The Summative Assessment Diet: How We Assess in Mathematics Degrees

Much research and many papers on mathematics pedagogy have discussed assessment and, in particular, the need to provide a varied diet of methods by which students are assessed for the award of their degree. In this article, we explore the mix of assessment methods provided across a range of UK university mathematics departments. We examine the relationship between the mix of assessment methods and type of institution and between the type of assessment and the mathematical topic. We found that closed book exam is still the most common assessment method in undergraduate mathematics, with some new assessment methods, such as projects and presentations, now used in most UK institutions.