In my experience educational grievances are always worth exploring, so this moment presented an opportunity. Several students were able to contribute examples then and there from their files, some of them from units in the School of Education, and some from different disciplines. If task is intended to assess your capacity to read critically, then it shouldn't test rote memory. If it's intended to assess your application of theory, it shouldn't place too much weight on your spelling. Several students located themselves in one or other of these categories.
Comprehensive assessment attempts a profile rather than a snapshot.
It sets out to discover the pattern of a student's strengths, weaknesses and learning strategies by sampling work over a period of time and on different tasks. It deliberately uses a range of techniques, each of which will provide a different perspective on what has been learned. The students felt that university courses were particularly narrow in terms of the attributes that were valued, and that assessment focused on these almost exclusively. Explicit assessment shares the criteria for successful performance with those who are being assessed. Ideally, those assessed should have a role in developing and negotiating these criteria so that there is some sense of shared meaning amongst participants.