Cheatin’

One exam down and two more to go.

The exam went well. In the days preceding the exam I’m usually a bundle of nerves, never knowing if I’ve spent enough reading enough and remembering enough and whether I was reading and remembering the right stuff. This exam was peculiar. It was a seen exam, which means that we were given the questions 7 days before the actual exam. So we have 7 days in which to look up the answers, memorise them and then regurgitate what we’ve memorised onto the exam answer book. Weird. We were told to work independently so as to avoid the possibility of plagurism…so we figured that seeing as we would all be using the same two set text books, and we’d be answering the same questions, most of which have the right or wrong answer we’d meet up and swap opinions anyway. Needless to say we all had the same answers anyway (doh!) so the plagurism team are going to be busy.

So how did I do? Well, I remembered everything that I memorised so that’s good. I’m now just hoping that what I memorised was correct and enough. Some of the questions were very ambiguous, meaning you could answer it in several different ways and still not be right. It’s also very easy to be able to completely blank at a question that you know the answer to.  ‘Explain the concept of statistical power then give ways in which power can be maximised during an experiment’. I knew the concept when I was drying my hair in the morning and brushing my teeth (not at the same time obviously, that would be silly) I knew it. I had four statements off pat. Couldn’t remember them though. I could remember how to maximise its potential though, no problem. Even logical thought couldn’t help me out here. Surely if I know precisely how to maximise I can work out the concept? Nope, couldn’t.

We had a bit of drama during the exam. We know of two lads who are cheating. I’d been approached by  some other students who had seen the cheating going on (I’m student rep) so I had to report it to the examination officer prior to our next exams. The invigilators were told to keep an eye out and they caught one of these lads. He had written the answers on his arm, periodically pulling his sleeve back when he got stuck. I think he got the idea from Mr Bean or was it Rimmer on Red Dwarf? Fancy cheating at this stage, that’s the sort of thing kids do thinking that it will work! It’s a seen exam and they are still cheating.

It’s particularly galling when you have a good idea that he has the concept of statistical power biroed onto his left thigh.