Invigilation

Empty examination hall

Not being able to answer an exam question because you don’t know the answer is one thing. Not being able to answer an exam question because you don’t understand the question is something else. Worse is to answer an exam question wrongly because you misunderstood the question. So I told my students repeatedly before the final exams to ask if they didn’t understand or weren’t clear of the meaning of even one word in the exam questions. Some did, others didn’t.

The advice was targeted primarily to the weaker students. Those were the ones who scored poorly in tests because, among other things, they didn’t properly understand the questions. Unfortunately, those who needed the most help were also the same students most reluctant to ask questions, for whatever reasons. I could see that they were having problems, but as I walked up and down the examination hall and even stopped by their desks expecting a question, all I got were funny faces.

Did I have to ask them if they had any problems? :P