*exams and draft paper
After the fountain pens, the draft paper.
Yesterday, it was my first exam.
As Hong Kong is a low-context culture [1], everything is said or written.
So before the exam starts, the teacher said "As there are people here, whose it is the first year in CityU, I have to read the rules for the exams..." And he started to read the rules (do not eat, do not speak, raise your hand if you have enquiries, switch off your mobile phones...). By the way, the rules are also in the website of the university... and you receive an e-mail saying you are strongly advised to read them before taking the exams...
Then the exams started.
ISTM students, if you choose the subject MEEM 6012 Management of Technological Innovation, you will have questions like : " cooking pan and peanut : think of a new product and write a rough business plan..." (no, no I am not joking ! one of the purposes of the course is to make you be more creative ! see post of November 13th...and do not worry, you will also have more academic courseworks such as a research report and a business plan to write...)
So I started to think... but...no draft paper !!! I had to raise my hand (as specified in the exam rules) and ask for draft paper... and when I handed in my paper, I also had to give my draft paper...
Is it a French thing to have draft papers for the examinations ? If someone has the answer, please, post a comment ! Thanks in advance !
Yesterday, it was my first exam.
As Hong Kong is a low-context culture [1], everything is said or written.
So before the exam starts, the teacher said "As there are people here, whose it is the first year in CityU, I have to read the rules for the exams..." And he started to read the rules (do not eat, do not speak, raise your hand if you have enquiries, switch off your mobile phones...). By the way, the rules are also in the website of the university... and you receive an e-mail saying you are strongly advised to read them before taking the exams...
Then the exams started.
ISTM students, if you choose the subject MEEM 6012 Management of Technological Innovation, you will have questions like : " cooking pan and peanut : think of a new product and write a rough business plan..." (no, no I am not joking ! one of the purposes of the course is to make you be more creative ! see post of November 13th...and do not worry, you will also have more academic courseworks such as a research report and a business plan to write...)
So I started to think... but...no draft paper !!! I had to raise my hand (as specified in the exam rules) and ask for draft paper... and when I handed in my paper, I also had to give my draft paper...
Is it a French thing to have draft papers for the examinations ? If someone has the answer, please, post a comment ! Thanks in advance !
[1] Hall, E.T. , and Hall, M.R., (1989), Understanding cultural differences: German, French and American. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.
posted by yonali @ 3:42 PM
4 Comments:
Is it just a French thing to have draft paper? I'm not sure. I do know that we (a long time ago when I was at university) always had to give in our notes as well as our answers.
There is certainly different concepts of cheating. In France it's almost a national sport and the French often don't understand how badly it is viewed in other places. the French attitude is "if you can get away with it - bravo!"
Thank you for your answer Derek !
Actually yesterday, I had another exam ...and this time, it was so frustrating, because although it was an essay, I could not have any draft paper at all !!!
At the end of the exam, I asked the teacher whether there was any reason why we do not have any draft paper...he just answered maybe it is because in Hong Kong, they have the same examination system as in the United States and in Great Britain (the teacher is British)...but I did not get a deeper explanation...
I am not sure whether the reason is cheating, because my class mates are Norvegians who study in Denmark, and they told me that they were also used to have draft paper...
Aline, as far as I know it is mainly a French thing. When I was in France I was so surprised that the students wrote out a rough draft of their essays and then recopied them into the exam booklets. We don't do that in the US. I think the main reason is because we don't enough time to do it. The written exams I had in France usually lasted from 2 to 4 hours whereas in the US my exams don't last for more than 2 hours.
Thank you for your comment my preciousss Jessica !-)
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