The English Faculty has announced changes to exam regulations that will stop allowing note sheets in exams, prompting outcry from students.

While the change will not impact students currently in third-year, those in the first and second years of English tripos will not be allowed to take note sheets into their exams going forward, including in their exams this Easter.

An email seen by Varsity from the English Faculty to all English undergraduates earlier this month (7/11) informed students of the change. It claimed that the reliance on note sheets was limiting students’ ability to engage sufficiently with their exam, stating note sheets were “hampering students from attending to and thinking with the terms of the question”.

The email additionally highlighted that the introduction of note sheets was only intended as a temporary measure post-COVID-19 to balance the impact of the pandemic on students who lacked a closed-book exam experience.

The current note sheet allows students to bring up to 1,000 words in revision notes into Easter term exams. Students often fill these with textual quotes, enabling them to prioritise exam technique over quote memorisation when revising.

The decision to ban note sheets has prompted widespread outcry among English students, with concerns that the exams will become a “memorisation game”.

A second-year English student told Varsity: “Removing notes and sheets completely undermines the point of my degree […] Coming from someone with exam adjustments, my hope was placed in the department to support, not to disadvantage. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement.”

They continued: “English should NOT be a memorisation game.”

Alternatively, another student recognised that “creating the note sheet was perhaps taking up too much of students’ time”.

Nevertheless, they suggested the new change was concerning, citing worries about the increased revision workload the change would entail. They stated, “the pressure of memorising primary quotations for every paper (especially in Middle English) is something I’m extremely worried about now”.

Another student expressed concerns to Varsity about potential confusion across the department following the change, stating: “We cannot ask older students for advice and our DoS’s don’t quite know what to expect or how to advise us either.”

A spokesperson for the Faculty of English told Varsity: “After careful discussion, examiners agreed that notesheets were creating unintended confusion about what our exams aim to assess, and that not using notesheets would better support students in showing their knowledge and thinking rather than placing undue emphasis on extensive quotation.

“The means of assessment remain the same. Because second-years have always prepared for exams without notesheets, the change begins with their cohort, while third-years continue under the system they used last year. Any students who are concerned should speak to their DoS,” they continued.