I found out that day, that I had a reserved seat for the test: N-5. I found this awkward to have assigned seating but thought nothing of it. Normally I strolled there with my iPhone, earplugs in, and listening to my jam session before a big test (Linkin Park). I look inside to see the sport gymnasium lined with chairs and tables, roughly 200 give or take. Each chair corresponding with a different row and column number. On the doors leading inside the room were numerous signs that stated "no cell phones allowed" "no backpacks allowed" "no food or drink" "assigned seating per student number" and lastly "no baseball caps". It was as if I was walking through a military checkpoint. But my biggest concern was I had my phone on me and the attitude given off by the instructors leading the examination process ensured if your phone was noticed or made any type of noise, you were failed, barred and given swift punishment to Bond University and Australian authorities.
Once inside and wandering around looking for N-5, we heard a voice on the loudspeaker detailing instructions and barking orders at us. When to start, what to do, how high to raise your hand if you have a question and the sign in/sign out procedures if you needed to use the restroom. After the orders were given, we were allocated 15 minutes of 'perusal time.' I have NO idea what perusal means and even after taking the test, still don't know. You'd think the university would clarify this as half of us were sitting there blankly looking around as what to do (do we start taking the test?).
From what I observed, perusal time is 15 minutes allocated before the start of the exam to go through it before you actually take it. This would be extremely beneficial if they THEN allowed 5 minutes to go through your NOTES before taking the exam. I don't see the benefit or need of a perusal time as I am already psyched and/or doomed of taking this test, why do I need 15 more minutes of pain and suffering (perhaps someone can better explain the efficient use of perusal)?
Overall, throughout the process it was very strict and militaristic. It def had a private school feel to it with instructors walking up and down the aisles, two timers up front to monitor time and 8 more people at the front to watch over student's wandering eyes. When I was finished, I was extremely glad to be out of there.
We'll see how I did come May when grades are released, but am really glad the test taking procedures within the US are far more lax. By enabling procedures of letting students know just by looking around they will fail due to attempt to cheat, makes it more worrisome then just a simple "hey here is the test, take this". And the day someone aces an exam because the answers are written inside their baseball cap is the day I bring two baseball hats to an exam (haha).
Cheers and 再见！
-H
No comments:
Post a Comment