Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

I wrote the succeeding post while offline earlier, and just uploaded it for the short time I am on the net before I go back to checking papers.

Beginner Blogwriters Pointer (something I promised for members of my writing group) : sometimes the journal site may hiccup when you are uploading your entry via the text box provided, and lose your post. It's the stigma of free online diary space. Best to type out a draft in a word processor first then upload it when you're done, that way you can just copy and paste again if your link screws up.

So I had my Astronomy exam yesterday. It was 50 items multiple choice, with the favorite (mine, not the students') tables they had to fill up that ate up a dozen or so points in one go.

I had two proctors for this exam, my co-teachers, Jacq and Ricky. Ricky got the 1250pm class, and Jacq got the 230pm class. Not really all that surprisingly, I got the 1030am class of which 8 students did not have the option not to take the finals.

I had told Jacq earlier that the class she was going to handle were nice students, but it seemed she found them noisy and disorderly to the point where she had to threaten all violations to the rules she set would mean being sent immediately to the Discipline Office.

She also had to stare down intently some students who were blatantly looking at their seatmates' papers.

Ricky had the experience of having to initial the test papers of some students who changed their answers more than once, despite the instructions having stated the limit. It has always been my rule to disregard the students' answer if it had been changed more than once, even if the latest choice was correct.

Ricky also had to turn down three students who arrived late, after some of the others had already turned in their papers and left. He told them to discuss with me about it, but none of them went to the faculty room afterwards. Ricky mentioned one student specifically by name, (one I recognized as being industrious in class) who he said seemed to have the attitude of passing the subject even if he did not take the test.

Ironically, when I proctored for Ricky's exam in the afternoon, I allowed one of his students to take the exam even though he arrived after four of his classmates had already finished. As is MY routine, I just told him that it was up to his teacher whether or not his exam will be considered or if he will be asked to take another one, so he should give his contact number.

"But I came straight from the mall," he said, as if it was a valid excuse for being late.

After the exam, some students from the 230pm class also showed up to tell me that one of their classmates did not get to take the exam because she thought the exam was from 1-3pm. I told them to instruct her to get a special exam form for a rescheduling.

She passed it but didn't fill out the last of the three copies, so the chairman wouldn't sign it. I left the forms in my pigeonbox for her to complete, although she probably thought it would be done by the time she passed by to pick it up.

Lastly for today: I had a chance to ask my co-teachers about what they do for special exams. I told them that the easiest is to give the same test, but tell the student/s that they could only get a maximum of a certain percent (say 90%, could go as low as 80% depending on my mood and how ludicrous the student's excuse is) in the exam. That means whatever their score is will be multiplied by that percentage.

It's what I used to do for those who are late for my exams, although the students have the option of going for a later, more difficult exam.

My co-teachers have not tried that, but said if they were students they wouldn't take that option, especially if they know they could get high in the exam. They would rather give themselves the chance to get a perfect score.

The alternative is to make a new exam that is the same number of items, but no longer multiple choice. Either fill in the blanks, identification, enumeration, completing the tables and giving the definitions. Given that only a handful of students would take it, it would only be slightly more difficult to check than the multiple choice exam, but it would require a little more brainpower on the student's part than eenie-meenie-miney-moe.