Solidarity spoof exam paper, 1972

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

B.Sc. (Unemployment) Examination 1972

PART II

COMMON SENSE

Monday 24th May, 2.30 to 2.45

Answer FOUR questions, at least TWO of which are on the paper

1. ‘If a question is worth doing, it can’t be done in forty minutes. If it can be done in forty minutes, then it’s not worth doing,’ Consider.

2. Either (a) Assess the contribution of Victor Serge and Margaret Mead to education theory* or (b) ‘In examiners’ hands students cease to be historical actors in their own right.’ Discuss.

3. How valid is the concept of failure?

4. What evidence does recent survey research provide regarding the reasons why a paper would be considered a first at one university and a faliure at another?

5. ‘Education is the opiate of the middle classes’. Compare and contrast this concept to the one of ‘equal opportunity in education’: which of these two concepts can better explain present conditions?

6. What do you understand by the term ‘understand’?

7. ‘The seeds of Fascism are to be found, not in the organisation of force but in the organisation of the school’. Discuss with reference to the works of Wilhelm Reich.

8. How far does the fact that one never sees an examination paper after one has written it contribute to the interest of the activity?

9. Discuss the role of creativity in the examination room.

10. Who determines the syllabus? To what extent can one satisfactorily answer this question at either the local or the national level? Discuss with reference to any one socio-economic system.

11. ‘Success is a nineteenth century invention’. Discuss.

12. Outline the functionalist nature of present education. Why is knowledge of the functional nature of education not conductive to the control and manipulation of students?

13. When did you first realise that you were superior to 96% of the rest of the population?

* Neither Victor Serge nor Margaret Mead ever went to school.

Taken from ‘LSE: a question of degree’ by Bob Dent via For Workers' Power wordpress on 14 March 2012.