ITS students baffled over ‘unfamiliar’ exam paper

First-year students at the Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS) were left perplexed earlier this week after they were presented with what they claimed was ‘a wrong exam paper’.

Expressing their frustration on social media, students sitting for ‘Introduction to Tourism’ said that ITS issued a wrong paper and students had to do a whole exam paper which was not meant for them.

“It was not the one our lecturer had prepared for us. Obviously this was full of material we did not cover in class. This is not acceptable!” one student commented.

The examination took place earlier this week.

But when contacted by Sunday newspaper ILLUM, ITS chairman Ernest Azzopardi dismissed the claims and said that the matter all boiled down to a misunderstanding.

“This subject was taught by two lecturers, who both had to present a separate exam paper to their head of department, with the latter having to choose one. This is an established procedure and everything was followed to the rule.”

Azzopardi said that prior to the exam, in an attempt to help the students, one of the lecturers gave them an insight of how his paper was structured.

“When faced with a different paper than that promised, the students thought a mistake was carried out.”

Apparently, the misunderstanding grew when the lecturer told students that it was not the paper he prepared for them, fuelling their frustration.

The ITS chairman told the newspaper that both the papers proposed covered the same topics. He rebutted speculation that should the majority of students fail the exam, another exam session would take place, although they would still have the chance to pass through a resit.