おひさしぶりです！(Long time no see!) Finally back from all my domestic trips. I hope
to document each of my trips in more detail in individual, dedicated posts in
the coming week. I am aware that I've said similar things in the past, and
nothing came to fruition, but this time, there's one difference: holidays have
started! Technically, holidays started on July 20th, but it hasn't felt like it
till now.
So
this post is the first of many overdue posts. I came back from my final
trip this summer holidays on the 17th of this month, but I have been
cramming flat out for my PTC
correspondence exam since that time until today, when I finally sat it. To give
an update on my previous post, I have turned down the Japan Tent international
exchange, made my (possibly more than one) would-be homestay family very sad by
cancelling, and instead committed to studying the remainder of the PTC course
to the best of my ability. After all, I'm not doing this course for marks
alone. The whole reason I began it was to get to know the Bible better, and it
would defeat the purpose if I studied merely to pass. So I sat the two and a
half hour exam for Introduction to the Bible at 2pm today, and used up the
entire 2.5 hours. The good news is that I could answer almost everything, so it
showed a good understanding of the subject content, praise God! Report of
results will come in time. Thank God for the generosity of my church pastor who
served as exam supervisor and made this all possible!
In
the meantime, the following table displays my results for our end
of semester 1 exams. I intended to write this on the 19th of July, when we
got our exam results back, but haven't until now sorry >.<
Japanese
speaking
|
90
|
Japanese
composition
|
88
|
Japanese
listening
|
100
|
Kanji
writing/reading
|
100
|
Japanese
grammar
|
98
|
Politicoeconomics
|
79 91
|
Japanese
history
|
99
|
I
figured there are numerous benefits to putting up my results here. Since my
official job at the moment is student, I'm sure people back home want to know
how I'm faring in that department, so I'll let my results do the reporting.
Another good reason is that this will help me keep track of my exam results, as
we have been advised to do.
I'm thankful to God for the marks that have eventuated. Our responsibility is to make the most of the opportunities and abilities he's given each of us, but the outcome is up to him. As I like to phrase it, trust God and do your best, and God will do the rest. Whether I get 45%, 65% or 95% doesn't matter; God will give me what he deems best.
I'm thankful to God for the marks that have eventuated. Our responsibility is to make the most of the opportunities and abilities he's given each of us, but the outcome is up to him. As I like to phrase it, trust God and do your best, and God will do the rest. Whether I get 45%, 65% or 95% doesn't matter; God will give me what he deems best.
These
exams have on the whole been well structured in achieving their purpose of
assessing our progress. We had to fill out a questionnaire on the quality of
the teaching in the semester, and my responses were largely positive. The one
exception, however, was politicoeconomics, as I vented at length in
a previous post.
You'll
notice that the dodginess of the subject is reflected in my mark above. The
mark change was approved when I spoke with the teacher who set, marked, and
reviewed the exam (without any cross-checker). Why did my mark jump from 79 to
91, you might be wondering? The whole difference came from one question. And
that question, was entirely a mathematical one.
Because
venting in only one post isn't enough for me, I'm going to vent again that you
don't set arts students maths questions in a timed exam. Or if you do, at least
do some practice in class, or actually tell
us before the exam so we can practice. The question I lost most of my marks on
was a question that required us to look at age statistics and calculate
population proportions using raw data. We did look at the same data in class,
but the teacher did not get us to work out a single math problem in class or
for homework. He then proceeds to set us a 15 mark question, of which I only
got 3 initially. To be absolutely clear, I understood the concepts and formulae
needed to work out the numbers. So after I reasoned with him that I
demonstrated my understanding by writing down all the formulae correctly and
had written down the relevant figures but that we weren't allowed a calculator
and I ran out of time calculating, he finally consented. I wonder how many
other students in the class lost marks not because they didn't know their
stuff, but because they couldn't divide 66,987 by 12,692 without a calculator.
Yes, I bring shame upon my Chinese family. To give the full story, I admit that
yes there was a shorter way by using alternate data on the sheet, but that
still involved dividing something like 89.1 by 26.8 without a calculator and
without being warned before the test, which is my primary complaint, and I
maintain my position.
In
any case, the first term marks don't count for this subject (precisely because
the university knows unexpected things like this happen). So it doesn't matter
whether I got 79 or 91, it doesn't affect anything. However, I strongly dislike
the structure of this subject.
