More Asbestos!

November 2006. That was the last time I sat an exam. Biotechnology practice or something. It seems like so long ago. And now the cyclical nature of the studious life has spun around again, and I find myself staring down the barrel of three exams.

Unfortunately, my casual disregard toward them is making my motivation to recram everything I have learned over the past semester a trifle more difficult. Still, it scares me that in 3 years I'll be back to being beyond exams again. Hopefully this time I'll mean it.

The one exam I'm actually concerned about the possibility of failure is the 'Health Psychology' exam. It's a ridiculous subject, that has many things in it I shall likely never use again. Still, jumping through hoops is all part of the exciting journey.

Perhaps one of the more novel forms of assessment that we have undertaken this year is the overly vague "reflective writing." Essentially they make us do some activity, in this case it has been 'cultural safety.' Then we are to write about the experience and what we have learned. I was actually impressed with the education session, as my understanding of aboriginal culture was rather limited, and now I feel like I know a little more. Furthermore, it wasn't the white bashing session I thought it was going to be. Australia obviously has a cringe-worthy history when it comes to dealing with Aboriginal and Torres straight islanders, and I think we've acknowledged that. But the session itself didn't resort to finger pointing, which was good because I didn't think any of the students were personally responsible for history. But I'm starting to wonder about the rather militant marking process.

In med, everything is NGP (non graded pass). You pass or fail. One would have thought that in a reflection, where you state your thoughts and feeling about an issue it would be rather difficult to fail. After all, how can your own thoughts and feeling be wrong in the absence of a marking criteria? Well, apparently in cultural safety, they can be.

I haven't gotten my mark back yet, but some have, and some genuinely smart people have failed! It seems the secret to passing is not to express your own thoughts, but to stick to the party line and accuse everyone you know of being racist.

Sigh. This isn't what I thought med would be like!