- Image by Dr Stephen Dann via Flickr
1.The Buzz
The ten minutes before the start. There’s a wonderfully charged atmosphere before an exam, and I do get a seriously pumped up vibe from the nervous energy of the students about to face the final contest for their subject. (It’s a more concentrated rush of energy than you get from the 5 minutes before an assignment submission)
2.The Solution(s)
The answers to hard questions. I’m yet to write an exam question where I know the perfect answer. Even where I set an exam marks criteria around a projected set of answers, there’s always more variations than even I can guess (and I wrote the question).
If I set a question that I think might result in a one sided “yes/no” style answer, I’m likely to get answers in the key of
- Yes (hard argument for one side)
- No (hard argument for the other side)
- Maybe ((hard argument for all three sides of a coin)
- Contextually Dependent (with context from theory)
- Scenario Dependent (with examples from practice)
- “Magic Eight Ball says try again later”
3. The Backchat
Students who recognise what I’m doing in a question, and pass comment (and/or judgment) on the method I used in the exam. That’s the sort of confidence I like to see in my squad, particularly where it’s backed up by proceeding to demolish the question, and deliver an answer that fits with the acknowledged method
4. The Halo (aka the Hail Mary Pass)
The student who comes from a disaster of a semester to a championship grade on the exam because they’ve brought everything that they can muster to these two hours, thrown absolutely everything at the question, and come up with the goods.
5. The Crowning Moment of Awesome
Similar in nature to the The Halo, the CMA student was HD on the way into the exam, and in the exam room, they were HD for the duration. I usually end up learning something new from the CMA papers.
6. The Boost
Any time a single sentence from this year’s exam answers can be translated into next year’s exam or essay questions is a good moment.
7. Learning from my students
Every year, every exam, there’s always one paper that teaches me something new about the subject I just spent 13 weeks teaching.
Written whilst marking exams, and embargoed until after the Examinations Board meeting.
