose on Edexcel's behalf. This is not to say students can amalgamate the term into their answers, however this is just a choice of response to enable students to the higher marks / grade.
Please comment on this response as I am keen to hear other views.
bexleystudent09
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6:14pm Sat 20 Jun 09
madras
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7:42pm Sat 20 Jun 09
gracecoo
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1:43pm Sun 21 Jun 09
Schnitzel
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1:45pm Sun 21 Jun 09
Tobago, pull your head out of your arse mate, all we can hear is mumbling.
Mother Sidcup
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3:32pm Sun 21 Jun 09
LBT
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5:58pm Sun 21 Jun 09
I find it sickening how most adults seem to try and force us to become little study machines with no feelings, emotions or thoughts of our own. We feel stress just as much as you do. I also find it disgraceful that we are only seen as a set of grades on a list and not as people. It's really no wonder the UK has the highest teen suicide rates...
alexx1
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6:07pm Sun 21 Jun 09
Atmydesk wrote:"Perhaps if you spent more time revising and less time on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, you may have performed better in your exams!"
Im 30 years old and I have come across the words before whilst stuying A Level History at John Ruskin College. 'Despotic' means a leader with absolute power or someone who uses their power oppressively, which is also a 'Tyrant'. 'Tyranny' is a government in which a single person has absolute power.
One of the condition placed upon us as A-Level students was to have a basic command of the english language having acheived a grade C or above at GCSE Level.
These are words used regulary in Modern History, Perhaps if you spent more time revising and less time on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, you may have performed better in your exams!
We don't even use social networking sites like MySpace anymore.
I'm sorry, but you clearly have no idea about teengagers, and how hard we work in order to achieve our potential.
sebhall
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2:54am Mon 22 Jun 09
bph
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7:15am Mon 22 Jun 09
alexx1
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9:18am Mon 22 Jun 09
bexleyman
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12:58pm Mon 22 Jun 09
Having said that, one would very much expect that there is a wide range of history students out there who did know or could hazard an educated guess as to what the term "despotic tyrant" means, and thus the raw marks to get an A will be no different from any other year. It's just poor disaffected students who are used to hitting A A A A... who all of a sudden find themselves having a bit of bother and all of a sudden must blame somebody else rather than themselves.
BPH, speaking as an a-level student myself, you epitomise what's wrong with a-levels and exams in general, you want everything confined into a nice little box, a nice little bullet-pointed syllabus where it tells you word for word what you need to remember so you can regurgitate it upon demand in the exam. One of the reasons I found History so enjoyable is the freedom it affords, you can't have this set-list of what you need to know that students, yourself included, apparently crave.
The term 'despot' and 'tyranny', as I said before are terms i've heard and used in the classroom, they are terms i've found upon wider reading of my own throughout reading on Hitler and the variety of other historical periods I looked at for my course.
Again, while the syllabus may not explicitly state it, from such a question analysing to what extent Hitler was a tyrant, one would expect to define the term for themselves in the introduction, challenge the term, for example Hitler wasn't such the autocrat perhaps implied but rather at the heart of a Polycracy.
Distressed mother, you quiz all them Oxbridge graduates you like - I can know from my own experiences that 'despot' and 'tyrant' are common in a number of history classrooms.
bph
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5:51pm Mon 22 Jun 09
cmarie
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9:06pm Mon 22 Jun 09
Dartbored
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12:38pm Tue 23 Jun 09
HIstoryStudent wrote:HistoryStudent - Nobody can doubt that you've studied hard, but it does re-ignite the debate about how stern a test GCSE's (and to a lsser extent, A-Levels) are these days. I sat my GCSE's way back in 1990 and "only" achieved a grade B in English. I didn't even study history. Yet at the time, I would have been able to answer the Despotic Tyranny question with a degree of confidence. The fact that you achieved an A* at GCSE English but weren't aware of this phrase points to a bigger, more fundamental problem I'm afraid.
Excuse me but I studied roughly 8 hours worth a day leading up to the exam. I had begun revision 2 months previously. Condensed all wider reading down to revisable notes, knew it all backwards because I thoroughly enjoy studying History. I got an A* in English at GCSE and straight As at AS Level. It is insulting for it to be suggested we have not worked hard enough. It's disgusting.
Locket14
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1:06am Wed 24 Jun 09
Dartbored
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10:16am Wed 24 Jun 09
The examiners clearly had an expectation that those studying at this level would understand those terms, without it necessarily being part of the syllabus/text studied.
ConcernedofLoughton
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10:32am Thu 25 Jun 09
I should imagine most people would have heard of either of the words and been able to work out that he was a bad man!
HIstoryStudent
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12:23pm Fri 26 Jun 09
Secondly, it's a complete tautology and even if you knew what it meant it would be difficult to interpret exactly what it was getting at especially amidst that appalling source.
Thirdly it was an exam testing historical knowledge not test to see which half of the country knew what it meant and which half didn't.
Lastly unless you sat the exam it is not fair to comment on how you would have reacted because well you're not 17 anymore faced with one hour to write an answer based on a word you're unfamiliar with after putting in months of hard work and understanding all the historical concepts necessary like the back of your hand.
Maybe we should have known what it meant but the point was the aim of the exam was to test our knowledge of Hitler and the Nazi State not the dictionary.
