The Siamerican

The end of the second term of academic year 2007 / 2550 (even though it’s already a third into 2008 / 2551) has finally arrived. All classes finished last week. The Siamerican has four exams from today, Tuesday to Thursday, followed by two more next week to seal the term away into a memorable and overall interesting four and a half months. Though grand social and professional experience was gained in the first phase of this transition back to Bangkok, redundancy had made its presence occasionally; Nevertheless, the Siamerican prevails in his strive of perseverance and excellence.

The final class was Saturday: Statistics for Social Sciences, which ended with a big blast final quiz, exam preparer. While the two hour quiz, which regarded the basis of Null and Alternative Hypothesis’, Statistical Estimation, Error, and Comparative tests, in itself wasn’t too difficult, the discussion that pursued between students and the instructor proved to be stressful. After seeing results for the last major project, the Siamerican among other students were disappointed if not enraged with the instructors unfair grading of the last major project. Falling about average, the Siamerican received a 5 out of 10 for a project which he put much effort to and was confident with the results. After challenging the instructor and asking to see the actual report with all the apparent mistakes and inconsistencies claimed, he was told that he would be deducted more points for challenging her!

The only thing the Siamerican with his comrades could do at that point was to make a formal complaint to the University Dean, requesting for a neutral committee to assess and review the instructors grading system and data to ensure that scores actually are consistent and unbiased. After receiving the form signed by Thai, German-French, Nepalese, Filipina, and the Siamerican students,–all 3.5 GPA and above students, for whatever credibility its worth–the Dean simply said he would talk to the instructor.

Unfortunately, BUIC doesn’t have formal and regular review and assessment of their instructor’s assessment results/practices/habits. Perhaps it’s a face and trust issue, particularly for subjects which there are less available instructors, and the institute must maintain loyal professional relationships, or face value as is of much concern in the kingdom.

Not only are there biases in the questionable scoring methods at times, but ever is abundance in the flaws and errors in the actual exams, which are rarely proof-read or validated as legit assessment tools, with valid questions, error free and minimally cognitive.

On top of all the wo’, exam results / scores for the most part are kept secret and confidential from even the students’ eyes. In other words, the only thing the student ever learns after submitting exams/report/projects is a score, and ultimately a grade, ensuring that he/she will never learn from the mistakes they made. All the hours invested in study soon get lost in the strands of days gone by.

Though the University apparently strives to be of international and modern education standard, there is clearly a long way before this claim becomes reality. In the eyes of some, the destination is within reach. If history has taught us anything, the winds of change will certainly coerce the old fashioned ignorance and impracticality to cease someday–hopefully sooner than later. In the meantime, students will continued to be evaluated like jar head pupils of decades and centuries past. All the while, the University PR department spends more time, money, and effort to promote a modern and trendy image–a place where students should come to gain necessary skills to succeed in the world. Ironically, an unexpected patience and hindsight is gained from all the jumping through system hoops.

Today’s College Writing (composition and writing theory) test at 14.00 is expected to be one of the more predictable exams. Since, there is little disagreement with interpretation of written theory, the responsibility relies heavily on the student to know his/her theory. In addition to the reading and writing theory, an essay will be required. The topic will most likely have something to do with Society, one way or another.

Tomorrow’s Critical Reading at 9.00 shouldn’t be too difficult to pass, with not much more heavy preparation, though it does require a lot of technical term memorization regarding Emotional Appeals, Hidden Assumptions, Reasoning, and Fallacies among other relevant yet useless information, proving more trouble than it’s worth in real life. Not to say at all that critical reading is useless, but to memorize and drill classification names and types of literal habits and errors can seem like a redundant if not daunting task at times. Thankfully, the Thailand-seasoned (in LOS since the 1950s) American instructor, Randolph has been helpful and entertaining to keep the Siamerican motivated and involved in class.

Thursday will be the most difficult exam day with Statistics for Social Sciences exam in the morning, followed by a Marketing Communications exam in the afternoon. Both will be short-term memorization, multiple choice exams. sighhhhhh….

Next week, the archaic-conservative assessment system of University exams will pick back up on Tuesday with a Modern Presentation Techniques exam in the morning. The Siamerican’s exam finale will be Thursday afternoon with an en exam in Mass Media Communications.

…stay tuned…