Today was the big phonetics final exam for my first year students, and I worked for 5 hours straight with a seemingly never-ending number of students. The actual test only took them about 5 minutes to do, but I was supposed to figure out their grade in the one minute before the next student started pronouncing words, which I always find a bit stressful.
The French grading system is based on qualitative scores instead of quantitative, so a 10/20 is considered moyen and passing and basically no one receives 18 to 20. To my American mind that is used to percentages, it doesn’t make any sense and it hurts my head to try to figure out grades. I seriously stress over if I’m being fair or not, because it seems like grades are based on the momentary whim and mood of the teacher and not on the actual work done.
Anyway, that was my first experience in giving final exams as a lectrice. It wasn’t too bad, especially since the time went by so fast with so many students to get through. And now I have yet another week off, because the second semester doesn’t start until January 19. And even then, it’s only 3 classes a week because my 8 labs don’t start until February.
Have I mentioned lately that my job is awesome?
