Aitch Wrote:I have been monitoring this website for a significant period and must say that I am not satisifed with the service delivered. The IRSE say students must present themselve proffessionally and this should be true of this facility as well. Several times when I had attempted to access the website it has been complete off-air unavailable sometimes for hours at a time; this is not what we have a right to expect.
Also the time it takes to respond to students queries is unacceptible. Internet response should be measured in hours not days and therefore a 24hour deadline for an inital response must be observed in future, with at least 80% achieved within 12hours. A full anser to the issue raised should be available within 48 hours maximum.
Don’t give comments on an attempt but just give the right answers straight off. The last 5 year past papers for all modules should be here and each question have a hyperlink response to model answer so that students can prepare for exam. There needs to be better index so easier to find relevant stuff.
Mod 3 mock exam is the only one yet published and even that has no answers. When are the others going to appear? Can we be sure that all the questions in the mock will be in the paper or is it only 3 that are guaranteed so forcing people to prepare for them all? It says not officially connected to IRSE or Exam Committee so what gaurantee is there that these are even the correct questions?
In summary it falls well short of meeting its objective and more effort should be expended to meet the needs of students
I am sorry that you feel this way, but bear in mind a couple of things.
This is not a service offered by the IRSE, it, like most internet forum sites was set up by some volunteers. Its intention is to give wider access to some who cannot make it to a study goup. As such, it operates somewhat like a study group. It is not a teaching resource. People who come to my study group (and I am quite sure other study group leaders work the same way) having done no work will get little out.
Those posting are encouraged to let the users know what their field of expertise is so that the users can have the ability to decide on whether the angle of approach for the comments is relevant for them (ie a UK mainline expert commenting on a principles aspect is not going to be relevant for Hing Kong metro). As such, the mock exam that Peter W has kindly offered is based on his field of expertise. There is no warranty that what he covers in that will come up. I would like a broader spectrum of experts so that the forum can be all encompassing, but as all those involved are volunteers, I cannot force anyone to take part. The flip side to this is that if there are experts in a given field prepared to contribute, why deny those who are working in that field access to good information.
See the related post commenting about "right answers".
There are no service level agreements. The volunteers vounteer because they want to help people, not because they have to. They look when they can and respond after suitable consideration of information posted.
The IRSE website links to this site because it is a resource to help, not a panacea for magical learning by osmosis. Similarly, this does not (and I don't think the IRSE beleive for one minute that it does) absolve them from providing resouces as they see fit.
As for the technicallity of the webiste being off line. There is a simple reason for this. It is funded out of my pocket and hence I have chosen a budget hosting package. It, like the span of participation, is not perfect. If there is a web expert who would like to help, please contact me.
The site is here as seen. If you don't think it adds value to you, you are welcome to pursue other avenues. If you want comments on attemps to papers or guidance on where to find information to build your background knowledge, post here. Above all, do not expect a set of model answers to appear.
Peter