Date: July 2026
Authors: Satadru Mukherjee
Themes: Inclusive Assessment
Faculty: Arts, Law and Social Sciences
Subject area: Economics
The Practice
Assessment design and educational practices surrounding assessments influence the way students engage with the subject which subsequently impact their learning outcomes, academic performance, graduate attributes. The aim of this project was to evaluate the students’ assessment experience, conduct in-depth discussions about assessment related support and generate ideas about building/enhancing support that improves every student’s ability to perform well in their studies thereby making the assessments more inclusive. Following research, for e.g. by Krattli, Prezioso & Dollinger (2023), we used student perspectives to widen our understanding on how existing assessment practices support is experienced by students, discussed how staff-student engagement with assessments can be bettered, and how assessment related support can be improved.
We advertised this project to all Economics UG students in TB2 2025/26. 5 students (across different years and programs) took part and contributed through discussions via 1:1 interview. We developed elements of the questionnaires using TESTA (Transformative the Experience of Students using through Assessment) focus group questions (https://www.testa.ac.uk/). Students received a £15 voucher for their contribution in this project. Through 1:1 interviews they offered in-depth insights about their assessment experience and shared ways in which the School and the University can improve assessment related support.
Findings
Students aim to achieve a high grade through demonstrating their learning in the assessment. According to them, understanding university grading, the difference between University assessments and A-levels can be a big adjustment (especially in Year 1) where students need to readjust their expectations, recalibrate their capabilities. They find peer interactions to be helpful in making this transition. Exams can be stressful and effective planning and good revision helps reduce the stress. Reflecting upon assessments they learnt the most from, students shared how through crafting convincing narratives to communicate economic ideas via data stories to a wider audience, through in-depth coding for data analysis, by working on a dissertation project, choosing coursework themes based on specific research interests they developed tangible skills and deeper understanding of the subject matter. They acknowledged how well-connected units, scaffolded learning helped them to develop research skills, and well-structured exams contributed to deep understanding of content. They also shared assessments which require memorisation without understanding the logic leads to superficial learning, non-retention of long-term skills. Further, high workload could also lead to disengagement with the course.
When discussing challenges they faced during assessment preparation, students cited examples that can be categorised as individual and institutional. They acknowledged behavioural issues like procrastination affects preparation which suggests how time management plays a key role for them to do well in their studies. The institutional challenges they faced were highly context specific. Students found that having more revision time before the summer 2025 exam was beneficial when comparing that to 2026. Further, citing a specific instance of taking core-unit exams in consecutive days is something they found challenging where they lacked revision time between exams. This highlights how exam timetabling has potential to influence academic performance.
In discussing assessment related support, students recognise that formative assessments provide clarity from the assessor’s perspective, helps one become an efficient learner, and prioritising formative assessments benefits summative assessment preparation. However high workload, falling behind on content, not knowing how to triage material, conflicting time commitments (especially during spring weeks/internship applications), unwillingness to put themselves in a position of not doing well leads to low participation in formative assessment.
Seminars that allow students to work on exam-style questions, where they obtain feedback on mistakes and get sufficient opportunity to work on problems enables better assessment preparation. Moreover, in a seminar where students received the opportunity to engage with an industry expert helped them visualise how professional work in that field connects to learning in their unit.
Students find revision lectures immensely helpful specifically where it contributes to a thorough understanding of exam structures and marking criteria. Past exam papers, assessment reports, office hours, peer-assisted study sessions are resources they also find helpful in assessment preparation. They recognise the value of office hours as a learning resource and shared how it takes time to build self-confidence to engage meaningfully during office hours.
Students shared various recommendations to improve assessment support to help them develop better as economists. Getting to know the big picture of studying economics, the various economics specialisations at the start of their program can get them more enthused with learning the subject. Good experience with teaching positively impacts assessment performance and students suggested how more assessments (enabling one to keep better track of content), frequent discussions during the course about the connections between content and assessments, scaffolding exercises with touch point meetings, can help them prepare better for summative assessments. Students value the data analysis skills they gain through studying economics and suggested how incorporating more hands-on experience with coding in existing courses will help them to further develop these valuable competencies. They shared how lecturers, by tackling more challenging content during revision lectures, and by offering more variation in questions, can support them better with assessment preparation. Additionally, they viewed that getting access to more past exam papers, practice questions, annotated lecture slides will support them better during the revision process.
The Impact
I shared the findings of this project in a 2026 BILT show-tell-talk presentation, through a poster presentation at the 2026 BILT annual conference and a workshop presentation at the 2026 Teaching Excellence workshop in the School of Economics. The study highlights how assessment design and related support can have substantive impact on student learning outcomes and their academic performance. Having detailed conversations with colleagues about the project during the School Teaching Excellence workshop we recognised how through achieving more consistency in assessment practices and related support we can enhance the academic experience of our students.
Next Steps
I will be referring to the project findings in developing assessment support in the units that I teach and will also share these findings with colleagues in discussions centred on enhancing assessment support.
Contact
Satadru Mukherjee: satadru.mukherjee@bristol.ac.uk
References:
Krattli, S., Prezioso, D., and Dollinger, M. 2023. “Addressing Inequity: Student Recommendations on how to Make Assessment More Inclusive”. Assessment for Inclusion in Higher Education. Promoting Equity and Social Justice in Assessment. Edited by Rola Ajjawi, Joanna Tai, David Boud and Trina Jorre De St Jorre. 222-230.
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