I gave my first final exam at UB today. It was quite the experience. I had to turn in my final about a month ago for my colleagues to review it and approve it. I was chagrined, they made me make some changes.
Today I gave one of those two exams, and that was a bit different too. Here are some highlights:
But, that's the way they do it here.
It's not better worse, necessarily, it is just different. It's nice to use our judgement appropriately, but sometimes it is better to just suspend judgement for a while.
Today I gave one of those two exams, and that was a bit different too. Here are some highlights:
- We met in a wholly different room that was large enough for two empty seats between examinees
- The final exam was delivered by an administrator who placed them on the desks where she wanted people to sit.
- The students had to sign a little form giving all their personal particulars.
- They had 10 min to read the exam before they could start writing.
- An "invigilator" watched them throughout the exam to ensure no monkey business (in Africa that's a clever pun)
- They wrote their exams in "blue books" which were really yellow.
- Time was called exactly at 2 hours. I wouldn't be so mean.
But, that's the way they do it here.
It's not better worse, necessarily, it is just different. It's nice to use our judgement appropriately, but sometimes it is better to just suspend judgement for a while.
During an elder meeting once, you said that academic policies were often created in response to some event. I wonder what the story is behind some of their unique policies (e.g., 10 minutes to read it, the demographic form, etc.). Probably some interesting monkey business.
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