Hiya,
Tomorrow will be the day of my final exams. You may be curious that why I still have the ‘mood’ to write this blog. Actually tomorrow I will be having a two-hour ‘seen exam’ in an exam room and I am absolutely confident to that because I know exactly what will appear on the exam paper.
For the exam of this particular module, I have to write up two essay questions within two hours and it counts 80% of the final grades. A ‘seen exam’ by all means does not necessarily entails that we are allowed to ‘literally copy our notes to the exam paper’. Rather, a seen exam indicates that the exam question will be released one week before the exam day.
I still remembered that at one instance when I shared this method of assessment to my engineering friend, and he doubted if it is even possible to get low grades. My comment is that a seen exam is much as challenging as the ‘unseen’ : both of which require us to demonstrate independent research and concrete arguments on the exam paper. No matter whether I know about the questions in advance, lecturers in the department always remind me that grades are distributed predominantly based on the quality of arguments.
Meanwhile, I always recall the moment that my jubilant course mates and I prepare for the group presentation day in, day out. We stayed in the department’s common room for hours… we exchange ideas on the patriarchal nature of family by scrutinising the literature. The process of research is indeed time-consuming but I can’t deny that meanwhile it is part of the enjoyment because from that I actually learnt how to defend my own argument whenever these lovelies attempt to challenge it.
In seminar, we are always given moment of in-class discussion around a particular topic. Every one of us make good use of that ‘brainstorming’ opportunity.
If I want to know my honest opinion, I always believe that ‘work smart’ is valued on top of ‘work hard’ and therefore ……discussion appears to be the best way for myself to map out a general picture of the lecture.
I would summarise three years of my undergraduate course in this way: the course itself does not teach me that the facades are good for houses, but it teaches us how to find out if glass facades or even an open kitchen is right for a house.
Please wish me best of luck in my exams. Further to that, drop us a message of anything as usual.
See you next time 🙂
David xx
