My First Exam

I passed my first oral exam yesterday.  We were broken into smaller groups and had to discuss a case study.  The case was of an illiterate Indian woman who died giving birth to her 10th child at the age of 30.  We had to discuss the medical reasons for her death, socio-cultural, human rights issues involved, economics, etc.

I did a few oral exams in college that I loved.  When you hear others speaking it sparks ideas of your own.  I liked the informality of oral exams.  I was excited to originally hear we'd be having oral exams but as the preparations began I was more nervous.  It's a different system of education here and our instructions sounded more rigid and pressure filled.  This is what we were told:

     This is formally an examination.  You should have prepared to have a good enough understanding
     of the case without needing it for the discussion.  In order to speak you will need to raise your hand
     and wait until you are given the opportunity to speak by the moderator.  Active participation implies
     that one contributes with new perspectives and lines of thought to the discussion, or that one
     structures and summarizes the discussion for the benefit to all participants.  Merely repeating earlier
     statements is not active participation.  You are graded on insightful and original thoughts.

Well, this sounded much too subjective to me!  How can you determine if each person says something insightful?  The case wasn't that complicated and it sure wasn't controversial.  It didn't seem like there would be enough to say.  Most people were nervous about this exam because it was our first and there was so much unknown.

The doors of the research center are electronically coded to open only during your assigned times.  When my group got to our room there was some technical difficulty with our door and my professor/moderator was concerned about closing the door and getting locked in.  I suggested he put the small trash can there to allow for the door to almost be closed and block out some of the external noises but also allow us to get out again.  He looked at my name placard (yes we have name placards) and told the class I (using my name) had used my problem solving skills and that is what he liked to see.  My classmates insisted I had fulfilled my insightful comment and was guaranteed a pass.  If only it had been that easy.

But it did go well.  We had a professional discussion and I was able to contribute.  At one point I may have said something a bit controversial to spark some fire.  I said something about the possibility the woman may have been from a lower caste even though the caste system is dissolved it may still be played out and if the doctors were of a higher caste, or men, they may not have tried to save her life because they didn't value her as much.  I saw a slight nod and smile from the moderator for that comment.

It was also very interesting to see how our own cultural backgrounds came out in our discussion.  Those from the Nordic countries did a great job of saying thoughts that left opening for the next person to add on.  Some students who come from more individualist and rote-memorization cultures spewed a long, clearly memorized, talk saying everything there was to say.  And there were others who contributed with thoughts they heard from others during previous conversations but which they didn't know themselves.

Now that exam is over but the reading and preparing never seems to end.  We have another oral exam next week, a course paper to start for my final and daily reading assignments to be up on so I can actively contribute to class.  The sun is shining, I have new friends to study with and I'm learning.  Life is good.

Studying with a latte.  Is there any better way?

My friend got too hot so went to sit in the shade. Too hot in Sweden?  Is it possible?