Published by Mircea on 11 Feb 2005
Time is relative…
I had the Physics exam today. It shouldn’t have been out of the ordinary but…
The teacher decided to introduce oral evaluation. 2 groups were supposed to take the exam at 12:00 local time. We were split though: one group at 12:00 and the other one at 16:00. Each one of you might think: ok, so it takes about 4h to examine a group. Oh, and it took only 2h for others. That means the last group will finish at… 20:00 (a bit late)… but not, this wasn’t the case here.
My group was the lucky group that was scheduled for 16:00. We were all there even before 16:00, to discover that half of the students in the previous group were still inside, waiting to be examined. A new rule has been established: we will enter 2 persons at a time, we will pick some subjects and go to some seat which will be told to us.
I got in at about 16:45 (don’t remember exactly though). Took my jacket off, left the materials I had with me somewhere in a bit pile, took only 5 sheets of paper, 2 pens & a pencil, went to the teacher, picked the only subject available (normally, I should have chosen from more) and I got sent somewhere to the middle of the amphitheatre (yes, we study in amphitheatres of about 150 seats, but use normal classrooms also). That was the time when I noticed that people were comming in, in pairs of 2, only after 2 others finished and given their subjects back to the teacher. So, there was a reason for us to sit at the door.
Somewhere around 18:00 all my colleagues waiting outside got in. They were sent to the back of the amphitheatre, waiting for a subject to become available. The last student of the first group left the amphitheatre at about 19:30, almost 7h 30min after he got in.
At about 20:00 I’ve decided to “leave the building”. I’ve had enough. I was really borred after waiting so much time. Everything was moving so slowly around me, it got me asleep. Several of my colleagues got before to the teacher to have their tests corrected. The procedure seemed to have changed. It did change. After you got your test corrected, the teacher no longer sent you back to rethink over some topics. It asked you on the spot about several things, calculated the grade and you were free.
I went to the teacher, handed the test and discussed a bit on it. He wanted to know where some formulas came and what some signs meant. That was the procedure. I was finally out. At about 20:30 I was home. I was free… no more waiting.
I found out later that the last of my colleague “escaped” at about 23:00, 7h later after we were suposed to enter to amphitheatre. Our group “got free” faster compared to the first group…
I believe it was a memorable exam: not only it was long, but the atmosphere during the exam was unbelievable (everybody was borred, everybody wanted to go home).
I wish I will no longer have such long exams!