Monday, December 19, 2005

Exams at DTU

There are no weekly assignments or midterms in any class at DTU. Apart from leaving me with lots of free time, it also means that several of my marks are based 100% on my final exam. To make them even more daunting, they're four hours long. Still, I had looked over some old exams and they seemed very similar to Queen's.
I was in for quite a surprise when I headed for the gym for my first exam. The desks were abour four times bigger than the ones I was used to. Why would you need such a big desk? Because the exams were open to "all aids." That means you could bring all your notes, and the textbook. It also means you could bring your laptop (there was an electrical outlet at each desk). Or anything else you wanted (people wrote their exams while listening to music on their cd players). As well, they let you eat and drink whatever you want (unlike Queen's rules that even prevented Nalgene bottles).
And, I later learned, the professors are instructed to write exams that can be completed in three hours, so the fourth hour is to allow you to verify all your work.
It was the most comfortable exam I have ever written.

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