How did I conduct my exams?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

This is where a series of articles about my work in the academic environment begins. From it you will understand why I completed it.

I worked as a university teacher for 11 years. Yes, don’t look that at the time of this writing I’m only 32 years old, I really taught there from 20 years old, there were reasons and abilities for that. It even happened that I took an exam from people who were one year "older" than me: I was in the fifth year, and they were in the sixth, went to my own special course. By the end of my student days, I already had a good teaching experience and two textbooks with a total volume of about 350 pages with the stamp of the Ministry of Education (not every professor had this). Then graduate school, an excellent candidate, … and the failure of my academic scientific career. No, no, I'm only glad about it, but that's another story. And today I will tell you about how I conducted the exams, and also touch on the topic of teaching.

We have a rumor that there is no worse teacher than a young graduate student. This is due to the fact that inexperienced young men and women begin to make too high demands on students, often fill up, as it were, in revenge for their recent difficult past or for self-affirmation. Professors in this sense are easier, they are bored of sitting on exams, they are already fed up with everything and want to dump as soon as possible, and therefore it is easier for them to pass the subject. In fact, this is only partly true, but there really is a certain dependence.

So, the saying about a young graduate student is not about me. All the nonsense and all the inexperience, as well as drifts like "today I have 90% twos" I worked in the first years of my teaching, while I was a student; having become a graduate student, I was already considered one of the best teachers in my university, both in the opinion of some teachers and in further feedback from students … who managed to pass the exam

My teaching methodology sharply divided students into two completely opposite categories: those who respected me very much, and those who hated me wildly, so wildly that I often received anonymous threats … however, no one could do anything. But I will try to tell you about this technique sometime later. Later, my thirst for justice played a role in the collapse of my career, teachers began to hate me, whom I began to bring to the surface, and I still did not know how to find an approach to people who do stupid things, and in some places I was very categorical in my statements. They were so happy when I became a teacher, and then they regretted it.

So how did I take my exams? By the end of his career, it looked like this.

During the semester, I tried to remember all the students and the weak points of each of them. Further, I memorized or wrote down the especially difficult tasks for each test. Sometimes I wrote down who was absent on what topic at the lecture. The fact is that attending my classes was free, but I always warned that it was better not to miss them.

In the exam, in addition to the main question, I always had the right to ask an additional one. So, this additional question - you guessed it! - was always on the topic that this student understood the worst or missed in the lecture.

It was NOT important to me whether the student was answering the way it was written in his notebook or trying to explain the question in a different way. It was rather important for me not whether he answers correctly, but HOW he relates to the situation and how he gets out of it. Let me explain with an example.

Many students think they can cheat and I won't notice. However, in lectures, I always warn that I do not make comments for cheating or other attempts to act dishonestly, I will simply make it so that such a person does not pass the exam. Here is a man sitting, cheating, looking at me so that I do not "burn", averting his eyes, pretending that he is looking for something somewhere (a pen or paper for a draft), but you can see everything! I just watch and make no comments. And should? Not! After all, an adult, he knows what he is going for, was warned that this should not be done, should I somehow additionally tell him the rules of the game?

He comes to me to tell his question - and I fill him up. I just ask questions that the person who wrote it off obviously cannot make out. And at the end I read him a notation for 10-15 minutes that the tactic "if you want to live, be able to spin" is a wrong tactic, and it will not lead to anything good in life. This student will no longer cheat on retake.

There are those who tried to pass the exam honestly. Such people could be wrong, they could honestly admit somewhere that they did not understand something, they did not understand something. I will listen carefully and try to get EVERYTHING that he knows out of the person. Sometimes it happens that we go through a list of questions in a row, and he answers them one by one. If I get the impression that a person really taught well, but just got confused, I myself will explain the incomprehensible ticket to him and let him go with a well-deserved mark. This is usually excellent. An important role is played by the entire background of the exam: how the person treated the subject during the semester.

Yes, such an exam could last up to 12 hours in a row, but you must admit that there is a difference between a professional and an amateur.

This is just one example of my tactics. It lies in the fact that I encourage correct behavior, honesty and righteousness, but I punish attempts to go against conscience and morality. Of course, if a person very honestly told me that he hadn't learned anything at all, it would not help him to get a “5”, but an attempt to write off even from a round excellent student can make a poor student very quickly. And he cried with honors. Although there were cases when a higher-ranking official of a higher educational institution corrected the situation with his power without my knowledge. Why? Because one of my students could be the son / daughter of some ghoul from high circles, and attempts to put pressure on me and quiet “orders” like “this should be five” usually came back with a line “don't teach me to do my job right . Of course, the officials could not tolerate this for a long time.

Many students were very upset when I left the university, and later I was informed that my subjects, which were considered one of the most interesting, now turned into second-rate trash, which became boring or disgusting to study …

So, if you are interested in such a plot of the story, read the continuation from the following parts. I will talk about how I taught classes, studied, did science, etc.

PS. Yes, for the "catchphrase" I am exaggerating something a little, but without distorting the essence. And yes, there was a period when in the eyes of the students I looked like a "stupid mindless teacher who cannot connect two words", everyone probably went through this