…and you may now start writing

Before the fun starts….

Did my turn in the exam hall today. Something to do with micro-Biology. I’m glad I didn’t have to answer the questions, although the students there seemed to find plenty to write about. One candidate was very careful about erasing things that they thought were wrong. They must have gone through about a pen’s worth of ink crossing things out. A tip, never do this. Just put a single line through the text so that it is still readable. I’ve been known to give marks for crossed out stuff as long as it leaves me with the impression that the candidate knows something about the subject. If I can’t read what you have put then you have no chance of getting any credit for it.

I had this plan to turn up with a bunch of examiners, one dressed as an American  Indian, another as a construction worker, a third as a motorbike cop and so on… When someone asked who we were I could have said “Oh, we’re the ‘Invigilation People’”.

Comments

[Daniel Endersby]

The Invigilation People would certainly make all my dreams come true and put my mind at ease about the exam.

[wendy]

Oh! Are the students still required to write, with pens, on paper for exams? do they have special handwriting calsses, exercises, as warm up in the run up? I can't imagine there's much call for handwriting in their everyday life! I've got some exams next week, and its going to be a novel experience for me!

[Rob]

Yep. We have two hour exams on many of our modules. We think it is actually a good idea to get people to write for a while with pens and paper, you never know when you might need to do this in real life. I've just been through all the exam scripts and most students have made a good job of producting handwritten answers, which is nice.