EXAMS

My (16/17 year-old) students are doing their public exams this week, and it is interesting to see how they react to them. In contrast to many other countries, they have virtually no effect; nearly everybody will be able to do what they want to do next year, even if they plough these exams. If that is the case, then why worry about them?

Yet worry about them is exactly what some do, and with a vengeance. One girl this morning was physically sobbing before we started; others have been in a panic for weeks.

Danes have relatively few exams, certainly when compared to what I went through. When I told my class that I had had formal exams twice a year in all subjects from the age of 7 to 18, they thought that I had been to some sort of Soviet labour camp. But on the basis of "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger", it did mean that I wasn't particularly phased by exams.

One thing is definitely true. If doing exams is boring, then invigilating them is ten times worse. Four hours this morning handing out extra sheets of paper and wandering around in silence was excruciating.

Walter Blotscher