Today I write a post not as a teacher but as a student.
I wrote an entrance exam recently and it was quite an experience. For starters, studying for an exam after 5 years is a task. Not just a task but a huge mountainous task (is mountainous even a word? It didn't get underlined in red, so I will assume it is and move on). It took a lot of will power from my side, and nagging from my parents to get me to sit and study for an exam again. My students, rather ex students, took great pleasure in telling me "go and study and stop texting", or asking me " Ma'am how is your preparations going on?". Some took it one step further and said "Ha now you know how we felt!". Somehow they managed to forget that I have written exams before, and then eventually became a teacher :P However, I digress.
The exam I wrote was very different from previous entrance exams. For starters, there were two blocks on which the examination was conducted. If that wasn't enough of a confusion, there were no roll numbers written on the desks in the hall. Every person who walked into the classroom looked around in sheer confusion and desperately checking each desk for their roll number. It was a free-for-all, sit-where-you-please type of seating. That has never happened to me before.
The Invigilator, dressed in a floral shirt and pants to match the shirt, walked in around 2pm in slow motion, looked around and then opened the box containing the question papers. After this he decided to ask us, "are you all writing the Biology exam?". (good time to check dude, after we sit in the hall and the exam is due to start)."What time is your exam supposed to start?"- that was the next question that sent a ripple of shock around the room and had everyone looking at everyone else. What kind of invigilator was this??
The Invigilator then took a good 20 minutes to read the entire question paper and then instructions before he handed out the papers to us.
After handing out answer sheets, he decides to re read the instructions on how to fill the answer sheet and successfully confuses even the clear ones.
Here are the instructions (I am quoting only the ones that confused him)
3. Fill the details such as name, address etc in pen on the reverse of the answer sheet
7. (iii) Fill in the reference code and the answers in pencil.
I still can't figure out how that can be confusing, but oh well, maybe his mass of hair was stopping his ears from hearing what we were trying to tell him. (he had a long pony tail that would have made my sister envious. It was definitely longer than hers)
After this he walked around checking our hall tickets and handing out the question papers. As he did this, he took a nice long good look at our faces and the terribly printed photos on our hall tickets. I am sure he was just trying to find 6 points of difference between the real person and the printed person. By the time he finished this process it was 2.40pm. (Writing time was supposed to start at 2.30pm). Once he had distributed all the papers, he says, "Start the papers when you want. Relax and write slowly." Eh... what?
The next shocker was the fact that The Invigilator just walked out of the room just as soon as everyone had started writing, for a good 10 minutes. Ummm.. I am sorry, was this not an examination hall?? Okay focus on your paper Krupa. Not like anyone would copy. There is no concept of sharing is caring in a PhD entrance exam.
I then put my head down and started working out rate of reaction questions, while silently thanking God that I was a chemistry teacher. The next time I looked up (which was after 10 minutes and two questions later), The Invigilator is busy peeling an orange, removing the fibres and eating it in a super slowly (I think he may have been counting 32 times in his head). He did this at a steady pace for the next 20 minutes (and no I didn't spend the next 20 minutes staring at him eat an orange. I just kept looking up every time I didn't get a question).
The classroom was really silent, just like any examination hall when suddenly we all hear a loud whisper, "I am in an exam.", we look up to see The Invigilator on his cell phone. 10 minutes later he walked out yet again.
In the middle of all this, the big clock on the wall wasn't working and The Invigilator had to climb up on a chair, get the clock down and reset it. Talk about disturbances and distractions.
Despite all this, I managed to sit through a a two hour exam for one hour and forty minutes before I decided that I had had enough of staring at wavelength questions that were simply not meant for a non-physics brain to answer. I got up, submitted my answer script and walked out. End of story.
Well that is one exam done. One more to go. It was an experience and hey, The Invigilator, definitely one-of-a-type kind of guy.
