Tag Archives: exam

A proposed oral penalty (Rousse)

Posted on November 5, 2025 by Dreamaticus

EH was away so I was left to chaperone the learned dignitary who had flown in from the US to deliver a guest lecture to the final year students. She was the only British academic to have ever won the … Continue reading →

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Trick-cycling, pogo-ing, and the real purpose of a private education (Rousse)

Posted on September 12, 2024 by Dreamaticus

After watching a friend’s son trick-cycle his way down the yellow-painted banister of an Edinburgh tenement staircase, I took my pogo stick and bounced along the streets to my new girls’ school. So much for school fees: the teachers at … Continue reading →

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Students, school skirts, and Swindon (Rousse)

Posted on October 17, 2023 by Dreamaticus

It might appear cruel, but I insisted that the students sit their exams at desks lined up outside on the main road in the pouring rain. If they got soaked, I had a supply of grey school skirts in a … Continue reading →

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Lunch in Corbridge (Rousse)

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Dreamaticus

I set off to collect my cousin FA from the exam hall. I should have known that he would have left his desk long before the end of the allocated time to complete the paper. It took a while to … Continue reading →

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Finals fear (Rousse)

Posted on August 25, 2022 by Dreamaticus

Two years later than expected – due to treatment for breast cancer – I was due to take my finals. However, I had not read the set texts, did not know the exam time or venue, the paper format was … Continue reading →

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Failing your finals (Rousse)

Posted on September 22, 2021 by Dreamaticus

I met old university classmates KH and SB for a cup of tea in the Scotsman Hotel before they left Edinburgh. SB confessed that – like me – she had not been attending the final year classes of our French … Continue reading →

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Unwelcome guests and a Christmas party assault (Rousse)

Posted on September 24, 2020 by Dreamaticus

Two of the most popular guests were missing from our super-early Christmas party. Instead of joining us in person for sausages and Champagne, BP and her new husband SF communicated to us (and the world) from their bedroom as they … Continue reading →

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Urban garden design knowledge management exam (Rousse)

Posted on May 21, 2020 by Dreamaticus

I remembered my request for the removal of the multiple choice section from the Knowledge Management exam. Instead, the students would be required to answer three essay questions rather than two. On the day of the exam itself, I took … Continue reading →

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Soap opera simpletons (Belle)

Posted on January 2, 2020 by Dreamaticus

Coronation Street, the soap opera, got 0% in the national biology exam. It was front-page news in the tabloids and the broadsheets and sparked a national debate about how stupid TV was.

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Tutor daughter thwarts student mother’s study success (Rousse)

Posted on January 9, 2019 by Dreamaticus

My mother had only been studying for a week, so had barely opened the book when I told her that it was time for her first exam. I was somewhat responsible for the panic that ensued. I really should have … Continue reading →

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