Its Finally Over. NOT

The exam is finally over, with the last paper came in yesterday. Guess what? The last paper was mine. I am a bit disappointed and dissatisfied with the way the exam was arranged this semester. I teach 3 code this semester, namely the Quality Management, Knowledge Management and Human Resource Management (yeah funny right, when my field is actually economics and administration, but no complaint about that).

Being the core code, which mean every tom, dick and harry in the faculty had to take this paper to graduate, the number of undergrads taking this subject is rather extensive. In fact, I have the most number of students in the faculty, which I am not complaining either, because it is better to be stressed when you have a job, rather than being stressed because you are jobless.


What put me in dismay is all the three subjects were scheduled on the last week of exam i.e. the last five days of exam. They started the exam from 29th of October right till the 18th of November. It’s very disappointing to see lecturers (senior mostly) that teach elective code examination with very minimum number of students was scheduled early so that they have time to mark their papers, just because they are seniors.

I am not saying anyone fiddled with the scheduling but the trends and patterns are there, and it is enough for me to conclude that there is a predisposition in the examination schedule.

Having only five days maximum to mark 3 codes and almost, let me see, 137, 74, 80, 22 (many), 1 lecture and 5 tutorial classes, key in the mark, and do all the reporting is somehow very tiring. And this does not include the pain and headache I had to endure reading their group and individual assignments prior to the exam.


Anyhow, since nobody cares what happen to me even if I shout until blood coming out of my eyes, I should just shut the fuck up and do my work.


Speaking about examination, and examination invigilation (oh no!, not another one of those invigilation stories), yes, another one of those invigilation stories, i would like to sum up types of students we will see in the examination hall.

Basically we would only see two types of students, the normal and the abnormal. The normal ones are those who know what to do, and the abnormal ones are those who had no idea why they are in the exam room, and you would be surprised how most cheating cases and attempted cheating was done by the brighter one. Maybe because of the pressure of the examination and the need to prove they are good got the hold of their consciences.

So this is the list of types of students (the abnormal one) I usually see in the examination room, and it can be rather enjoyable watching them although you are in reality bored like hell.

Couldn’t be bothered.
These are the normal ones. When they got their question papers, they will wait for the instruction and when the time start they will quickly scribble something on the question papers, most probably their mind map, and start writing the whole 3 hours are could not be bothered with the surrounding. They are very focus, and fast, and they write non stop. Even if a bomb was release in front of them, they would try to finish their exam first.

Thinker.
Thinkers are those students who look very decent and they like to pose, poise thinks every time the finish a sentence. They look like they are enmesh in some puzzle and trying to find the best solution for the problem. They will look at the floor, ceiling, table and bite of their pen and pencil and but still look blank.

Energizer Bunny.
These type of students cannot sit still. They have to move some part of their anatomy (hopefully and mostly their legs) and kept on flipping their exam questions and answer booklet and what ever as long as they look busy. They are the loud one. Their action actually create sound in the exam hall, from squeaking chairs and table

Drama Queen
This is very theatrical in nature. They are like thinkers; accept we can see their body movement. At one time they are slow, and out of a sudden their eyes pop and they change into an energizer bunny, and then stop and think, and their hands are moving up and down like a maestro in an orchestra.

Time conscious
Time conscious student keep on looking at the clock in the exam hall and then look at the watch on the wrist, and then look back to the clock in the exam hall just to check if the time are well aligned. And at time we can see they are trying to take a peek to the student besides them, not to copy the answer, but to look at their watch.

Sight Seeing.
These types of student are the one who will eventually fail. Hik. They don’t know why they are in the room, and on the course of the 3 hour exam, their body may be in the room, but their soul is somewhere else. Just like thinker, they will look around, and then keep looking around, smiling like crazy apes.

Emily Rose
These are the types that talk to themselves while doing their exam. If we look very carefully we can see they are doing their “OH!, and AH! And then have a private session monolog while writing something on the paper.

Sleeper
We have two types of sleeper, one who sleep in the exam hall, maybe they finish early, or they just do not know what to do, and another one, who sleep at home, thinking some malaikat would wake them up and take them flying to the examination hall. I had a few of these cases before. If they can make it in time before the first hour fled, then I will let them in (although the instruction said 30 minutes), but I cannot comprehend those who were very late. Because exam is very important to them, and the only date they need to remember in their entire university life is their examination timetable.



p/s: To all my lovely students i wish you good luck, and hopefully my mood is very stable this week while marking your papers. Oh god, how i wish i am in an island now, drinking coconut water with funny straws and mini umbrella on it.