Exam Season

Disclaimer: I’m going to use a variety of terms that are used in South Africa. There’s a glossary at the bottom of this post to help with the translations.

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It’s exam season at my school. During the last couple of weeks of the term*, all primary and secondary schools switch into exam-mode. At the primary school level, three grades in particular (Grade 3, 6, and 7) receive a lot of attention because the learners* in these grades write* exams passed down by the Department of Basic Education for languages* and maths* courses. Don’t worry; all of the other grades and subjects test as well. Seeing as how one of my primary functions here is to teach English, I have been able to gain an upfront view of what learners (and educators*) have to do to complete these exams. I’ll illustrate using Grade 6 English.

Grade 6 has “two tasks*”. I use the inverted commas* because saying two tasks makes it sound like the learners only do two things. In reality, learners complete a multitude of assignments that culminate into these two tasks; 10 different assignments to be exact. These are in addition to all of the other assignments learners complete over the course of the term. However, these are the only marks* that count toward the learners’ mark*. The assignments fall under four categories of skills: listening & speaking, reading & viewing, writing & presenting, and language structures & conventions. Under Task One, learners are responsible for completing six assignments, and, under Task Two, four assignments.

Grade 5 Learners Writing Their English Exam

If an educator plans ahead, s/he will assign all of the assignments for Task 1 between weeks 4-5 of the term (kind of like midterms at a university) and all of the assignments for Task 2 between weeks 9-10 of the term (kind of like finals at a university) (one term lasts 10 weeks). Assigning assignments for Task 2 gets tricky because the Department of Basic Education mandates that all public primary schools* administer common tests* for languages and maths for Grades 6-7. Theoretically, learners should be given as much time as possible to learn and then prepare to complete the assignments that will count toward the tasks. However, all of the assignments need to be created, signed off by the HOD*, administered (and in the cases of the common tests invigilated*), marked*, monitored*, and given back to the learners so they can see their mark (not to mention learners are given report cards); all before the end of the term when schools close for a break.

If you’re feeling somewhat lost and stressed by the number of things that need to get done in order to formally assess learners’ academic progress, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Educators at my school, including me, feel the same way. Further compounding educators’ stress, and their workload, is that they teach anywhere from four to seven subjects. This means that they have to administer tasks, which are comprised of a multitude of assignments, for each subject they teach. Now, not every subject has as many assignments under each task; however, altogether, it’s a lot of work.

Grade 7 Learners Writing Their English Exam

During the first term, as the reality of what I needed to do for each of my three classes set in, I was like a deer in headlights. I was perplexed as to how I should approach administering all of the tasks, and, further, I underestimated the amount of time it would take to administer everything. With approximately 135 learners spread across the three grades I teach, it took a lot of time to get everything done. In particular, the tasks for listening & speaking took a bulk of the time in class because I listened to and engaged each learner individually in conversation to assess their abilities. Out of the class, writing & presenting took the largest amount of time because of reading and editing learners’ written work.

Entering the second term, I had a better game plan. I planned to start administering tasks as soon as the fourth week of the term started and to have learners edit their peers’ work in addition to their own. (I tried having them edit their own work in the first term, but editing is a skill that takes a long time to perfect). Also, by the beginning of the second term, I was getting better at reading/deciphering learners’ writing. The trick was to read their writing phonetically. Coming to that realization opened the door to new meaning because I was better able to comprehend the message they were trying to send. It still takes me a lot of time to read through and edit learners’ work, but at least now I have a system for getting it all done. With only a few days left in the term, exam season will be coming to close soon. 

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* term – academic term; quarter

* learners – students

* write – take

* languages – isiZulu; English

* maths – math; mathematics

* educator – teacher

* tasks – exams

* inverted commas – quotation marks

* mark – grade; final grade

* primary school – elementary school; grades pre-kindergarten to 7th grade

* common tests – standardized test

* HOD – Head of Department

* invigilated – proctored

* marked – graded

* monitored – grading is checked by the HOD to ensure it has been done fairly; thus ensuring it wasn’t biased