I'm not sure whether anyone ever reads these, but just in case this post comes with a warning - it consists of me ranting about the nightmare that was my French oral exam this evening!
The brief was straightforward enough - prepare a three minute presentation about a project for an ecological community. Then listen to two other students give their presentations followed by a six minute discussion. Easy you would think?
Well I thought it would be until this evening....my presentation was prepared, I had possible questions to ask and answers to questions that I thought the others might ask me. I logged into the OU online conferencing system where the exam was to take place - so far so good. The other students were there and my heart sunk - one of them was a native French speaker who spoke very quickly and, from previous experience, never had very good sound quality via her microphone.
Before we gave our presentations we all had to give our names and ID numbers and that was when I realised that both of the other students were very difficult to hear - the sound was fuzzy and muffled. But before I could say anything, the tutor had started her introduction and we were underway. We were told that if we had sound problems we could send a written message, but not while anyone else was speaking, which didn't give any leeway!
I gave my presentation first and I think it went ok. Then the next girl started and I could barely hear what she was saying. The sound was so crackly I could only make out odd words here and there and had to guess at her project. As soon as she finished I sent a message to the tutor, but got no response. The next student then started and her sound was as bad - quiet and muffled. At that point I could have cried.
The discussion started and I was asked a question - thankfully I could just about make out the main part of it! I managed a reply and asked another question, but then one of the others decided she wanted to tell us more about her project rather than having a discussion and rambled on! Before I knew it, the exam was over and I felt as if I contributed nothing to the discussion.
As soon as I logged out I burst into tears - I cannot believe that having worked so bloody hard over the past seven months and received great scores up until now, that my course result could be jeopordised by the fact that other people had crap equipment and that somebody decided to monopolise the discussion. the other annoying thing is that her presentation was only just over 2 minutes anyway, so the bit she rambled on about during the discussion time could have been said during her presentation time anyway.
I had defended the OU's decision to use online conferencing for exams previously, as I had no problems at all for my last course. Yet tonight has shown me that it is just not a reliable way to assess students language abilities - technical problems (or microphone hogs) can ruin someone's chances completely.
I have emailed my tutor, but doubt anything can be done. I understand there is a Special Circumstances form that can be sent to the exam board but whether this is worth pursuing I don't know yet. Now is not the time to decide - I am so cross and upset that I can barely think straight. The thought that 15 minutes tonight could have ruined my course result (and ultimately my degree result) is so infuriating.
I know the answer is to put it behind me and move on - and as I have the written exam in 2 weeks I should really concentrate on that - but for now I'm drowning my sorrows in a large glass of wine! Hopefully I'll be able to put it all in perspective tomorrow.
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