\nIn yesterday’s post<\/a> I mention fondly what final exams were like in my early university days. That degree I finished in 1995. Then, in 2013, I went back. My first exam in 2013 – that was something.<\/p>\n \nI thought I was a veteran with exam rules, but apparently not with the new ones. I wasn’t allowed to bring my phone, wallet, or even keys with me to my desk. You might think I was just a noob who was made an example of, but no: there were other people’s purses, phones, etc, up front, along with mine. It was easier to get through customs than to get cleared to sit down to the exam. Of course, you still needed identification, which you showed as you signed in and surrendered your belongings.<\/p>\n \nBy then I did carry a water bottle, but mine wasn’t clear, so it was left up front as well. That was the telltale sign I was, in 2013, an exam noob: everyone else had a clear water bottle which they were allowed to take to their seat. I can’t recall a hat rule, but nobody was wearing one. As I recall, you couldn’t hang your coat behind your chair. Rather, you had to wear it or else leave it at the front.<\/p>\n \nThis all happened in a normal-sized classroom, with the invigilator at the front desk, watching the whole time. What was feared a person might do? I always wondered. Would we receive calls on our phones and talk “in secret” to some third party who would feed us answers? Perhaps my opaque water bottle had a schedule of cheat notes inside that somehow only I could see. Was it believed that a writer might, in plain view of the invigilator, secretly extract some cheat notes from her purse during the exam? Furthermore, how someone can cheat on a 3rd-year-level exam by wearing a baseball cap is beyond me.\n<\/p>\n \nFrom 2013 on, I took numerous university courses online, and came to enjoy those in-room final exam writing experiences. I brought a clear water bottle, but just left my wallet and phone with my wife when she would drop me off. I would take a pencil, eraser, pen, maybe calculator, and my student card. It was much easier to get through “customs” that way.<\/p>\n \nWhat the invigilators fear would be hidden under the brim of a ball cap, or in an opaque water bottle, I leave to speculation. Such questions – like where El Dorado is – we love to ponder because we don’t think there is an answer:)<\/p>\nJack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane,<\/a> Campbell River, BC.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Self-tutoring about “modern” exam rules: how modern are they? In yesterday’s post I mention fondly what final exams were like in my early university days. That degree I finished in 1995. Then, in 2013, I went back. My first exam …<\/p>\n