Been a While
k, its been some time since I last blogged, sorry to all or anyone who is reading this. I've been all up with exams these last few weeks. I am now free and lovin it. I have about 6 weeks off till the next term starts....so what will I be doing? First I have some comments on how DIFFERENT the testing system is here as compared to what I'm used to.
Now, not all programs are as different as mine. For the most part, undergrads have large classes with written exams just like us. Even most other masters programs here are for the most part, identical. For some reason, however, the Masters Physics program here decided to be a bit different. So I mentioned a while back that all my exams are oral. What the heck does that mean?
My oral exams were short, sweet, and stressful. They were, on average, about 40 minutes long, and consisted of myself, the prof, and a TA. The TA says absolutely nothing, and Im still unsure as to his/her role in the process, but they seem to be essential. The prof gets to ask me whatever he wants, and then decides at the end what my mark should be. This raises many concerns from us hailing from a system that is geared to be standardized and equal across the board, and in theory, this sounds perfect, although we all know that our system does not really test how well you understand the material either. I found our NA system (at least in the Science world, which is all I know from North American post-secondary), there was so much emphasis on doing 'types' of problems. We would need to understand the general concepts, but our determinig mark rested upon whether we recognized problems and knew the method of solving them. Moreover, if we made a mistake, it was often much more costly than a simple arithmetic error, as it would destroy everything else you wrote, and would often result in a really bad mark, depending on where in the solution the error was.
With the oral exams, all that is emphasized is the big ideas, which I have always seemed to excel at (BBC personality test rated me as a Big Thinker, so I guess it fits). Also, in the odd case that an oral exam is problem based (as it was with my math exam), I liked having the prof there becasue he is not looking to see what stupid errors you make. If he sees that something small is wrong, he'll tell you right away. This is great. They only cared about whether I knew the method, the ideas, behind solving it, the details are unimportant (as they are in real life...we would have time to check our work, fix errors, and look up anything we didnt know exactly how to solve).
Im starting to ramble, for this I apologize, but I have a few weeks of thoughts built up here and am trying to get them out as clear as I know how.
So the good part of the oral exam, you dont need to memorize much, almost nothing in fact. But there is definitely a bad side to it. 1) Your mark is totally determined by how well you impressed the prof with your infinite wisdom on the topic. 2) The questions are so quick, there is no time to sit and really think about what you are going to answer. I found I would just blurt out the first thing in my head, and hope it was right. 3) Since the profs are free to ask you anything from the course, they can quickly tell where you are lacking, and have no problem continuing to see where your understanding stops...this is awful... and 4) If you do say something wrong, the profs are on your ass faster than filth on a mud wrestler.
This last point is what really got to me. Growing accustomed to having time to consider what I am going to write and how I will answer, I dont have that luxury now. I have to be totally certain of everything I say, or correct any errors as fast as possible to avoid the raping of the angry prof. This makes the event rather stressful, so good thing it is only 40 minutes.
k, this is long enough, but those are my thoughts on having an oral based examination. After having been through the Gauntlet here examination wise, I think I prefer the oral way, although there are definite disadvantages.
And as for marks, I seemed to have completely reversed my expectations for the courses, the one I thought I would smoke... didnt do so hot. The one I thought I would bomb, turns out to be my best mark. All in all Im sitting at an average of 2.2 (about a B). I'll take it!
I have more things to say about my life (much more, infact), although I will save it for another time, this is getting to be epic...
Now, not all programs are as different as mine. For the most part, undergrads have large classes with written exams just like us. Even most other masters programs here are for the most part, identical. For some reason, however, the Masters Physics program here decided to be a bit different. So I mentioned a while back that all my exams are oral. What the heck does that mean?
My oral exams were short, sweet, and stressful. They were, on average, about 40 minutes long, and consisted of myself, the prof, and a TA. The TA says absolutely nothing, and Im still unsure as to his/her role in the process, but they seem to be essential. The prof gets to ask me whatever he wants, and then decides at the end what my mark should be. This raises many concerns from us hailing from a system that is geared to be standardized and equal across the board, and in theory, this sounds perfect, although we all know that our system does not really test how well you understand the material either. I found our NA system (at least in the Science world, which is all I know from North American post-secondary), there was so much emphasis on doing 'types' of problems. We would need to understand the general concepts, but our determinig mark rested upon whether we recognized problems and knew the method of solving them. Moreover, if we made a mistake, it was often much more costly than a simple arithmetic error, as it would destroy everything else you wrote, and would often result in a really bad mark, depending on where in the solution the error was.
With the oral exams, all that is emphasized is the big ideas, which I have always seemed to excel at (BBC personality test rated me as a Big Thinker, so I guess it fits). Also, in the odd case that an oral exam is problem based (as it was with my math exam), I liked having the prof there becasue he is not looking to see what stupid errors you make. If he sees that something small is wrong, he'll tell you right away. This is great. They only cared about whether I knew the method, the ideas, behind solving it, the details are unimportant (as they are in real life...we would have time to check our work, fix errors, and look up anything we didnt know exactly how to solve).
Im starting to ramble, for this I apologize, but I have a few weeks of thoughts built up here and am trying to get them out as clear as I know how.
So the good part of the oral exam, you dont need to memorize much, almost nothing in fact. But there is definitely a bad side to it. 1) Your mark is totally determined by how well you impressed the prof with your infinite wisdom on the topic. 2) The questions are so quick, there is no time to sit and really think about what you are going to answer. I found I would just blurt out the first thing in my head, and hope it was right. 3) Since the profs are free to ask you anything from the course, they can quickly tell where you are lacking, and have no problem continuing to see where your understanding stops...this is awful... and 4) If you do say something wrong, the profs are on your ass faster than filth on a mud wrestler.
This last point is what really got to me. Growing accustomed to having time to consider what I am going to write and how I will answer, I dont have that luxury now. I have to be totally certain of everything I say, or correct any errors as fast as possible to avoid the raping of the angry prof. This makes the event rather stressful, so good thing it is only 40 minutes.
k, this is long enough, but those are my thoughts on having an oral based examination. After having been through the Gauntlet here examination wise, I think I prefer the oral way, although there are definite disadvantages.
And as for marks, I seemed to have completely reversed my expectations for the courses, the one I thought I would smoke... didnt do so hot. The one I thought I would bomb, turns out to be my best mark. All in all Im sitting at an average of 2.2 (about a B). I'll take it!
I have more things to say about my life (much more, infact), although I will save it for another time, this is getting to be epic...
posted by SunPowered at
5:14 PM
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