Most university departments will have some mechanism for moderating the papers students will sit. With finals papers, this will almost certainly involve review by an internal team or committee, followed by comments from the External Examiner. With first- and second-year exams, this process may be restricted to internal review. Regardless of the procedure, the following points are what you should be considering as part of this process (the points inevitably duplicate most of the ones that setters of exams should be asking themselves):

• Does the exam adequately cover the module learning outcomes, in particular the range of skills involved in the course?
• Are the texts and tasks of a suitable level of difficulty?
• Are the timings realistic?
• Is there any duplication or overlap between topics, skills or tasks across the range of exam components (writing, speaking, reading, etc)?
• Are all questions clearly laid out and are all instructions appropriately worded?
• Is the allocation of marks to different questions and components appropriate?
• Is there a mark scheme?
• Does it include a wide enough range of possible alternative student responses?