germany education
Can you take action against a miserable pass-rate of an exam?
<p>At my university (germany) recently this happend.</p>
<p>The first exam had a failure-rate of 58% (265 paticipants), after the bound to pass was lowered.
The second exam had a failure-rate of 93% (111 paticipants).</p>
<p>Obviously the exam was in both cases to hard, and in my opinion this is unfair against everyone who took the exam.</p>
<p>I want to ask, if you can take an action against such results.
I have never witnessed so far an exam where the pass-rate was below 50%, and 93% not passing is just absurd.</p>
<p>Can something be done?</p>

<p><strong>No</strong>, the result of an exam is <em>not actionable</em>.
The court could only make a decision whether <em>legal</em> proceedings were met.
However, the grader’s decision whether a particular answer (and thus the overall exam’s result) was correct or incorrect is <em>not</em> legal in nature.
There is no German law saying “1 + 1 = 2”.
Therefore, the court could not make a ruling on that, nor is it really their task to do so.
Similarly, it is not the court’s (or the legal system’s) responsibility to ensure a certain share of students pass the exam.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] 93% not passing is just absurd.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Welcome to Germany.
Such exams did and do exist.
I refer you to the local student’s body (specifically the <em>Fachschaft</em>).
They will advocate for (future) students, especially if there are “design flaws” with the class to be found.
Unfortunately, if it’s the “examiner’s fault”, there are no other options than finding an <em>amicable</em> solution.
Sometimes, students <em>change</em> universities just to pass a certain module.</p>
