Doing Exams -Is it Persecution, Conviction, or a Means to Know Abilities and Skills?

Jacob Waiswa
Peace and Conflict Center
P.O. Box 7062,
Makerere University
Kampala-Uganda
jwaiswa@arts.mak.ac.ug

A period of teaching and class attendance or learning is sealed by exams that test one’s knowledge and ability to transfer skills to society after training or to the next level of learning.

It is however very challenging to do exams without effective instruction or teaching and active participation of learners. At advanced levels of learning there are lapses in the important prerequisites of readiness to sit exams as those.

Here students are expected to read widely and find relevant information to help them meet instructors’ needs. Of course, the information out there is too vast to digest. That calls for closer interactions with instructor for continued guidance. Besides, much of the adult learning carries several other obligations outside academic life –which may be social, political, economic or cultural.

In circumstances where balancing of all the important responsibility of the learner fails academic life also suffers. When continuing students are faced by work overload, they lose grip at almost every front-line of a given task. They begin to give a few and eventually yield little. In a graduate class of 60 students, only a half of the students finish coursework year.

At the beginning of the program it is a huge feeling for success. Unfortunately along the way the huge gut is massively challenged to the students' surprise. The grades show no consistence with candidates’ ambition. It turns out to be so frustrating that students' confidence is driven low for much of the next round of academic engagements.

A self resurrection begins with rediscovering the goal one once stood for and making necessarily priority actions to achieve it. That is academic crisis management. Along the way, though, there are events that determine survival on the academic program as well as life and well-being sustainability which cross through to interfere with academic concentration. It can be horrible. Indeed those overwhelmed soon choose to quit the program.

Candidates –who try to meet last minute deadlines to make necessary administrative clearances to sit for exams have the big task to deal with clearance fatigue, finding adequate time to prepare for tests or exams, and being able to elicit sufficiently what examiner requires from them whilst in exams.

The examiner may have different needs from the student such as ensuring very good hand-writings, first time impressions from previous course works, daily attendance, and a representation of professors' mind in students’ work. All those become a basis of student success. Of course one never rules out the influence of the ‘special’ professor-student relationship on student performance.

The pressure on students is a big source of terrible academic shortfalls like misfiring questions and failing to follow examination instructions. Those turn back to haunt students sooner or later. Collaborative group learning as much as possible have been found to be 90% effective at breaking such messes –more so at advanced levels of learning.

The other defects though are laziness on the part of other students who fail to contribute anything to the group and collective costs incurred when the entire group is out spotted in exams. It is important therefore that counseling takes a center stage in colleges and universities to check the adverse health impact that could take a toll on students.