One of the most boring things to do as a teacher is invigilation for a Board Exam. It is like a slow torture cell, but that experience is reserved for another post. Yes it deserves an entire blog post dedicated to itself. We also have to invigilate school exams and that is a different kind of experience. Our school made sure that the three hour exam was broken into smaller sessions of an hour or hour and half for each teacher to do invigilation duty. That's pretty bearable provided you find a way to entertain yourself. For me, I found it fascinating to simply observe the students as they write the exam. Over four years of teaching I realised that there are some "types" of students that a recurring occurrence in each batch, so I thought I would introduce you to some of them.
1) The Late Lateefs- These are the one who walk in late even for an exam. They are just chilled out and well they know they are late but what could they do, traffic didn't reduce just because they had an exam. And getting up early? That was totally not a possibility after pulling an all nighter. They would be the last student to enter the exam hall, and mostly would have to be reminded to get their pencil case from their bag before entering the hall. Mostly they don't care about how they look and walk in like a ragamuffin.
2) The Transfixed- There is always this one student that would just stare into space for a sufficient amount of time before putting pen to paper. It usually wasn't a one time occurrence during the exam. At some point during the exam they would just stop writing and stare. Now if this person was staring directly at you, it is really creepy. I am never sure of how to react, so I just get up and walk away. The thing is, they aren't actually staring AT you, but more like THROUGH you. In some cases their eyes follow you as you walk around and have such a blankness that it makes you panic about whether they know anything or not. Then they will suddenly put their head down and write with such vigour it makes you wonder if the answer was written on you or projected somewhere behind you.
3) The Prim and Proper- I don't mean to be a sexist, but this is usually a girl. Sometimes more than one, but definitely atleast one. Its always so easy to identify her. She will have a pencil case with two backup pens, pencils, an eraser, sharpener, scale and sometimes colour pens or pencils depending on the subject. Even if during exam time, she will come neatly dressed, hair pinned away from her face, and turn up early, not just to school but also enter the hall before any teacher tells her to. She will arrange her pencil case and exam pad neatly, set down her water bottle next to her and then sit silently and pray.
4) The Crammer- This one is also The Procrastinator. You will see him/her with notes/ textbook in their hand right until the teacher says, "get in and sit down or you will lose reading time". Once inside, their lips will keep muttering something, or they will keep writing in the air. It is their way to trying to recall the last few points that they have crammed.
5) The Hair Fixers- These are definitely the funniest to observe. Their hand never leaves their hair. Like the keratin is providing all the information needed to write and the answers are flowing out of their brain cells, through hair, through their fingers down to the other arm that is busy writing. It is always easy to make out when they don't know an answer because their hand will automatically mess up their hair. Once they have it figured it out, they will start to set their hair neatly again.
There are a few more but these are the most common. I'm sure after reading this some of my students will be identifying themselves with this. I am not talking about any one of you in particular, but hey if the cap fits, go ahead and wear it.
1) The Late Lateefs- These are the one who walk in late even for an exam. They are just chilled out and well they know they are late but what could they do, traffic didn't reduce just because they had an exam. And getting up early? That was totally not a possibility after pulling an all nighter. They would be the last student to enter the exam hall, and mostly would have to be reminded to get their pencil case from their bag before entering the hall. Mostly they don't care about how they look and walk in like a ragamuffin.
2) The Transfixed- There is always this one student that would just stare into space for a sufficient amount of time before putting pen to paper. It usually wasn't a one time occurrence during the exam. At some point during the exam they would just stop writing and stare. Now if this person was staring directly at you, it is really creepy. I am never sure of how to react, so I just get up and walk away. The thing is, they aren't actually staring AT you, but more like THROUGH you. In some cases their eyes follow you as you walk around and have such a blankness that it makes you panic about whether they know anything or not. Then they will suddenly put their head down and write with such vigour it makes you wonder if the answer was written on you or projected somewhere behind you.
3) The Prim and Proper- I don't mean to be a sexist, but this is usually a girl. Sometimes more than one, but definitely atleast one. Its always so easy to identify her. She will have a pencil case with two backup pens, pencils, an eraser, sharpener, scale and sometimes colour pens or pencils depending on the subject. Even if during exam time, she will come neatly dressed, hair pinned away from her face, and turn up early, not just to school but also enter the hall before any teacher tells her to. She will arrange her pencil case and exam pad neatly, set down her water bottle next to her and then sit silently and pray.
4) The Crammer- This one is also The Procrastinator. You will see him/her with notes/ textbook in their hand right until the teacher says, "get in and sit down or you will lose reading time". Once inside, their lips will keep muttering something, or they will keep writing in the air. It is their way to trying to recall the last few points that they have crammed.
5) The Hair Fixers- These are definitely the funniest to observe. Their hand never leaves their hair. Like the keratin is providing all the information needed to write and the answers are flowing out of their brain cells, through hair, through their fingers down to the other arm that is busy writing. It is always easy to make out when they don't know an answer because their hand will automatically mess up their hair. Once they have it figured it out, they will start to set their hair neatly again.
There are a few more but these are the most common. I'm sure after reading this some of my students will be identifying themselves with this. I am not talking about any one of you in particular, but hey if the cap fits, go ahead and wear it.
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