Dear God… Let This Exam Be As Kind As I’ve Been To My Students
After more than a decade in the academia, I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed almost every part of the profession be it teaching, mentoring students, interactive classroom discussions, projects supervision, and those beautiful moments when a student finally understands a difficult concept. Well almost every part… except one. Marking examination scripts... Many lecturers already knows this struggle. Those tall piles of answer sheets staring back at you like they have a personal grudge... Often containing handwritings that look like footballers autographs, so difficult to read. At some point you begin to wonder whether you are marking an exam script or trying to decode ancient manuscripts newly discovered by archaeologists from the times of Tsumburbura and Barbushe. Then comes the internal debate between “Did the student really understand this?” and “Maybe I should give some marks for effort, for grammar, for neatness, etc” aka "let my people go." Wel...
