Yes, it's exam time again - and one has to devise ways of amusing oneself while standing in a large lecturing facility, watching 80-odd industrous young persons scribble frantically away, in yet another largely pointless exercise in more or less accurate regurgitation.
So this year, as it was cold, and because we HAVE to keep a toilet visit register, I was able to keep a tally of who went when (and where: there is a column for "Stall Number"! I kid you not) - which resulted in these, shared via Twitter with the multiverse from the very bowels of the examing venue.
Exam haiku the first: inside the first hour
Examinations!
It's cold; girls have small bladders.
Laura handles this!Exam haiku the second: second hour and counting
Boys hold it in well.
Grimly, legs crossing, they write.
Will this ever end??Exam haiku the third: coming up to the end
Not true! Boys pee more.
Constant stream [heh, heh] of young men go.
Women sit smugly.
So it goes...or rather, they went. B-) Final score: Men 5, Women 4.
16/11/2009, 16:06
We stand in awe of the ramblings of a Rated Researcher's mind ;-) I recall, as a teacher, enjoying competition with the science master during Matric invigilation. We used to see how many words we could make up using the the names from the honours boards. Over the years we built up quite a score. How examinations waste time and reduce minds to the lowest common denominator...
16/11/2009, 17:11
Ah, but we take other marking in...although it now says very distinctly in the "Instructions for Invigilators", that said worthies are not to READ during the exam...!
Be damned to that, I say: when they bring back sandwiches and real cups for the teas, I'll think about it. Meantime, it's basically a police job, and if they want it done properly, they should provide security guards. Making people put hats on backwards, for the love of Crom, in case they have things written on the bill!!
18/11/2009, 19:38
Exams test exam technique - not exactly the kind of lifeskill a "world class" university lists among its (aspirational?) criteria for "graduateness", one would hope!
But I suppose the alternatives are simply too expensive. Efficacy, effectiveness or fitness to purpose are irrelevant when beancounters get involved in decision-making!
18/11/2009, 20:04
Yes, well, I have made my feelings on exams clear several times in this forum...which is to say, they are a tedious waste of everybody's time, and reward regurgiation over knowledge and skill almost every time.
And of course, Senate debated NEW exam proposals today - which will bureaucratise the process even further. And I couldn't be here to barrack...damn!!!
20/11/2009, 16:20
Amazes me, a twitter fan, the extend to which twitter is now able to amuse us! I would have had a good chuckle following these tweets, even though I wasnt invigilating. It did brign back memories of my times writing exams...
22/11/2009, 22:49
Ah, to die, to sleep...to sleep, perchance to dream...of exams! Ah, there's an ill that students are heir to - whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous lack of scholarship, or to take arms against academia, and end it??
Answer is "yes", BTW....