Tuesday, December 13, 2005
How was the exam?
Or rather, "What answer did you get?"Three years of varsity life has kindly revealed to me the hidden kiasu-ism in every student (yes, including the Caucasians). I want to think of it as a casual habit. Something that you just blurt out unintentionally at the spur of the moment due to unexplained excitement. However, observation of the conversations that take place outside the exam room tells me otherwise.
A courtesy to ask how the exam went is fine. But a few courteous remarks often sends an impression that someone is trying to fish an answer out of you.
It could be that he/she wants to compare an answer.
It could be that he/she wants to boast about her answer.
It could be that he/she felt that it was a horrible paper and just wanted to reconfirm the fact that his/her answer was absolutely wrong.
Yesterday, after the exam, I was hoping for none of these questions at my ears. I just asked a friend, "How was it?" She said, "It was okay."
And that was it. I told her that I felt it was a fair exam.
But no, I was wrong.
My other friend came out of the room, asked me how did it go and continued on subtly only to talk me into discussing about the solutions to the exam questions. The exam was okay, but if I felt that it was horrible, I would have gone home right away. I wouldn't want to talk about it at all.
I just feel that there is no point in discussing whether what you wrote was right or wrong. The paper has been handed in. You can't make anymore corrections. There's nothing else you can do about it. So forget it and concentrate on the next few exams. I rather live knowing the possibility that there will be some marks here and there than to know the answer was absolutely wrong, especially when a classmate tells you so (for some odd reason, it makes you hate the person even more...at that point of time). Seriously, it can affect you. Your mood. Your confidence. And it affects you badly when you have other exams to study for.
Then again, it could be a motivation for some people to work harder on the next exams after knowing how bad the previous one was.
I'd like to recall how it was back in high school in Malaysia. But I can't seem to remember. It was a little different then. We were young. The education system is geared towards achievement of excellent grades rather than achievement in gaining knowledge. And parents were...phew... they expect so much out of you. Obviously, their friends' children are competing with their own child. It is inevitable that they want all the A's from you flashing at the doorstep whenever a visitor comes to the house.
I did not expect university to be like this. The slight difference is that the students who score high GPAs are really that smart. Not only academically, but they are able to prove themselves right in real-life engineering problems. Those I envy. And respect. But those who just aren't that good and boast about trying to get that GPA (or having close to that GPA), and basically trying to act all smart ... they should just shut up and look around again.
Okay, I am wasting time again. Back to studying. I have an exam at 2pm.
