Yup, 2 blog entries in one day! I've meaning to write this entry since midterms but it was lost in the haze. I'm halfway to finals and have only just completely recovered from midterms. :D Kidding! (sorta)
In my humble opinion the exam policies at SGU have perhaps gone right over the edge. I mean, on top of the stress of taking exams and considering how close to a psychotic break I was right before my physio exam it was a bad, bad, idea to try and tell me I couldn't take my backpack into the building.
Let me go back a little. Last term as well as during our one credit wonders (genetics, parasitology, CMP) this term exam policies have been fairly straightforward. You come in, any bags or phones have to be left in the back of the room and you're not supposed to cheat. No problem. Now though they've instituted a whole new set of freaking annoying policies.
1. No bags, phones, hats period allowed in the building. You must leave them outside.
WTF? Look, many of us live off campus and can't just walk around with nothing but our ID and a pencil. At an absolute minimum I need to carry my poncho and keys around. Right? What should I do, hold them in my hands and leave them by the side of the road and hope no one steals them?
SO. Picture me, about five seconds away from murdering someone, somewhat spastically going over EKG's in my head, and some power tripping proctor tries to tell me I have to leave my backpack outside. Um. So, putting it in the back of the room (like we've always done)... the back that all of us have our backs to and is lined with like six proctors is unacceptable?? *twitch* I'm not actually a confrontational person. Really. But I about snapped and started arguing with her. I had my ipod, credit cards, money, id's, fifty billion irreplaceable note cards I'll be using to study later for the usmle, my poncho and camera in my backpack. I WAS NOT LEAVING IT OUTSIDE.
SO.
She finally relented and put it back into the A-V room behind the lecture hall (multiple people quietly filed in behind me with their backpacks as well). Were they worried I'd be able to use my X-ray vision and hidden eye under my hair to cheat or something? There isn't exactly a place to store things on campus and most of us don't have cars, we have to use the shuttles, so they are really tying our hands here.
2. For Immuno we weren't allowed to use out own pencils.
?? Am I the only person who thought this was patently bizarre? What did they think we were going to do? Etch the interleukins into the little clear plastic side of our pencils? Again, proctors stood at the doors confiscating pencils and erasers and handing out approved pencils and erasers. It was like a pencil grave yard in front of the lecture hall! Now, I'm most certainly not the only type A here. I don't know about others but I was downright annoyed to have to use some stupid pencil belonging to someone else. Grr.
3. Assigned seats.
I kid you not! And with several hundred people, and not revealing said assigned seats until half an hour before the exam starts, you have something of a logistical nightmare. And the best part? They did it alphabetically! This is highly amusing to me since our lab groups are also assigned alphabetically, thus, the assigned seating only served to make sure people who knew each other were sitting together! I've never sat so many tests next to people I knew before than those midterms. Pointless endeavour on behalf of the school? Hell, yeah.
Stress by exams + ridiculous new regulations = twitchy me
Hn. Apparently I still have a lot of resentment still simmering over all that. *wry grin* I guess I'd better get used to it though. I doubt they'll rescind all their new rules. No doubt they feel it will cut back on cheating. *rolling eyes* I never did understand people who cheat anyways. What could it possibly accomplish in the long run? Especially here. It's not like someone won't notice later on that you don't know how to perform a basic neurological exam or can't describe the myotatic reflex arc. We have to know what we're learning. Period. I wonder what the actual incidence of medical students cheating actually is? I would sincerely hope that it's a negligible number.
Ah, sorry for the ranting. This post turned out more 'angry' and I was trying more for 'funny commentary on stupid policies'. Oh well. No helping it. Just laugh at the Mr. Bean clip. :D Life is better with humor added in.
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