Formal Petition Regarding the STA1506 (Basic Statistics) Examination Written on 14 October 2025
PETITION TO THE DEPARTMENT OF DECISION SCIENCES REGARDING THE STA1506 EXAMINATION
TO: The Head of Department, Department of Decision Sciences, University of South Africa (Unisa)
DATE: October 14, 2025
SUBJECT: Formal Petition Regarding the STA1506 (Basic Statistics) Examination Written on 14 October 2025
We, the undersigned students who participated in the STA1506 (Basic Statistics) examination on Tuesday, 14 October 2025, respectfully submit this petition for your urgent consideration and review.
We acknowledge the necessity of online examinations and the methods employed to ensure academic integrity. However, we wish to raise a serious concern regarding the structure and allocated time for the aforementioned examination, which we believe significantly disadvantaged students and did not allow for a fair assessment of our statistical knowledge and skills.
The core concern is as follows:
The examination required students to simultaneously work with the exam question document and a separate Microsoft excel, Microsoft Word document for typing out our detailed answers, including steps, calculations, and interpretations. Furthermore, the total time allocated for this paper was two (2) hours.
Our reasons for viewing this allocation as unfair are as follows:
Technical and Software Management: The need to constantly switch between the exam paper (often a PDF or similar document) and the Word document to type out answers consumed valuable time. This process is inherently slower than writing on paper, where the question and answer space are typically visible at the same time. This constant switching added an unnecessary layer of cognitive load and technical difficulty.
Formatting and Equation Entry: The subject of Basic Statistics requires the clear presentation of formulas, symbols, and mathematical notation (e.g., x , σ, ∑, fractions, square roots). Typing these accurately into a Word document (using the Equation Editor or similar features) is a time-consuming process that goes far beyond simply typing prose. This technical requirement was a major time sink.
Nature of the Subject: Statistics requires detailed, step-by-step calculations, a clear statement of the null and alternative hypotheses, showing the test statistic calculation, determining p-values or critical values, and providing a final, reasoned interpretation in context. These comprehensive requirements necessitate significant writing and typing time, beyond just the calculation time.
Our Proposed Resolution:
We believe that an examination requiring simultaneous document management and extensive, complex mathematical typing in a Word document, coupled with detailed written interpretations, necessitates a more realistic time allocation.
We, therefore, formally petition the Department to review the time constraint and, had the paper been administered in a conventional setting without the additional burden of typing and document management, it would typically have been allocated three (3) hours.
We respectfully request that the Department consider the following actions:
Review the allocated time for the STA1506 exam written on 14 October 2025 in light of the specific technological requirements.
Apply a fair scaling or adjustment to the results of the examination to mitigate the disadvantage caused by the severe time constraint.
Implement a change in future online examinations for STA1506, allocating a minimum of three (3) hours for papers of similar length and complexity that require students to type detailed, formula-heavy answers in a Word document.
We trust that the Department will consider our petition and take necessary steps to ensure that our performance in the STA1506 examination is assessed fairly, reflecting our actual competence in Basic Statistics rather than our typing speed or technical proficiency in document management.
Thank you for your time and consideration of this urgent matter.
Respectfully submitted,
Lungile Mabuza Contact the author of the petition