What? We have to turn in all our midterm exams by tomorrow! This is the first I’ve heard of this. This school seems to be indifferent about everything we do. So it’s strange that they would be in dire need of our midterms. Just like any school, our school has midterm exams. Our exam week is not for another week but now they are requiring us to turn in our exams early so the Thai teachers can make copies for all the students. I think I was the only person that didn’t know that they were supposed to be done this early. How frustrating! How am I supposed to get almost 15 midterm exams for six different grade levels prepared and ready by tomorrow morning? Why didn’t anyone tell me? We should really have some type of bulletin board put up in the teacher’s lounge or something. It is stressful trying to guess what we may or may not be doing. And I don’t always know the right questions to ask.
Making the Test. So I made the midterms from scratch. They don’t provide us any testing material or resources so we can create the tests to our own standard. This is ideal since I can cater the tests to my student’s abilities and assess them on the historical facts I believe is most important. But at the same time, it can be damaging since I can test them on whatever I feel like and no one is holding me accountable. This is basically the theme for this school though. I’m in the class with each grade for multiple subjects and no one knows what I am teaching. I could be teaching them that the world is flat and Christopher Columbus was a really great guy. I could be teaching them Communist ideals. I could even be teaching them about katoeys and the benefits of having an STD. No one checks up on me. No one comes in to observe my class. The Thai teachers are barely there and when they are they are dazing off or gossiping with the kids as I am teaching. No one is holding me accountable. This is strange. I never thought I would want that uncomfortable feeling of having someone monitor me. Muhaha. This is how I can impose my own propaganda. I have so much power. What should I teach them to believe next? Any suggestions?
So after a grueling day of staring at the computer and my books, I created my midterm exams and review sheets. I was very proud of my work. I had a great mix of vocabulary definitions, multiple choice questions, and short answer questions. Coming up with the multiple choice answers were pretty difficult but fun. I was nervous though. I had a feeling that these kids don’t really do their work, or at least their own work. They might not do too well on my test. Whenever they turn in homework or classwork, if they even do or attend class at all, their work always looks exactly identical to the person next to them. It will be nice to finally see who copies who while evaluating these tests.
I am most interested and most nervous about the whole ‘kids never fail’ policy plays out during the midterm. I have tried to make my tests cater to everyone’s ability. But if they don’t study, they will fail. How will this work? Will they get retested? Do I have to make my tests easier? Can I not give any retests and tell them they have to make it up with attendance and other assignments? Retests just sound like more work. More test making, more grading, and more time. Sounds terrible.
After completing all of my tests, I found out that a few of my classes were not supposed to have midterms and were not scheduled to have midterms. I was quite irritated by this since those midterms were the hardest ones to make. Some of those classes did not have any textbooks or relevant resources so all my research was done online or through the books found in our substandard library. See, how was I supposed to know that at least four of the classes I teach don’t require midterms? How am I supposed to know to ask that question? One would just assume if you teach a class, you would also test them for midterms just like you would for any other class. Bulletin board, really!
The Test. Testing week is very strange. Instead of having test from the beginning to the end of the school week, we test students from Tuesday to Saturday. So we have normal classes on Monday but have to come in on Saturday for some reason. I was lucky. The social exams were scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. So I was exempt from coming in on Saturday. Another design of exam week that I thought was a bit strange is that three grade levels take their midterms at the same time. They all take one teacher’s midterm at the same time. For example, they test my 7th graders, 8th graders, and 9th graders on social studies during one period. They have a five minute break before those same grades get tested on Thai history for the next period. That’s only for social studies. Afterwards, they have three or four more subjects to get tested on. So instead of spreading the material over the week, they receive multiple tests within one day and multiple days off between tests.
Since they test all the students at the same time, it is difficult for one teacher to proctor the exams. All the grade levels are spread out between six classrooms so that is a lot of classrooms to monitor at one time. These kids cheat all the time too and there is nothing we can really do about it. And they know this. I was relieved to know that there was a Thai teacher in each of the classrooms. I thought that should help. Oh, but it didn’t.
During the test, I tried to rotate from one classroom to another. But it was difficult. The kids asked a lot of questions so it became hard for me to manage my time equally in each classroom. This became more of a problem since these kids are little cheating rascals. Right before walking into each classroom, I could see all of them having a discussion with each other. One student will announce my arrival and all the students would face forward and pretend to be looking on to their own papers.
Thai teachers are supposed to be in their monitoring but when entering my classrooms, the teachers weren’t anywhere to be found. This means that the kids can share as much of their answers as they want. I heard that some of Thai teachers were trying to give answers away for the students. What’s worse is many times the Thai teachers don’t even know the subject that well and end up giving the students the wrong answer. It’s not like I believe the student doesn’t deserve it but the method is really detrimental to the students’ progress anyhow. One of the foreign teachers informed me that many of the students were all talking during the exams. Even the Thai teacher was spotted casually chatting away with the kids during the exam. Ten students in this particular class did not have time to finish the rest of the exam. I wonder why?
