Friday, May 28, 2010

Foreign Exams

An interesting piece of information that I learned the other day while talking to some international students. I was asking them what they are doing this summer and some of the students said they are going home to take exams. This sparked the question as to why they are taking exams at home if they just finished the semester here?
Apparently it is not out of common practice for students to take exams a semester, or even a full year after they took the class. Basically they have to pass the exam, and if they don't, they do not have to retake the class, ala US schools, they instead just have to re-take the exam. Once they pass the exam, they pass the class and are finished.
I think this stems from the practice that a lot of these schools have of literally only giving one exam at the end of the class time that covers everything learned in the class. So essentially if you don't pass, instead of having to take the class again and try to be taught by the teacher, instead one has to study all the material and retake the exam hoping that you've taught yourself the material well enough.
Personally I think it is crazy, but then again, it is just not what I'm used to. You'd think by now I'd know that not everything makes sense to me.

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