Now that this is out of my system, I will go study.
krupa
I wrote an entrance exam recently and it was quite an experience. For starters, studying for an exam after 5 years is a task. Not just a task but a huge mountainous task (is mountainous even a word? It didn't get underlined in red, so I will assume it is and move on). It took a lot of will power from my side, and nagging from my parents to get me to sit and study for an exam again. My students, rather ex students, took great pleasure in telling me "go and study and stop texting", or asking me " Ma'am how is your preparations going on?". Some took it one step further and said "Ha now you know how we felt!". Somehow they managed to forget that I have written exams before, and then eventually became a teacher :P However, I digress.
The exam I wrote was very different from previous entrance exams. For starters, there were two blocks on which the examination was conducted. If that wasn't enough of a confusion, there were no roll numbers written on the desks in the hall. Every person who walked into the classroom looked around in sheer confusion and desperately checking each desk for their roll number. It was a free-for-all, sit-where-you-please type of seating. That has never happened to me before.
The Invigilator, dressed in a floral shirt and pants to match the shirt, walked in around 2pm in slow motion, looked around and then opened the box containing the question papers. After this he decided to ask us, "are you all writing the Biology exam?". (good time to check dude, after we sit in the hall and the exam is due to start)."What time is your exam supposed to start?"- that was the next question that sent a ripple of shock around the room and had everyone looking at everyone else. What kind of invigilator was this??
The Invigilator then took a good 20 minutes to read the entire question paper and then instructions before he handed out the papers to us.
After handing out answer sheets, he decides to re read the instructions on how to fill the answer sheet and successfully confuses even the clear ones.
Here are the instructions (I am quoting only the ones that confused him)
3. Fill the details such as name, address etc in pen on the reverse of the answer sheet
7. (iii) Fill in the reference code and the answers in pencil.
I still can't figure out how that can be confusing, but oh well, maybe his mass of hair was stopping his ears from hearing what we were trying to tell him. (he had a long pony tail that would have made my sister envious. It was definitely longer than hers)
After this he walked around checking our hall tickets and handing out the question papers. As he did this, he took a nice long good look at our faces and the terribly printed photos on our hall tickets. I am sure he was just trying to find 6 points of difference between the real person and the printed person. By the time he finished this process it was 2.40pm. (Writing time was supposed to start at 2.30pm). Once he had distributed all the papers, he says, "Start the papers when you want. Relax and write slowly." Eh... what?
The next shocker was the fact that The Invigilator just walked out of the room just as soon as everyone had started writing, for a good 10 minutes. Ummm.. I am sorry, was this not an examination hall?? Okay focus on your paper Krupa. Not like anyone would copy. There is no concept of sharing is caring in a PhD entrance exam.
I then put my head down and started working out rate of reaction questions, while silently thanking God that I was a chemistry teacher. The next time I looked up (which was after 10 minutes and two questions later), The Invigilator is busy peeling an orange, removing the fibres and eating it in a super slowly (I think he may have been counting 32 times in his head). He did this at a steady pace for the next 20 minutes (and no I didn't spend the next 20 minutes staring at him eat an orange. I just kept looking up every time I didn't get a question).
The classroom was really silent, just like any examination hall when suddenly we all hear a loud whisper, "I am in an exam.", we look up to see The Invigilator on his cell phone. 10 minutes later he walked out yet again.
In the middle of all this, the big clock on the wall wasn't working and The Invigilator had to climb up on a chair, get the clock down and reset it. Talk about disturbances and distractions.
Despite all this, I managed to sit through a a two hour exam for one hour and forty minutes before I decided that I had had enough of staring at wavelength questions that were simply not meant for a non-physics brain to answer. I got up, submitted my answer script and walked out. End of story.
Well that is one exam done. One more to go. It was an experience and hey, The Invigilator, definitely one-of-a-type kind of guy.
Now that this is out of my system, I will go study.
krupa
2 comments:
ha ha ha... such a fun post... never encountered an invigilator like this..btw how you feel about the exam? do you think it really gives work for our brain? I felt like we have to mug up everything and just find the difference in placement of words and choose the right answer accordingly :P
Thanks Sindhu..
Well there is a lot that can revamped with respect to our education system. But these particular entrances are all about application. No doubt in that
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