Ought I to be nervous? Concerned? Stressed?
My students are writing their board exams. I wished them luck, gave them a pep talk and some last minute ‘tips’.
One student asked me for a vocabulary list he can use. I wanted to tell him ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’. Instead, I told him not to use ‘hi-fi’ language. They laughed because I once ranted about how inappropriate the term ‘hi-fi’ is.
Another student wanted to write the words ‘discursive’ and ‘argumentative’ on a piece of paper and take it into the exam hall.
Another student succinctly said, “Arre! That will be on your question paper only! What you’re writing?”
Essentially, his point, as I understood it was that if he wanted to cheat, he should do something useful. The point was taken and understood.
A student wrote an essay for me yesterday and left it on my desk with a note. The essay was Tron Legacy rewritten.
Students don’t seem to realise plagiarism is wrong. How does one change that? They understand it as ‘if we can get away with it, it can’t be wrong’.
All the teachers wished me luck before the exam. I need it for the year ahead.
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