Shambolic Examinations.

¡Hola lectores!

At this precise moment in 3 weeks, I will have flown to Bristol and travelled home to Swansea with month’s worth of clothing, articles and memories – My Year Abroad Over! As a result, I thought it’d be good to write a post today, next Thursday and finally next Wednesday before I leave so I can get everything in before I leave. After a week or two at home, I’ll then write my final blog post, looking back on this crazy experience that is Erasmus.

Luckily, I had an exam today and have PLENTY to say so it’s good that I’ve selected this ‘final countdown’ strategy.

As previously mentioned, my first exam was weird – Multiple choice on computers, 20 minutes long and cheating and chatting could’ve easily happened. I didn’t think things could get much worse but today I experienced a whole new level of the Spanish education system, or should I say lack of.

Upon reflection, the translation classes throughout the semester have lacked consistency; structure and leadership so perhaps it’s not that surprising that these factors attributed to the most awful exam experience I’ve ever received. The first nail in the coffin came yesterday when the lecturer sent us an email to tell us that the time and room of the exam had changed. It would be completed on computers and as there’re 2 classes, the first would have the exam at 9am-12.30pm while the second group (my class) would be 1pm-4.30pm. Well, you’d never get such changes at Cardiff unless there were some serious extenuating circumstances but nevertheless, at least we’d been told the day before, and not the day of the exam.

Today, with some revision under our belts, I entered the room with Heather, Anya & Rachael to discover that there was nowhere to sit and all computers were occupied. Confused and not knowing what to do, we spoke to the lecturer who told us that there was no space and nothing could be done. I beg your pardon, nothing can be done?! We had come to the exam she had told us to come to; OUR exam for OUR class and we were being told there was no space for us to sit the exam. Heather and I were both very vocal about the situation and with a quick glance around, there were many faces I did not recognise and it quickly transpired that some individuals didn’t wish to get up for the 9am exam and so thought they’d just turn up to the second, despite being told that spaces were limited in each group. How can you just tell someone they can’t sit their exam because there’s no space? She then told us that there were spaces this morning and we should’ve come at 9am; How were we meant to know there we spaces, and nevertheless, we’d come to the exam of OUR class. Anya managed to get a computer and there were 3 individuals who had laptops - They said we could use them – I suggested surely it’d be better for them to use their own laptops, knowing how they word (being in Spanish, keys and buttons being in different places etc..) but that didn’t seem to be accepted as a suggestion – Logical thought, no?

After some explicit annoyance from Heather and I, the lecturer seemed to be attempting to solve the situation when another 8-10 people came through the door to discover there were no places for them either – I recognised these people from my class and the same was obviously happening to them. Two computers which were deemed to be broken miraculously worked and Rachael and I took those. Indeed, another room had to be found for the others but we were told to start the exam with no instruction of what we were supposed to do. While the lecturer took the other group off to another room, a lady sat in and ‘watched’ us but actually just chatted on her phone which rang several times. Professional? She was then replaced by another lady. I asked Rachael if we had to answer in English or Spanish (the questions were in Spanish but the theory part of the course had mainly been taught in English.) “Shh”, she directed at me, to which I replied with a look of disgust as that’s how I felt about the whole situation – Everyone was talking and so it’s not as if my added speech made a difference. The door was left open with noise pouring in from outside, the blinds were constantly hitting the window and making noise and there was not an ounce of ‘exam etiquette’ in play, so much so that I set a Facebook status about the event and Rach even took a photo of us and uploaded it to Facebook, just conveying the absurd nature of everything that was going on. Other issues that arose during the “exam” included computers randomly switching off and exams being lost and people submitting their exams and them not being sent correctly. We were told to email ourselves a copy of our answers to be safe. Surely such things shouldn’t happen in the first place?!

All of us British Erasmus Students found it an absolute joke and the Spanish didn't seem too impressed either, so at least the general consensus was the same!

 With regards to the exam itself, it wasn’t too bad but the pieces which had been chosen had been randomly cut and pasted to give us a translation which lacked consistency, was full of repetition and context making it hard to know exactly what we were supposed to be saying at times.

Essentially, the whole process what a ridiculous display for education from the first to the last second and is something I feel Cardiff would have something to say about, too. Erasmus students must get a shock when they go to the UK and see how strict and structured our education is!

In An Exam - Though You'd Never Know..

 

My final exam, Spanish in America, is on Monday. I have a list of 227 questions and I need to learn the answers, 20 of which will be chosen for the exam itself. It’s going to be tediously boring but we will see what form the whole examination process takes for that module...

Otherwise, this week has just been filled with note-making and revision. After working all weekend, however, I decided I wanted and needed a break and so we (Me, Alex, Hannah, Anya, Charles, Rebeca, Sam, Kris & Stevie) went out for some drinks on Monday and then to Chupitos for some shots (including 2 with Tabasco which nearly killed Alex as she doesn’t handle spice well...). Alex complained she wanted a rose from a man selling them. He wanted 1eur but I negotiated him down to 50 cents each and then bought one for each of the girls, so nobody felt left out. However during the course of the night, rose fights occurred and Alex somehow managed to eat quite a lot of Rose. That’s gratitude for you! Nevertheless, it was a good night!

 

Alex, Anya & Their Roses

Flames

Toasting Marshmallows

Alex :)

Hanny :)

 

I also spent a few hours tanning on the roof with Charles, Alex and Hannah on Tuesday afternoon – though the heat and lack of wind was quite awfully unbearable and so I only managed 2 hours.

SO the next few days will be revisionrevisionrevision, or at least attempted revision, but there’re also some birthdays to celebrate this weekend and next week so that’ll be fun! I’ve ordered Han’s present online, I hope it arrives soon...!

I can’t wait for exams to be over, have a bit of stress-free fun and then head home! J

3 weeks and counting.
Adiós.