As we came to the end of the unit
in my Form 1 and Form 3 classes, it came time for an exam. In Form 3, we were
studying relations, including domain/range, graphing and inverse relations.
They struggled throughout the unit, so my expectations going into the exam
weren’t high. It’s been difficult teaching this class, because their math
skills range from very basic to very advanced, the level of English is
generally low or lower, and the attendance varies from 55 to 75 students on any
given day. Even so, I spent a day reviewing the topics on the exam, and then
gave them the exam the next class period. Keep in mind that I gave the exam
last week Wednesday, to the 61 students who happened to be there. It didn’t
matter if they missed the review, or the past two weeks, or if they had been in
every class but missed the exam day. You simply give the test to the students
who are present, and that’s that. Although, in reality the exam doesn’t
actually count for anything, other than a measure of where the students are at.
It’s still interesting to me that even though the exam doesn’t count for
anything, the students take it very seriously and are so concerned with correct
marks. Their mindset is completely different from American students. That being
said, I had 61 students take the exam and if we say that 50% is passing, then
12 students passed (one boy scored 100% and one girl scored 95%!). However, I
also had 6 students score 0, when they wrote answers for each problem and
actively tried the entire period. Talk about discrepancy.
During the exam, the students were
really well behaved, which is such a blessing compared to some of the classes
I’ve had to give tests in before. Not having the behavioral issues is such a
nice change of pace, although I did have one student who thought he could look
in his notebook without me noticing. That didn’t work out so well for him, as I
quietly took his notebook and asked him to continue. After class, I asked him
why he was looking in his math notebook, and he said he had forgotten a
calculation. I told him that cheating on an exam is not allowed, and that he
must write me a formal letter in English about cheating on exams. He asked for
forgiveness, but I figured a little practice in writing in English wouldn’t
hurt. He came to my office a half hour later, letter in hand, apologizing for
his mistake and ensuring me that it wouldn’t happen again. Mostly his use of
the phrase “forgive me for destroying the rules of the examination room” makes
me think my point was clear. The letter is priceless though; it’s definitely
being saved for future reference.
On a lighter note, most students
used two sheets of paper. Without a stapler, I just told them to write their
names on both sheets before they handed it in. Well, students here certainly
are creative, because all of a sudden I notice a boy pull a string from his
sweater sleeve, bite it off with his teeth, and proceed to tie the corners of
his exam papers together. What! The trend continued, and I was so enamored by
this that I just let it happen. I might have been more concerned if their sweaters
weren’t falling apart with wholes and frayed sleeves, but the damage of losing
one more string had no apparent effect. So, I had cute little bows holding
together all of the tests. I still am unsure as to how they were able to thread
the string through the paper, but perhaps it’s an acquired skill.
I gave my
Form 1 class an exam the very next day on the geometry unit we had just
finished. I wasn’t in the best of moods going into the period, and I’ve come to
realize that Thursday afternoons this class goes crazy. Bad combination for an
exam, especially when other students were literally running around outside the
windows disrupting everything. We were able to get through the exam all right,
but I definitely had students looking in their notes and whispering about
answers with their neighbor. With 59 students however, it’s nearly impossible
to control this, especially when so many don’t speak enough English to even
understand my instructions. By the time I finally collected all the tests, we
were all ready to be finished. This class did much better than Form 3, with 35
students passing and a class average of 54%. Even taking into consideration the
amount of cheating that was happening, I was pleased with the scores.
As for
their punishment, I gave the class another exam on Monday without telling them
about it. We first reviewed the rules of taking an exam, while I was very clear
that I knew they were all sharing answers and looking in their notes on the
previous exam. For this exam, I wrote 20 questions on board on all of the
topics they had supposedly covered this year, most of which was basic math
facts. Results of this test were drastically lower however, with a class
average of 18%. This tells me two things: first, their basic math skills are very
low; and second, they definitely studied for the geometry exam. Pluses and minuses (literally...get it? because we were reviewing adding and subtracting with negative numbers...lol. Maybe that was too much?) But it definitely helped show me what topics we need to review before their
terminal exams in December.
Overall, my
first examinations have been a learning experience for all of us. I struggle
with the fact that there is no accountability for students who are absent, and
have no idea what to do with the 49 Form 3 students who failed the exam. The
challenge of teaching here has certainly presented itself these past few weeks,
but at least we enjoy our class time together and perhaps by the end of the
year we’ll see some improvement.
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