[lit-ideas] Re: Geary's New Play
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 08:00:46 +0000 (GMT)
>And here I would ask if the finals referred to here are the sort Donal
refers to, above. At
http://www.ox.ac.uk/students/exams/regs/
At a glance, yes. There are only two sets of "Public" or official exams: Mods
in First Year and then Finals at the end of the Final Year (in between colleges
set occasional 'collections' but these have no official status). Degree status
is entirely dependent on performance in Finals. This explains why so many
Oxford greats, like Auden, got Thirds: after Mods they do as they pleased until
Finals by which time it is too late. The main advantage of this system is to
produce people with a Pythonesque sense of reality and a disrespect for
examination systems. Some of these become tutors.
D
On Friday, 22 November 2013, 5:04, Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
JL imagines that
> >The under-graduate student keeps asking, "Will that be on the final?"
> without specifying (but merely implicating) what 'final' she has in mind.>
Donal comments
> If it is set at Oxford in any period after the 1850s, then the student
> is likely to refer to "finals" [as in "Will that be in Finals?"] and not
> "the final" singular. [I have never heard anyone use the singular, and
> have been around since around 1850]. If set somewhere in America, say
> the mid-West, I defer to others.
RP muses
I'm not sure precisely* what the relation is between one's tutors and
what is asked on final exams, or indeed just what final exams at Oxford
are. I assume that those who taught or lectured to or otherwise
conferred with a student would, perhaps in consultation with other
tutors, decide on the content of an exam (or exams), yet exams would not
seem to be student-specific; that is (I take it) everyone in Mods
would have to pass an examination that
'has a reputation as something of an ordeal: until recently it consisted
of 11 or 12 three-hour papers set across seven consecutive days, though
this has now been modified. Students now take 10 or 11 three-hour papers
across seven or eight days. Candidates for Classical Mods still face a
much larger number of exams than undergraduates reading for most other
degrees at Oxford sit for their Mods, Prelims or even, in many cases,
Finals.' (Wiki)
And here I would ask if the finals referred to here are the sort Donal
refers to, above. At
http://www.ox.ac.uk/students/exams/regs/
one will learn that at Oxford, subfusc must still be worn at
examinations, or at least to and from them; that one may not communicate
with any person during the exam, other than the invigilator; that one
may not write in pencil, and that good luck charms and items (sic) are
disallowed.
In most American universities, final examinations are the final
examinations of single courses, e.g. Elementary Chinese, Number Theory,
so that it would be natural for students to speak of a final _in_ a
course, although the final for each would take place during 'finals week.'
Finally, the name given to a certain portion of the fly-over country in
the US is The Midwest.
—————————————————————
*Or even roughly.
Robert Paul
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