Autumn mid-semester exam results

Mid-semester exams timetable

So I finally get around to publishing a post on the day that I intended to. Today we finally received all of our results from our mid semester exams that ended last week. Although it is unthinkable to receive our exams back so early in Australia, the reason I say "we finally received" is because last semester, the day after exam period ended, we received all our tests back.

Anyway, here are my results, both to inform those back home as well as for my own future record.

Japanese reading	92
Japanese listening	93
Kanji writing/reading	100
Japanese grammar	98
Politicoeconomics	81 85
Japanese history	100

The tests for Japanese were noticeably more challenging than the last time around, as are reflected in my results. Having said that, I didn't get that many wrong - one question was commonly worth 3 or 5 marks, so one incorrect answer brought you down from 100 to 95.

I'm extremely happy to get 100 in history this time round. Having solely studied science subjects for most of my life, I'm not much of a history person. The thing I hate the most about history is the fact that it's 10% understanding and 90% memorisation - the opposite of chemistry and mathematics, for example. But somehow as long long as something is somewhat related to Japan in some way, I have more motivation to learn it. It was with a personal desire to understand Japan's history better that I studied it this semester. The more I learn, the better picture I get of this country. And admittedly, my prejudice against history is slowly changing as I grasp the value of seeing myself against the backdrop of a bigger slice of the time spectrum.

Another subject I thought I'd point out, is that just like last time, politicoeconomics happens to be the only subject where the marking scheme was altered after the exams were marked. I emphasise that what was modified was the marking scheme itself, which personally is a bit beyond my comprehension. It meant that the one setting the test (same guy as last time, and same guy for at least the past 10 years in this program) didn't really know what he was looking for from us. How are we supposed to know what to offer if the teacher doesn't? I'm beginning to feel sorry for the teacher for my condescending attitude at his teaching style, and do acknowledge that he deserves some credit for what he does. It's only hearsay, but from what I understand, he's past the age where he can legally retire, but the school has retained him because there's no suitable replacement for his position yet. I guess he's thinking he wants a break now as well, though he probably has much on his plate by this stage. People inevitably get busier the older they get. I've been observing that also in my life and that of all my friends over the five years since it first occurred to me.