Ask most students to describe the experience of sitting in an exam hall and 'boring', 'tensed, 'tough', 'stressful' would be the most common response a lot of the time, depending on how the exam goes. There isn't much fun in sitting silently for hours in a stuffy hall where the only sounds you hear are occasional coughs, turning of pages, and the blasting tick-tock of the exam hall clock. Now let's flip this for a second - how does it feel tasked with watching students take exam for hours? It is a whole different experience especially when you are used to being on the other side.
So they made a 'mistake' and put yours' truly on a job like that. Like that wasn't bad enough, it was a matured student distant learning class. This basically means a lot of the students are a lot older than regular college students; ages ranging from 30 - 60 years. Yeah, 60. A lot of invigilators are usually mean or have to act mean to deter students from communicating, but not me. I found the entire scene hilarious and couldn't help laughing within, and on a few occasions, cracking a smile here and there. "These people are about to be on a blog post and don't even know it", I thought.
In one of the halls I invigilated, I caught this very-pregnant woman cheating. I would guess about 40-years old and about 6-months pregnant. "Wow, only if this unborn baby knew his Mum was cheating in an exam while pregnant with him", I imagined. One day this lady is going to tell this same baby not to cheat or lie in an exam. Damn, we are all going to hell, aren't we.
You know what cracked me up the most? There was this man, probably 55+ years old whom I personally knew, trying to communicate with a mate next to him. I caught him staring at his mate's paper while his mate had aligned his work so this elderly man could see. The sad part is: the old man wore glasses and had to take off the glasses to have a good look at his mate's paper. "Dude! how do you copy from another man's paper and not have good eye-sight?". It's like doing an armed robbery and not be armed. I didn't even have to look hard to catch him cheating. Anytime I saw somebody take their glasses off from the corner of my eye, I knew 'Grand-papa Da Cheater' was at it again. I didn't want to speak out loud so I took a quick stroll pass his column. He saw me and said "Hi, Sir". I responded "Hey, hope it's going well?", He smiles and says "Yes, please". "You liar", I thought. I went passed his friend's column and quietly told him to align his papers correctly so others won't be tempted to cheat. Sorry, I still had a job to do.
I could bet almost everybody in the exam hall was a parent, and yet, 70% of them were cheating, or attempted to cheat. That cracked me up. I was watching the whole time thinking "Man, I wish I could line their kids up right now and see how they feel about mummy and daddy sneaking a peak, or throwing gang signs in an exam room in an attempt to steal". That'd be hilarious and a good TV show, if any producers are reading this. Thank me later.
People fear exam. After God, I think Exam scares the hell out of people the most. Imagine hearing the words "Start Work", taking a glance at the questions and realizing you can only solve 20% of the questions provided. You already know you've failed the paper before you even begin. The thought of re-sitting, re-studying, re-attending lectures, feeling shame, and adding more courses to subsequent courses scares the crap out of people, and at that moment, morals/religion/God/belief get thrown out the window. One time, just before exam began in the pre-exam talk where instructions are given, one invigilator jokingly said "It's a sin to cheat". Well, saying the students didn't care is an understatement. Nobody in the room gave a damn. That was probably the worst exam I invigilated.
So does the FEAR OF GOD outweigh the FEAR OF EXAM. Hmm...Who knows ?? Probably not, for most people at least, including a lot of you reading this right now 😃
Hope you enjoyed this piece.........Peace ✌✌👌
Typical Exam hall
When you know you are about to fail a paper before you even begin
Grandpapa Da Cheater doing his thing
