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biologist's thoughts 6 biologist's thoughts 7 biologist's thoughts 8

The aim was to tie up some loose ends. Not much to say other than the fact that quite a few didn't attend class. Oh well.
 * Lesson 47 (Monday 1st June 2009) **

Another trial exam in today's lesson. I do wonder whether this is the best way to use these final lessons. But I just can't help but think how important it is for them to be familiar with the exam situation. The learning and reinforcement of ideas needs to occur outside of the class at this stage. One more official lesson to go. The semester has gone unbelievably quickly.
 * Lesson 48 (Tuesday 2nd June 2009) **

That's it, the final lesson prior to their exam. I guess that the main thing today was for me to cover an area that seemed to have caused a few of them some concerns. Hmmm.. I think it is important that I make a few comments about the exam. I know it is difficult for them to accept but biology exams are like no other. I think they require more diverse skills on the students' behalf. And that makes them difficult. But this is good. They should not fear the exam (as hard as it may seem). They only have to think back to the start of the year and compare their knowledge of biology then to what it is now. They won't know everything, no one does, so they should remove this from their thinking. The exam needs to be looked at as a challenge but one that will reward them for their hard work. If they can immerse themselves in the questions (this will make them forget about the fact they are doing an exam) and focus on thinking about what they DO know and using it to write a logically coherent answer, they will not only enjoy the exam but it will also allow them to perform better.
 * Lesson 49 (Friday 5th June 2009) **

Well, the exam has come and gone. What will I say to them? I guess the main thing is that it is done. There is no need for them to concern themselves with how they have gone, it is out of their hands and they will find out soon enough next term. Now that all the mid-year exams have finsihed, do they want to ask any questions of me? DO they want to know any of the answers? I mean I can tell them and I will know what is going to be accepted in a week or so when I go to the assessor's training day. But do they really want to know? Should I allow them to ask? Why bother when I know I will not tell them. Should I tell them that I have created a secret page on this wiki with the answers? Should I not? I probably am the only one that thinks this is funny and I should stop playing around with them here. But I am in one of those moods (their stress is over but mine is getting greater and greater by the day). If any of them are reading this, THERE IS NO SECRET PAGE WITH THE ANSWERS! How did I view the exam? My initial thoughts are that it was different to previous years in the nature of the questions that were asked. I don't think there should have been anything that really would have been too unfamiliar to them. That is all I am going to say. What is important now is that we need to get straight into Unit 4. They need to take on board what they have experienced this semester in trying to learn biology and use it to their adavantage for unit 4. Any mistakes they made in their approach they need to address right from the start. If they want to at least equal their performance (whatever that may end up being) they actually have to work even more consistently and harder in term 3. This is a given.
 * Mid year exam (Tuesday 9th June 2009) **