Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The Day After the Exams
Assalamu 'Alaikum
The Day After the Exams.
Its been a while since I took some exams and before this its always pen and paper, scribble and scribble. That exam style nowadays are definitely primitive, the KSA Capital Market exam me and my colleague Mustafa just took were paperless exam,you are definitely not allowed to take any pen and paper into the exam room.
Every examinee is given a computer and key board and you click the multiple choice answer you like. You are allowed to bring in a calculator and if you need to do some maths they give you a mini whiteboard on your desk with felt tip pen and duster. If you are not sure of the answer you just gave and wish to review it later, click “mark for review” and at the end the questions will pop up for you to recheck your answer. Of course you have to click the button called ‘”Browse” first. But whatever you do, do not click the button called SCORE before you are ready to end the exam. If you do that you are out of the exam room like a flash of Power Rangers, no amount of pleading will let you in again. Those are the pitfalls of a computer based exam. If you are computer illiterate, don’t enter the exam hall. You do not want to admit that anyway, in this digital age that is like worse than being a leper! The pre exam video briefing was entirely in Arabic but you are not fazed your ‘sawa-sawa ana kalam, anta saddiq’ Arabic will see you through. How did the exams went? Well for the 2 hour morning Regulations Paper I finished the 100 questions one hour before time. Now either it was easy and I knew all the answers or my answers were more speed than accuracy. I’d like to believe it was the former. I looked around and saw Tareq, the Asset Management guy has left. This comforted me a little that I may have answered the questions correctly. I stayed back another half hour to recheck the answers but in the Regulations paper you either know the answer or you don’t, no amount of staring at the question will help. So I clicked SCORE and left. I thought they would tell me the marks there and then, nah you’re back to the screen saver and locked out. I have never ever left an exam hall early, it felt good to do so, I only wish I will feel as good when the results are out.
Lunch was served in the dining hall below. Now one thing you’d notice in KSA, they do things in style, the caterers were 5 star and there were 5 waiters to serve the guests. We took the exam at the KSA Institute of Banking premises, it’s a grand building which would easily pass as any University faculty, with parks and greens and all. Mustafa and I had one hour to kill before the Numbers Paper in the afternoon so we availed ourselves at the permanent coffee station outside the exam hall upstairs. The lounge chairs were hotel standards and coffee and chay available all day.
The also 2 hours Numbers paper starts at 1.30 pm, solat wise this was no problem because in winter Zuhur is at quarter to twelve. The Musolla is luxurious and clean next to the exam hall, not down in some dungeons somewhere. To me the Numbers Paper is usually trickier than the Regulations paper. Walked in 20 minutes before time totally familiar now with the computer based exam environment. Although I did not expect to finish as early as the Regulations paper I was surprised there was much time left after I’ve done question number 100. Of course there were 4 or 5 numbers questions I skipped to concentrate on at the end, but there were no 150 questions to do in the last 10 minutes as Numbers exam are wont to usually happened. I think I did okay although I don’t think I will be on the Deans List for this paper. The Capital Market Authority here is our equivalent of the Securities Commission. Being quite young it has many other countries’ models to take the best from. The Capital Market Exam we just took are compulsory for all KSA Capital Market Professionals. Here’s hoping we did Malaysia proud by not having to resit :)
Wassalam,
Zahid
The Day After the Exams.
Its been a while since I took some exams and before this its always pen and paper, scribble and scribble. That exam style nowadays are definitely primitive, the KSA Capital Market exam me and my colleague Mustafa just took were paperless exam,you are definitely not allowed to take any pen and paper into the exam room.
Every examinee is given a computer and key board and you click the multiple choice answer you like. You are allowed to bring in a calculator and if you need to do some maths they give you a mini whiteboard on your desk with felt tip pen and duster. If you are not sure of the answer you just gave and wish to review it later, click “mark for review” and at the end the questions will pop up for you to recheck your answer. Of course you have to click the button called ‘”Browse” first. But whatever you do, do not click the button called SCORE before you are ready to end the exam. If you do that you are out of the exam room like a flash of Power Rangers, no amount of pleading will let you in again. Those are the pitfalls of a computer based exam. If you are computer illiterate, don’t enter the exam hall. You do not want to admit that anyway, in this digital age that is like worse than being a leper! The pre exam video briefing was entirely in Arabic but you are not fazed your ‘sawa-sawa ana kalam, anta saddiq’ Arabic will see you through. How did the exams went? Well for the 2 hour morning Regulations Paper I finished the 100 questions one hour before time. Now either it was easy and I knew all the answers or my answers were more speed than accuracy. I’d like to believe it was the former. I looked around and saw Tareq, the Asset Management guy has left. This comforted me a little that I may have answered the questions correctly. I stayed back another half hour to recheck the answers but in the Regulations paper you either know the answer or you don’t, no amount of staring at the question will help. So I clicked SCORE and left. I thought they would tell me the marks there and then, nah you’re back to the screen saver and locked out. I have never ever left an exam hall early, it felt good to do so, I only wish I will feel as good when the results are out.
Lunch was served in the dining hall below. Now one thing you’d notice in KSA, they do things in style, the caterers were 5 star and there were 5 waiters to serve the guests. We took the exam at the KSA Institute of Banking premises, it’s a grand building which would easily pass as any University faculty, with parks and greens and all. Mustafa and I had one hour to kill before the Numbers Paper in the afternoon so we availed ourselves at the permanent coffee station outside the exam hall upstairs. The lounge chairs were hotel standards and coffee and chay available all day.
The also 2 hours Numbers paper starts at 1.30 pm, solat wise this was no problem because in winter Zuhur is at quarter to twelve. The Musolla is luxurious and clean next to the exam hall, not down in some dungeons somewhere. To me the Numbers Paper is usually trickier than the Regulations paper. Walked in 20 minutes before time totally familiar now with the computer based exam environment. Although I did not expect to finish as early as the Regulations paper I was surprised there was much time left after I’ve done question number 100. Of course there were 4 or 5 numbers questions I skipped to concentrate on at the end, but there were no 150 questions to do in the last 10 minutes as Numbers exam are wont to usually happened. I think I did okay although I don’t think I will be on the Deans List for this paper. The Capital Market Authority here is our equivalent of the Securities Commission. Being quite young it has many other countries’ models to take the best from. The Capital Market Exam we just took are compulsory for all KSA Capital Market Professionals. Here’s hoping we did Malaysia proud by not having to resit :)
Wassalam,
Zahid
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