Joy and Agony of Exams

It is that time of year that most look at with either dread or delight depending on their situation. As a teacher it is mostly delight with a hint of dread; delight that the time has come to torture your students, and dread that you now have to untangle their answers to formulate marks. I rather enjoy making up exams, figuring out the wording to best jump start a brain without giving the answer away. Thinking back to my days as a student, I remember how much I would freak out at exam time; unable to sleep and nervous about the outcome. Agonizing over my math and science exams, trying to reword yet another view on a piece of poetry for english exams. Now as the teacher, I find myself trying to balance a fine line between not too easy and not soul-crushingly hard. Trying to be fair to those who have studied and worked all year and yet still challenging. Now with 2 exams down and 2 to go the results stand thus: English (pretty easy but students were lazy, I actually didn't write that one), Math (perhaps a little too long and difficult), over the next 2 days we will have the Science and Social studies exams (both written by me so we will see how it goes). As my students write I find I have plenty of time to catch up on the odd pit of paper work and report cards that are due end of the week. From a teacher's point of view the week is long but not very difficult, a bit boring and yet entertaining at the same time. For the students it had been mostly a week of agony with the possibility of joy when the week is over (and of a tiny bit of worry over their report card marks). The year is winding down, boxes are being packed and classrooms are looking a bit bare as things get cleaned up for the summer. It has that bittersweet feeling about it.