Advice for the young grasshopper starting university -- Instructor feedback and the final exam

Last week of classes brings about two things:

• Exams are coming up
• Instructor feedback forms

The instructor feedback forms (called CEQ's at my university which stands for Course Evaluation Questionnaire) are meant to be use to gather information on how the course you are taking is being taught. From these things the instructor can either change the way the course is taught (like changing the textbook which changes how the course will be taught in the future) or continue on teaching the way he or she has been for the past who knows how many years (I will be saying something on instructors in my next post related to this series).

Be careful what you write on these forms. The instructor may recognize your handwriting so if you have something negative to say about the teacher do not write it down and keep it to yourself. As for funny comments . . . I guess I could leave it up to you but I suggest that you keep your comments to the point or don't comment at all and just rate the course.

Just for fun some students at a university in Singapore wrote comments for some instructor. I'm not sure if any other instructor does this:


Now for the final exam. Not all courses have final exams but out of all the first year courses I've been through there is a final exam. I could say the final exam is like the midterm where you might have a closed book, take home or an essay. Depending on what courses you take there might be other components that are set before the exam period like interviews or dictations for language related courses, but there are some things that make the final exam different than a midterm:

• the final lasts between 2 to 3 hours whereas the midterm is completed during class time
• the final is scheduled some time between the exam period so you might have to write it either on a Saturday morning or a Wednesday evening whereas the midterm is usually completed on a day where you normally have a lecture
• the final covers the major things you have learned over the semester whereas the midterm only covers thing learned up to that point
• finals tend to be worth more than midterms, it could even be worth the whole course if no midterm was ever given in the first place
• the final may or may not be held in a classroom. Most first year finals I've encountered are usually held in some large auditorium or gymnasium while the higher level courses are usually held in classrooms. You will most likely be in a classroom if your class is the only class that is there or if the combined number of people from more than 1 section is small. Also if your class had lectures in a lecture hall it will most likely not be in a classroom.

Like high school you pretty much show up to campus when you have an exam. There will also be other reasons you may show up on campus such as you're still working on that essay that counts for your final mark or you want to get away from some distractions and study at the library. Also you want to keep note of when your exam takes place and where it's located because the exam proctor may or may not be your course instructor and may not be lenient in giving you extra time. If for some reason you cannot make your exam on the scheduled date and time consult the instructor and university regulations as there you can get information on deferring an exam.

Just because the final is worth a lot and can be the make it or break it to passing your course, try not to worry too much. It's okay to feel nervous but just don't let fear take control of you (in the famous words of the bene gesserit: fear is the mind-killer). Same as the midterm don't overexert yourself with studying and do take breaks in between. Try to get enough sleep and eat something too as you don't want your mind to be thinking about sleep or what you want for lunch.

Hopefully this has been of some help. Good Luck! Bonne Chance! Ни Пуха Ни Пера!

Note: I've only seen the Dune movies and may have played some old DOS game so my Dune knowledge is quite limited.

Advice for the young grasshopper attending first year university -- the midterm

About now-ish as this is published midterm tests/exams/whatever you want to call them are going on. A semester lasts between 14-16 weeks and around week 7 or 8 the midterm usually pops up. Depending on your course you may not have a midterm or may have one that hasn't come up yet as some courses may like to have 2 tests and have one each month or you only have 1 test and that comes up in November. Whatever the case is here's some advice.

Have you been keeping on top of things? That is you do set aside some time to read whatever notes you have or make your own from the textbook? The midterm usually covers whatever has been covered in class or whatever your instructor says it covers. This is why you shouldn't skip out on classes as there could be valuable information given out. If you tend to skip classes be sure to have someone reliable who can take notes or tell you what you've been missing. Also you don't want to put off they studying till the last minute unless you somehow can remember things in the past 12 hours.

• Don't overexert yourself

Take a break from studying once in a while. Stretch those legs, have a snack, walk the dog, but don't take too long of a break. Time flies when your having fun so if you decide to take a 1 hour break don't make it a 2 or 3 hour break. Also have plenty of rest the night before. If your midterm is in the morning you wouldn't want to feel exhausted from the night before or sleep past your alarm to end up missing writing the midterm. Even if your midterm is not in the morning you'll probably feel tired the whole day. You might want to have some sort of breakfast that's not just coffee in the morning or some sort of lunch at noon time. Writing on an empty stomach will make you think about food unless somehow you can do things on an empty stomach or depending on how the calendar works you're fasting for religious reasons (yet something is still eaten beforehand) or medical if some sort of appointment comes up after your test.

• YOU CANNOT AND MUST NOT SKIP OUT ON A MIDTERM

The only way you can get out of it is if someone in your family dies and have to be there for the funeral or have a medical reason with a doctor's note. Your university should have something outlined along the lines of "if the student misses a test without a valid reason for missing it the student will receive a mark of zero" so if you really care about passing then you cannot miss out on a midterm.

The kinds of midterms you may encounter are as follows:

• closed book 
• open book
• take home
• essay
• online
• interview (a component for a second language course)

Closed book is pretty straightforward: no textbooks or notebooks present. Open book and take home can be the same as you're allowed to look at the textbook or your notes but with the take home you're not sitting in a classroom and your test period lasts 3-7 days. The essay you'll most likely encounter in English where you have to write and essay based on some topics based on whatever material is covered in class. Some other courses may offer the essay exam too but again it's pretty straightforward. Online is also like the take home that you're not in a classroom with other people but the time window for taking this midterm is much shorter so if the midterm lasts from 9am to 9pm on a Saturday and only takes about 2 hours to complete you can complete the midterm anytime during that period (I haven't had any midterms online, this is just from what I hear). The interview is usually part of a language course. Pretty much you're either reading some sort of site passage or answering some questions.

That's all I have to say for now. Any questions, comments, feel free to leave them below.

Good Luck!