Anyway, lets enjoy the summer now fellow students, I'm sure edexcel will respond justly and we'll be pleasantly surprised in August. Best of luck.
HIstoryStudent
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12:25pm Fri 26 Jun 09
ConcernedofLoughton wrote:The debate wasn't about whether he was a bad man or not haha, I'm afraid it was a far more complex historical debate than that, which is why "despotic" didn't quite cut it in conveying what they wanted us to talk about.
Even if you dont exactly know the meaning then you can clearly see which way the question is leaning.
I should imagine most people would have heard of either of the words and been able to work out that he was a bad man!
The overriding points are that, first of all, "despotic tyranny" is not a phrase one would commonly associate with Hitler because it's just not accurate.
Secondly, it's a complete tautology and even if you knew what it meant it would be difficult to interpret exactly what it was getting at especially amidst that appalling source.
Thirdly it was an exam testing historical knowledge not test to see which half of the country knew what it meant and which half didn't.
Lastly unless you sat the exam it is not fair to comment on how you would have reacted because well you're not 17 anymore faced with one hour to write an answer based on a word you're unfamiliar with after putting in months of hard work and understanding all the historical concepts necessary like the back of your hand.
Maybe we should have known what it meant but the point was the aim of the exam was to test our knowledge of Hitler and the Nazi State not the dictionary.
Anyway, lets enjoy the summer now fellow students, I'm sure edexcel will respond justly and we'll be pleasantly surprised in August. Best of luck.
thingamy
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12:29am Sun 28 Jun 09
alexx1
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9:56am Tue 30 Jun 09
thingamy wrote:This is true, but unfortunately it wasn't made clear to a number of students that they could ask,so no one actually knew what it meant, hence, this debate.
I did the Edexcel history module in question, but I did it a few years ago (so wasn't asked about despotic tyranny as such) but I'm pretty sure if you don't understand the question, you can ask an invigilator what it means...
Hugo Syn
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1:18pm Wed 1 Jul 09
What a bunch of whining, pathetic, spoilt little children, whose grasp of correct English usage (let alone history) is rudimentary, to say the least.
I took my history GCE in the early 1960s, when I was 16 and I am happy to assure the precious students of today that I and all my peers understood the meaning of the terms "despotic/benign tyranny".
I should perhaps also point out that if we failed an examination, we would normally acknowledge that our failure was down to a lack of study/revision, rather than try to blame someone else for our own shortcomings.
These students are going to be let loose on the wide, wicked world in a few short years, and I would respectfully suggest that they start accepting responsibilities for their own actions.
Mother Sidcup
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12:36am Thu 2 Jul 09
Hugo Syn wrote:How dare you insult these 17/18 year olds who have worked **** hard for the last two years.You obviously have no concept of the pressure these students are under. Your remarks are insulting ,and how can you be so judgemental when you dont have an any idea what was in this exam paper and the sources that accompanied this question which completely threw thousands of students. You say that you and all your peers knew the meaning of "Despotic" when you were 17/18, surely at your age to remember that far back is a miracle. I suppose when you were 17/18 age you could also recite The Oxford Dictionary as well. What is really sad is that old folk like you should be supporting the youth of today.. but obviosly you have nothing better to do with your time these days than to write on sites like these and ridicule them. Very very sad.
Having read the story carefully and waded through all the above comments, I can only say that I despair for the future of my country. What a bunch of whining, pathetic, spoilt little children, whose grasp of correct English usage (let alone history) is rudimentary, to say the least. I took my history GCE in the early 1960s, when I was 16 and I am happy to assure the precious students of today that I and all my peers understood the meaning of the terms "despotic/benign tyranny". I should perhaps also point out that if we failed an examination, we would normally acknowledge that our failure was down to a lack of study/revision, rather than try to blame someone else for our own shortcomings. These students are going to be let loose on the wide, wicked world in a few short years, and I would respectfully suggest that they start accepting responsibilities for their own actions.
february_mist
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7:02pm Thu 2 Jul 09
The word is not a word history students should know. It is a irregular, old-fashioned word that should not be used in a HISTORY exam. In addition i have friends who are expected AAA and going to Oxford and they did not know what the term meant and i have heard Edexcel make consistent mistakes and they generally do not care.
In relation to the people who state that children in this country need to take responsibility, how about education ministers taking responsibilty for a ridiculous exam in general and how about older generations supporting young students, it is deeply upsetting that people are saying i'm stupid because i did not know the meaning to a uncommon term.
I am not pathetic or spoilt and i love the fact that so many students are standing up for their futures that they have worked hard on.
Dodgy Geezer
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10:22am Sat 11 Jul 09
It's not all bad.
I have just tested the same question on my son, who took A levels last year, and is now on his first year at Uni.
With no prompting he correctly identified the critical points of discussion - how far Hitler gained power legally, and how far he then operated as a single leader whose word was law.
I must admit, he did not know the precise dates at which Hitler varied the German constitution, but I think his answer was not bad given his A levels were Maths, Physics and Chemistry, and he is currently doing Mechanical Engineering.
Mind you, he did go to a major Public School. It cost me an arm and a leg, but it looks like it was worth it.
doc 1 says...
2:10pm Fri 19 Jun 09