The word ‘exam’ has historically gone down in the vocabulary of students under the heading of ‘beware’. Generally they have been regarded with disdain and they are one of the prime causes for secondary school nightmares. Their soul destroying, hope-crushing qualities have left many a bright student simply a hollow shell of their former self. No wonder why the use of School erp system in India have been put into place, in the hopes of making the examination and results process a whole lot easier for students and teachers.
Traditionally post-Xmas exams, educators would tell you with feigning compassion ‘You’ll do better next time’; ’They’re only Christmas exams’ or ‘It’s not a disastrous mark.’ However when we enter college, it’s a whole different kettle of fish. We have to start looking at them with an element of strategy and actually consider the idea that they could be helpful and good for us. There are advantages and disadvantages, and below, I suppose, are my opinions on what these are.
The Pros: In my life, I never expected that I would be writing coherent English sentences that are in favour of Christmas exams unless under the influence of drugs, alcohol or terrorists. However, that is the secondary school pupil inside me talking, in college it’s a whole different enchilada (apologies for the consistent metaphors). Why do we need Christmas exams? Well, third level coursework and content floods past the average student faster than Dutch Gold down a Bess student’s oesophagus. With this constant flood of information, it’s incredibly difficult to keep up, and it’s made even more difficult by the fact that they expect you to do regular study for subjects that finished at Christmas. This applies to most courses in Trinity. Students are expected to keep up a diligent, regular study of several off-course topics, throughout the Hilary Term, as though they were still doing it in college and then expected to take and perform well in an exam. If I may say so this is highly ambitious.
Number one because let’s face it, not all ‘students’ are known for their unquenchable thirst for knowledge and as such their superlative abilities of homework.
Number two, and not to sound too childish, it’s very, very hard. It’s difficult to teach yourself anything and it’s just as hard to keep anything already learnt fresh. Consequently, adding on this workload of extra, maintenance study only increases the hassle. What do you think?
The Cons: Nobody is Omnipresent. Neither I nor anybody can really know what everyone does all the time. It is quite possible, that numerous people do in fact study enough for their Summer Exams, that they are that genius type which can handle buckets of information. There could be hundreds of students who do put in the effort, and in fact accomplish the looming goal of performing well in 5-9 exams at summer. Students may in fact be more diligent than we give them credit for.
Another possibility that we have to look at is whether Christmas exams can actually be facilitated. Bringing in Christmas exams places pressure on lecturers and administrators as well as Students. It requires space to be made in the second term for Compensation exams. Well these are the only real Cons I can think of against Christmas Exams, perhaps you can think of more?
It is worth noting that both SU Education officer candidates this year, Barry and Cooney, are currently leaning towards exams at Christmas as stated by their Manifesto.
Overall I think the need for Christmas Exams in certain courses can easily be seen, while it would be frowned upon by others. The workload of some courses needs to be separated, because realistically it can’t be expected that consistent revision will happen throughout the year. Then again Xmas could easily cause more harm than good, in the fact that it takes work and attention away from other college issues. Doing Engineering, I would be inclined to side with the former. However that’s just an average Hamilton opinion. Feel free to comment below and tell us what you think!
Christmas Exams!?! It’s a grey area, with many people clearly for and against. Would Trinity students adopt Xmas exams? Would they still be too hungover after Halloween? It’s a tough call!
Gary Wall
