Faculty of Oriental Studies - University of Oxford



Faculty of Oriental Studies

Setting conventions for the MPhil Qualifying Examination 2017

MODERN SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES

The formal procedures determining the conduct of examinations are established and enforced by the University Proctors. These conventions are a guide to the examiners and candidates but the regulations set out in the Examination Regulations have precedence. The examiners are nominated by the Nominating Committee in the Faculty and those nominations are submitted for approval by the Vice-Chancellor and the Proctors.

1. The Examination Schools website () gives information on the provisional start date of the examination. The date, time and location of individual papers will be published not less than 5 weeks before the start of the first examination. For the order of papers in the examination itself, please refer to the Examination timetable. Academic dress must be worn for all parts of the examination including the viva if applicable.

2. In order to maintain the anonymity of the examination, candidates are instructed to write their candidate number, not their names or Bodleian card number, on their scripts and submitted works. Candidate numbers can be obtained from the Student Self-Service.

All submitted works should be typed or word- processed in double spacing and should conform to the standards of academic presentation prescribed in the "Guidelines for writers of Theses".

3. All submitted works (thesis, take-home essays etc.) have to be securely held together (not paper clips) with a cover sheet stating the degree, paper title, term and year of submission, your candidate number and word count. Theses have to be securely bound. Two copies of the works must be submitted to the Examination Schools unless otherwise stated. A declaration form, in a sealed envelope, should be included with the two copies of the submitted works in a larger envelope.  The larger envelope should have your candidate number at the front and addressed to Chair of Examiners, (name of degree), Examination Schools, High Street.  The Chairman of Examinations in Oriental Studies would like to advise candidates to obtain a signed receipt from the Clerk of Exam Schools for their submitted work (e.g. if you are submitting a thesis or take-home essays). Remember to write your candidate number and not your name on all submitted work.

4. As well as two hard copies of the thesis, candidates must also submit a copy of their thesis on a CD or memory stick in PDF format.

5. When submission of written work is required, the penalty posed in case of late submission without the prior permission of the Proctors will range from outright failure of the submitted work (i.e. where it is considered that the extra time has given unfair advantage to the candidate and thus may be equated with cheating) to a percentage reduction in the mark awarded, as deemed appropriate by the examiners. Please refer to the Examination Convention.

6. Candidates should note that if they have any complaints or queries concerning the examination process, including results, these should be directed in the first instance to their colleges and not to the examiners or any member of the teaching staff.

7. Candidates may be examined by viva voce (oral examination) and so candidates should be prepared to travel to Oxford up until the final examiners’ meeting (7 July 2017).

General

The Qualifying Examination consists of two parts. Part 1 will be an examination in Hindi or the substitute Core Language. Part 2 will be a three-hour general paper on the History and Culture of South Asia.

Each of these two parts carries 50% of marks for the paper as a whole. Candidates must pass both parts to pass the Qualifying Examination. The pass mark for the Qualifying Examination is 50%.

Part 1: Core Language - Hindi

There will be a three-hour paper in Hindi translation, comprehension and composition.

This paper will consist of 3 parts, all of which must be attempted. Part 1 will attract 20% of the overall marks for this paper. Parts 2 and 3 will attract 40% each.

Part 1 will be two seen passages in Hindi to be translated into English. There will be no choice of question. Texts will be chosen from Snell and Weightman: Teach Yourself Complete Hindi as well as from texts read in the class and listed on Weblearn.

Part 2 will be two unseen passages in Hindi. The first is to be translated into English and the second passage is to be summarised in Hindi in 100-125 words. There will be no choice of question.

Part 3 will be a composition in Hindi of approximately 300 words. There will be a choice of topic, one from three topics given.

The use of a dictionary is not permitted.

Part 1: Core Language – Advanced Hindi

This three-hour paper consists of three parts, all of which must be attempted.

Part 1: Seen translation from Hindi. Candidates will be required to translate two seen passages of Hindi into English (25% each).

Part 2: Unseen translation from Hindi. (25%). Candidates will be required to translate an unseen passage of Hindi into English.

Part 3: Composition in Hindi (25%). Candidates will be required to write an essay in Hindi commenting on a text or comparing a pair of texts. The essay should be 400-500 words.

The use of a dictionary is not permitted.

Part 1: Core Language – Advanced Hindi and Urdu

This three-hour paper consists of four parts, all of which must be attempted.

Part 1: Translation from Hindi (25%). Candidates will be required to translate a seen passage of Hindi into English.

Part 2: Translation from Urdu (25%). Candidates will be required to translate a seen passage of Urdu into English.

Part 3: Composition in Urdu (20%). Candidates will be required to prepare an Urdu resumé of an unseen Hindi text in 200-250 words.

Part 4: Composition in Hindi (30%). Candidates will be required to write an essay in Hindi commenting on a text or comparing a pair of texts. The essay should be 300-400 words.

The use of a dictionary is not permitted.

Part 2: General Paper: The History and Culture of South Asia

The examination will consist of a single three-hour paper on topics in the History and Culture of South Asia that all candidates have been required to study in the first and second terms from the commencement of the course. Candidates will be required to answer three questions from a total of about 16. For the purposes of marking, all three questions attempted will be weighted equally.

Chair of Examiners: Professor Jan Joosten

Examiners: Professor Polly O’Hanlon; Professor Imre Bangha; Professor Francesca Orsini (SOAS); Dr David Washbrook (Cambridge);

Candidates must not under any circumstances contact examiners directly.

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