First UBC Exam

Ahhh so I have finally completed my first course at UBC! Exciting… even if there are millions more to come… at least I have made a start in my journey towards post-secondary education! I will post information about the course later in the week.

Anyways while I am awaiting the day that my final mark pops up on Vista I have decided to do a post on what the UBC exam was like. I am one of those (slightly perfectionistic) people who likes to know exactly what is going to happen and when. I could not find very much material about UBC exams online (besides the very general guidelines from the main website) so here we go with the basics:

-My exam was at 8:30 on a Saturday morning, not nice, but it was a beautiful day, and seen as it was a summertime exam the campus was completely empty.

-It was 3 hours long. My leg managed to fall asleep after hour two which was quite uncomfortable.

-All of the invigilators were our professors, which surprised me.

-A couple of ASTU classes were compounded into the same lecture hall for the exam.

-The atmosphere was pretty relaxed all things considering, no one was pacing up and down the aisles peering down at our papers… at least not that I noticed.

-Everyone places their bags at the front and brings pens, pencils, dictionaries and their UBC card to their table (some people also brought water bottles).

Tips for UBC Examinees:

– Make sure you know exactly where the exam is going to be held: you can look up you exam schedule on the SSC and click on the picture for a map and details about the building, however I would recommend going to check out the exact lecture hall a couple days before the exam… UBC can be a pretty confusing place. Maybe walk around the examination room and see if there is more than one entrance to the room, and find somewhere nice to study if you get there early.

–  Bring a watch!!!! Our lecture hall did not have a clock and although the invigilators wrote every 15 minutes on the board and crossed them off respectively, I am not certain that it was done precisely (some 15 minutes segments felt extremely long!!!). Timing is essential, especially on long exams… I really, really wish that I had had a watch with me!

– Do not arrive late (apparently if you arrive more than half an hour late you are not allowed to enter the room)

– BRING YOUR UBC CARD! You need to have it with you for identification + copying down your UBC number if you are like me and do not know if off by heart yet

– Check and see what materials you can and cannot bring into the exam. For ours we were allowed to bring a standard non-electronic dictionary. Although I did not need to use it, it is better safe than sorry!

– On the same note bring at least 4 pens and pencils… I went through 3 pens on my exam, which was nerve wracking!

I’m sure I will come up with a whole slew of other tips as I get more experienced with this whole exam taking thing. One down a million more to go… joy.

p.s. make sure that you put your name on all your papers