Exam techniques

First of all, sorry about the lack of posting. I've been both moving and exam-ing, and believe me, the exams were more painful than the move. But now both are finished so I am free to talk about exam technique. Other people's exam techniques have always fascinated me. I don't mean actual techniques for passing an exam, like, you know, studying, or cheating, or whichever takes your fancy. I'm talking about coping techniques for getting through the 2 or 3 hours you have to sit there.

I don't fuss much over exams. I go in, scribble madly for 2 hours, and leave. I never take any food in but I do usually have a bottle of water. I have lots and lots of pens. But that's as far as I go in the exam room. Last week, in a 2 hour exam, I was amused to see a girl with a full thermos of coffee on her desk, which she poured cups of coffee from every few minutes. In a three-hour exam the week before, someone had brought what looked like their whole lunch in, including sandwich, drink and fruit for after. This seemed to me a bit excessive. The exam was over by 12.30. Surely you can wait til then to have lunch? Personally, I would be worried about spending too much time eating, drinking or pouring to properly concentrate on the exam, or that I'd run out of time. But apparently other people don't have these worries.

The other eternal mystery of exams is where the Invigilators come from. First of all, the word "invigilator" is really funny. I'm going to prove that by using it as many times as possible in this paragraph. For the uninitiated, invigilators are the old men and women who supervise the exams, hand out exam papers, and that kind of thing. They have funny badges which say "Hi! I'm invigilator..." and then their name. Who wants to spend whole days supervising students? Don't they have anything better to do? The main issue I have with invigilators is if you do ask them for something, they never bring what you want. And it takes them 10 minutes to not bring you what you want. Ask for another script book, you'll get a glass of water after the exam has finished. Ask for a glass of water, you'll get a tissue. If you ask for a tissue, they'll probably show you where the toilets are. Observing the politics between the invigilators is also funny. Last week, on invigilator was obviously not impressed with the speed of which another invigilator was collecting exams. She muscled in and started collecting exams at a very fast speed, but seemed to have forgotten she was meant to be making announcements as well. The result: we sat there for an extra 5 minutes until she told us we could go. Finally, I wonder where invigilators go between exam periods (ie most of the year). Do they display their invigilator badges proudly, and show them off to all their friends? Or do they store them secretly, biding their time before they can next break out the invigilator badge? Heavy issues, indeed.