After being informed about all the cheating that was happening during the exams, I decided to be more vocal for the next round of exams. I went to each of the six classrooms and mentioned the repercussions I will impose if I catch them cheating. I used the scare tactic: You will get a big fat zero, to rile them up a little bit. Then I gave them all a mean glare. They looked scared at first, but I think it’s all a front. I know that they didn’t listen to me. They never do. Then, I went to all the Thai teachers and asked them individually if they can make sure the kids don’t cheat. Most of them hardly acknowledged me. One teacher responded with: “I can’t. They just talk.” I was confused. “Why can’t you? They are not allowed to talk or cheat. Make them stop talking.” The Thai teacher replied, “I can’t stop them from talking. They talk too much.” In complete disbelief, I asserted, “Just don’t let them talk or cheat.”
Before, during, and after the test, I mostly heard excuses and complaints. I guess there is such a thing as a stupid question:
- Do we have to answer these questions?
(while pointing to the entire test, he was serious or maybe just hopeful)
- Do I have to take the exam?
- Why do we have to study?
- Do I have to write anything if there’s no enough space?
- Can I have a retest?
(before even getting the test)
- Why the test so hard?
(without even looking at the test yet)
- I had a cough yesterday. Can I take the test next week?
- Do we get points for our name?
- Does this test count?
After the test…
Students (in the Thai accent): “Teach-chaa, so haaahhrd.”
Me: “Well, did you study?”
Some guiltlessly shook their head and some took their fingers and squished them together to signify how little they studied. This meant that if they did study at all, it was the five minutes that they had before the test.
Grading. I knew more than half of them cheated. What a waste of time for me, grading all these exams. I might as well give them all the same score since it was basically a group effort. I could actually follow through with the threat of giving them a zero, but it’s not allowed. And even if I did, the school would just make me retest all of them until they passed or until I changed the test. I would still end up with the same problem, exerting more work that isn’t as useful for the kids and never being acknowledged.
It was obvious that the kids cheated too. In one class, every single student copied each other’s answers. For this class, I counted nine of the questions that had the same exact response, word for word. They didn’t even attempt to cover up their plagiarism. They just wrote down exactly what their friend had. The funny thing is all 9 of the answers were wrong. So they copied all the wrong answers. I definitely gave them all a piece of my mind.
In Thailand, fifty percent and above is passing. So they can receive a 50% in their overall grade and be able to move on to the next grade. When I handed back midterms, one student shouted with glee when he found out he got a 50%. He started gloating about his passing grade, passing his exam paper around like a trophy. Then he received high fives from his friends for this wonderful accomplishment, those of which weren’t too far from that 50% as well. While grading, I was rather lenient. I definitely counted some answers that were questionable and tried giving them some credit. But even so, many of them failed.
Retest. We are required to give them retests if they received below a 50% on the exam. I didn’t like their attitudes so I required anyone with a 60% and below to retest. They didn’t study for the retest though. I was able to keep a better eye on them during the retest since I put all the testers in one room. Many of them ended up doing worse, maybe because they were doing their own work this time. Some did better probably because they were actually doing their own work.
I heard more excuses. Some of the same ones like, “It’s too hard”, “I don’t feel good”, “can I take it next week?”
But some of their work was actually quite ridiculous, desperate, and funny. Keep in mind, these kids are high schoolers in an English program. Here are some examples of student work:
7. Which kingdom ended right before the Ratthanakosin kingdom?
King Taksin
He must have mistaken the word kingdom for king. When he took his retest, I noticed that he put down this same answer, King Taksin. So I told him to go back and reread the question. He came back with:
7. Which kingdom ended right before the Ratthanakosin kingdom?
Oh man! Sometimes these kids do not even read the questions. They are so used to copying and pasting that it’s just second nature for them. I’ve noticed that many of them did this for the other questions. They would just take whatever word was in the question and use it as the answer.
13. What did Phra Maha Tammarachathirat do to show loyalty to the Burmese king?
Please pass me
38. What were some of the requirements needed for a country to join the EU?
Teacher Christy
28. Which colony was the only Southeast Asian colony to never be colonized?
Brain
Really??? I could not believe my eyes when I saw this one. We have never even talked about the brain before in social studies. I even asked their science teacher if they ever went over his part of the human anatomy. Nope. This was all on her own. Brain?? Really? Definitely not a country. I did have some students put down Portugal, Spain, and England as some answers. Those are not Asian countries. But at least, they got the country part right.
No one reads the directions. Everyone cheats. I need to have a big talk with every one of my classes. This disaster of an exam week has now ended. I’m really going to crack down on some of these kiddos. Pop quizzes before each class. Homework. Projects. Maybe I’ll be nice and throw in a couple extra credit opportunities. They are going to need it.
Take a look at these funny student answers from the Why Teachers Drink publication:
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