This is my personal experience which I would like to share. On the last Monday, all students taking Introduction to Nuclear Power Plant in UNITEN had to undergo an extremely harsh test. Topic covered consists more than 500 slides. Imagine how harsh it is just to read through and understand that much amount of knowledge. Not to mention that words used in the slides are technical (Nuclear Jargons). We were quite providential though as our lecturers allow us to bring in one personal cheat sheet per test session, which is quite a useful way to “force” students to read almost everything.
That’s not where it ends though; imagine having an hour and a half test, take a break for 30 minutes then continues for another 2 more hours (total duration including 30 minutes break is 4 hours). Gosh the last time I undergo an examination with duration exceeding 3 hours is when I took my Engineering Drawing exam 7 years ago. Imagine 4 hours answering all subjective questions. From studies, basically normal human brains could focus over 90% of its capacity for 2 hours straight and that explains why most classes were scheduled to be less than 2 hours for a subject, final examinations were scheduled to be 2 hour and a half where 30 minutes extra is actually time for you to squeeze out something from your brains and do some checking, a F1 regulations state that a race could only last for 2 hours max (Despite that exceeding 2 hours of race would leave the driver dehydrated and cause internal damages due to the G-forces exerted on them).
How does it feel… For the 1st session of the exam, everything feels great. Having a cheat sheet in addition with my understandings, answering was a breeze but entering the 2nd session disaster strikes. My brain refuses to generate the answers even though I actually knew the answer, my fingers starts to hurt and trembling reluctant to write down anything, my eyes starts to haze (or fuzz or dusky or dim or blur or glaze) reluctant to read the questions nor my cheat sheet, my body temperature starts to fluctuate causing perspiration even in cold …. My whole body was against me. Amazingly the questions set up nicely with the time provided.
Ok I think that describes my experience enough. For those who are planning to take this course, don’t change your mind after reading this. The lecturers are quite reasonable and flexible. I’m sure they will improvise their assessment method in the future. Having 50% objective, 20% structural subjective, and 30% essay might be better. This is my personal prospective and doesn’t speak for the team or the class.
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