Yes, Academic Standards Are Slipping…

Yes, Academic Standards Are Slipping…

The University of Auckland magazine recently published a copy of the university’s 1918 final exam in public international law.  I have only the vaguest recollection of the exam I took, but I it wasn’t this hard.  (Exhibit A: I didn’t fail.)  Have academic standards really declined so precipitously?

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How would you fare, readers?

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easy
easy

Easy as piss. This is not significantly more ‘difficult’ than IL exams today.

M. Gross
M. Gross

Most of the answers would have changed significantly since that exam was printed.

Iain B. Naylor
Iain B. Naylor

I suppose they would have been taught these specific things, so would have been easier for them. We look at this with our contemporary minds in a system of international law which is more formalised, and therefore this seems alien to us – and thus harder.

I’d imagine that people in ninety years’ time will look at our exam pieces and think “wow, that looks tough!” Why? Because international law will have changed so much in that time!