Final Exams (or the day I printed 12 different exams)

The school year in Liberia is divided into six, six-week marking periods, each of which ends with a final exam.  While I like how the students are having a comprehensive, structured final, at the end of every six weeks, I also dislike how the system is set up.  These students are taking nine subjects, each of which have a final exam in the same week. 

Near the end of the first marking period, we were reminded that our exam questions were due for review to the Vice Principal of Instruction.  Sarah and I wrote our exams, got them approved, and commenced typing them up.  (We are fortunate at our high school in that we can print all of our exams, rather than limiting the number of questions and having to write them on the chalkboard – it takes more time than you think!) 

To discourage my students from spying (see the following blog post), I created four versions of each exam.  That means I made twelve exams – four for each course I am teaching.  While this sounds like a lot of work, it’s really just more of me changing some numbers or changing the order of my exams.  It takes time, but I think it’s very worth it. 

While passing out my exams, I went down each row, giving test A/B/A/B, and in the next row, test C/D/C/D and so on.  Effectively, this means no student is sitting next to or diagonally from a student with the same exam as they have.  They hated this, let me tell you, but it worked out really well for me!  (Insert evil teacher laugh here.)

While my exams were easy to administer, Sarah’s were another story.  I teach two sections of 10^th Chemistry, two sections of 10^th Physics, and one section of 11^th Physics.  That meant that Sarah could proctor one room while I proctored the other – no problem.  When it came time to give her exams, however, we ran into an issue.  She teaches math to all three sections of the eleventh grade.  Liberian teachers proctor exams very different than we do, and she didn’t want one class to have an unfair advantage over the other two.  When it came time for her exam, we did the only practical thing – we crammed 160 + students into two classrooms.  I learned very quickly exactly how much room I needed to walk between rows that day, haha.  These students had had their literature exam right before her math exam, and for that exam, they were spread out between three classrooms and all along the hallway.  We, as quickly as possible, moved them all into two rooms, and administered her examination like champions.

It’s not an ideal situation, but we make due.  Final exams are not fun for anyone, and for us teachers, that’s no exception.  Grading finals for twelve hours is not something I was looking forward to, and it’s something I know I’m going to have to do eleven more times before I head back to America.  It’s fine, though – my students appreciate my feedback and I am glad to know that most of my students have paid attention to at least something I have taught them! :)