Although I usually like having time to myself, today it was kind of annoying.

At the school where I work today was make-up exams. Any student who gets a 3 (21-30%) as his final score for the term must, in theory, take the make-up exam. If a student gets a 4 (31-40%) he has the option of taking the exam. A 4 is considered a passing grade, although in English classes it’s not high enough to get an automatic recommendation to the attached university (that requires a 6). If a student passes the make-up exam, he can push his grade up one mark.

The problems occur when the student has a 4 because he’s missed a third or more of the total classes. These students get to take the exam but, because they have a habit of missing things, the odds of them showing up for the make-up exam are very slim.

That’s what happened to me today. I got up at a decent hour and then made my way to the school where I printed off my exam paper and did some prep work. At exam time, I found the room early and turned on the heater (which I don’t always do during a make-up exam because that’s the kind of cruel person I am…).

The student didn’t arrive early and at exam time, I found myself standing in the classroom by myself. The problem was, I couldn’t actually leave until the exam time was over (which I learned the term before). If the student had arrived with five minutes left, I would have to give him the exam and then collect it five minutes later.

Instead, I camped out at the front and did a little writing and a little planning. I also looked up a few things on my cellphone, which I’d brought anticipating this happening. The only student who came by was a student who wanted to take a picture of the blackboard and tomorrow’s special exam schedule.

After exam time, I entered an X on the OCR form and turned it in. I then headed out to do nothing for a little while until my evening class. I’d rather have done nothing at home, so maybe this was the student’s payback for his having received a low score.