I'm completely at a loss as to how any of us are supposed to be able to answer these essay questions.
1. "There are estimated to be some 400 000 people working in computing in the United Kingdom yet the membership of the BCS is only in the region of 10% of this figure. What influence can an institution with such small membership have on the industry?"
2. "The computing profession is in danger of losing the respect of the public, which associates it with apparent fiascoes. Discuss, with reference to at least two incidents reported in the press which relate to failures of computer systems or the people who created them."
3. "Government has an important role to play in bringing the benefits of digital technology to the community. Discuss with particular reference to data storage, processing and use."
I've got several problems with these questions, and everyone I've spoken to has had similar thoughts...
Firstly, these are the kind of essay questions that I doubt would look out of place in a junior honours sociology paper. They're complex and demand lengthy and rigorously sourced answers for which I doubt many people (including me) are educated enough in the answering of sociological essays enough to write properly.
Secondly, I don't know about others, but I have two essays for other subjects due in the next couple of weeks together with the usual CS1P work - but mostly, a week is not sufficient notice to write a "five page" essay (no word limit/range was specified for some reason) that can answer these questions properly.
Thirdly, there appear to be problems with the questions themselves. The BCS has about 50% more members than the question claims and of those 400k people in computing, many are in low paid routine positions; the BCS serves to promote professionalism in computing. Question 2 disagrees with the BCS website, the information published by the body which knows how many members it has.
Fourthly, and this is my main gripe, we've had no teaching on these issues whatsoever. Was the subject of the cancelled lecture 4b the BCS or the government's role in IT? Regarding question 2, these are important and difficult issues about organisational influence upon industry, about their membership, how can we write an essay on this topic without at least some knowledge of British economics and society, without a background in studying organisational behaviour or having any tuition of its type whatsoever?
Basically, I don't understand how we can be expected to answer these questions without some major guesswork, lengthy personal rambling or lots of unsourced claims. Do others have similar thoughts, or am I just over-reacting to some tough essay questions?