After observing exams yesterday and today, here are some things that I have noticed:
- Students do not help set up the classroom into exam formation, unless asked multiple times or nagged
- When students start exams, they seem to know well in advance what is expected because they don’t seem to have questions about the exams themselves
- Teachers take different stances in the exam room (some stay in one general location in the class and only move when students have questions, others constantly move around the room).
Point number one taught me one thing. Students have trouble with verbal cues. From my own experiences, I need to have drawn a diagram on the board in advance in order for students to even get an idea of what I want them to do. Another thing that it showed me was that in a classroom where they use the individual coloured chairs, it may be great for teaching lessons, but when it comes to exams, it is a mess to try and set up and organize. Since the chairs are individual from each other, one needs to move each and every chair into place. On top of that, the chairs are wheeled so students will keep moving around. I prefer a class where there are desks set up in a way that students can just come in, find a spot and then are ready for their exam.
Point number two showed me that teachers probably prepared their students weeks in advance on what to expect for the exam. I remember telling students a weekend before a test and they would still have questions on the day of the test. This taught me that students who are well prepared and know what to expect seem to panic less. This is probably something that I should remember so that students don’t panic as much on the day of the test.
The last point is more of a personal preference thing. From my own experience, I have done both of the mentioned ways of invigilating an exam. It all depends on if I have things to do. I have walked around the classroom answering questions as needed, I have also sat at a desk watching the room while marking things on my computer. I feel like it just depends on how confident the teacher is with the environment that they set up for non-cheating. Personally, I feel like during my practicum, I set up a pretty good environment where students didn’t feel like they had to cheat.