Exams!!!
I have not written exams for some 20 years – yup I am that old. I am however this week writing three hour exams on arb subjects like Strategic Management, operations management, marketing and the ilk.
I wandered into the exam hall on Monday complete with Bioplus, chewing gums, USN Energy Drinks and chewing gum. Three hours sans a ciggy was my first worry.
I must mention that I was not sure where the exam venue was so duly left home at 7.00am only to find the Sisulu Hall at 7.30am. This for an exam starting at 9.00am.
Needless to say I was bored by the time the doors opened at 8.50.
The exam was a breeze. Open book exams are so much better than having to remember all the nitty gritty.
Wednesday’s exam was a tad more challenging and the multiple choice questions were so ambiguous as to make passing not a certainty. However the written part was tackled well enough to give me a fighting chance. I must confess I needed 60% to pass the exam courtesy of not handing in the 1st assignment. Not my fault I add, but my problem.
Today’s exam was not a major train smash. The multiple choice was straight enough and the one case study for 60% was on a part of the course that I understood.
However.
Cue major panic, While doing the multiple choice questions – after the case study – it suddenly dawned on me that when asking the question “evaluate and do a plan of action” what they actually wanted was a Marketing Plan. A marketing plan has a format. My “bull in a china shop approach” evaluated and did a plan of action. No executive summary, no SWOT analysis no nada.
Ask man for more paper and I spent the next 30 mins forcing a format together.
I cursed a few times, drank both my energy drinks and walked out feeling rather depressed that I missed the boat.
Chalked up to experience.
I am back at work – am I the only idiot that comes into work after writing an exam – and responding to all the mail that has backed up over the last two days. (I did take the whole day off to study yesterday instead of the ½ day that I took for the other exam)
HR on Monday. One thing that really gets my goat about these exams is you have no idea what you are preparing for. When I was young (and virile) we used to crunch through old exam papers so by the time you got to the exam you had your strategy in place and it was a breeze. Now I look at the exam with trepidation each time the paper is handed to me.
Not a good way to do things.
BUT
Loads of sex this weekend will help!!!
I wandered into the exam hall on Monday complete with Bioplus, chewing gums, USN Energy Drinks and chewing gum. Three hours sans a ciggy was my first worry.
I must mention that I was not sure where the exam venue was so duly left home at 7.00am only to find the Sisulu Hall at 7.30am. This for an exam starting at 9.00am.
Needless to say I was bored by the time the doors opened at 8.50.
The exam was a breeze. Open book exams are so much better than having to remember all the nitty gritty.
Wednesday’s exam was a tad more challenging and the multiple choice questions were so ambiguous as to make passing not a certainty. However the written part was tackled well enough to give me a fighting chance. I must confess I needed 60% to pass the exam courtesy of not handing in the 1st assignment. Not my fault I add, but my problem.
Today’s exam was not a major train smash. The multiple choice was straight enough and the one case study for 60% was on a part of the course that I understood.
However.
Cue major panic, While doing the multiple choice questions – after the case study – it suddenly dawned on me that when asking the question “evaluate and do a plan of action” what they actually wanted was a Marketing Plan. A marketing plan has a format. My “bull in a china shop approach” evaluated and did a plan of action. No executive summary, no SWOT analysis no nada.
Ask man for more paper and I spent the next 30 mins forcing a format together.
I cursed a few times, drank both my energy drinks and walked out feeling rather depressed that I missed the boat.
Chalked up to experience.
I am back at work – am I the only idiot that comes into work after writing an exam – and responding to all the mail that has backed up over the last two days. (I did take the whole day off to study yesterday instead of the ½ day that I took for the other exam)
HR on Monday. One thing that really gets my goat about these exams is you have no idea what you are preparing for. When I was young (and virile) we used to crunch through old exam papers so by the time you got to the exam you had your strategy in place and it was a breeze. Now I look at the exam with trepidation each time the paper is handed to me.
Not a good way to do things.
BUT
Loads of sex this weekend will help!!!
1 Comments:
holding thumbs for you lil bro!!! You can't win them all and I guess studying through correspondence is always tougher..... shortly will be my turn at the exam hall and I am older than you!!! GRIN
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