The first practice exam I got to observe was the English written exam. When the students have a written exam, they are given preparation material about a week in advance. It is up to them to read the material to be prepared. Then, the day of the exam, the students are given a set amount of time to complete the exam. The day of the exam, there wasn't really much to observe, as the students just sit at their computers and work. The students are allowed to use the preparation material, other assignments they have done that may pertain to the test, and dictionaries. They are not allowed to use the internet.
Since this was an English exam, I was able to help my supervising teacher correct them. This was really interesting for me. It really helped show me the range of English abilities within the class. Some students didn't write much, and their English was not the best gramatically, and then some of the students wrote better than I do! This was also a challenge for me as I had to put my grammar hat on and remember all of the grammar rules that we don't even have to think about anymore!
The second exam I got to observe was the oral practice exam. This exam is structured much differently. This practice exam took three days. Day one, the students came to school right away in the morning. During the first class of the day, the students were informed which oral exam they would be doing. The three subjects were math, religion, and social studies. After the students found out which subject they would be doing, they went with the teacher giving the exam for more detailed information. After that, the students were free to go home and work if they chose or stay at school and work. Most chose to go home, but a few chose to stay at the school and work.
Day two, the students were required to be at the school to work all day. They had the teachers there to ask any questions, and the teachers also helped the students find resources that might help them with their exam.
Day three was the actual exam. I sat in on the religion exam. Even though I didn't know exactly what the students were talking about (because the exams were all done in Norwegian), it was still very interesting to watch the process. The students enter the room, and give a presentation about their subject and topic they were given. Most of the students did a powerpoint presentation, but it wasn't required. After the students finished their presentation, they then joined the teacher at the table, where she would ask them questions to get a better grasp on the student's knowledge of the subject. After the teacher was done questioning the student, they would leave the room. The teacher would then go over notes she made, and decided what grade to give the student. She would then bring the student back into the room, and inform them of what grade they got and why. My teacher was really awesome and kept me up to speed as how the students were performing and telling me what they did well and some things they maybe struggled with or didn't talk about enough.
Because these were practice exams, they were a little bit different than the actual exams will be. My supervising teacher tried to keep them as close to the actual exam as possible. The biggest difference during the actual exams will be that the exams are not graded by anyone who works in the school, rather they are graded by someone who works outside the school. Each student will have to do one oral exam and one written exam. They do not know which exam they will have to do until closer to the day, and that can cause some nerves among the students.
If I had to compare the purpose of these exams to an exam in the United States, I would compare it to something like the ACT or SAT. These exams don't affect the student's grade at school, rather the grade they recieve will be looked at by future universities and schools the students may choose to go to. The only "critique" I have is that the students aren't being tested in each subject area, which is a little odd to me.
Overall, getting to see the exam process here in Norway was very interesting for me. It was just one more way for me to see that, even though they are similar, there are definite differences between the school systems here in Norway and back home in the United States.
You can't see it in the picture, but the day of the English written exam, the students got to pause working on their exam to see the Solar Eclipse that happened on March 20th-the clouds did part for just a bit so that, with these weird eye glasses-were able to see it with our own eyes! It was also crazy how it got so dark for just a few minutes before the sun came back out!
No comments:
Post a Comment