Today is the first exam day of the year. As always, and so, so, fairly, everyone is allocated five exams to invigilate. And, as usual, no more than five minutes go by before students begin passing notes, whispering answers, and generally proving that invigilating is a waste of time. Coupled with the fact that the standard one hour test time is made ridiculous by certain professors setting test papers that a 10-year old could answer in five minutes, this doesn't make our exam system the most effective, nor the most rigorous. True, the objective is to keep failures to a minimum, but equally, the appearance of rigorous exams has to be maintained. While most professors simply smile kindly on students who insist on cheating, no matter how simple the test, for me it is maddening.
"We take their money so they have the right to graduate." There are no grades or scores for graduating a university in Japan, so it matters little whether they did well or badly. Why not just take the fees and give them a degree? At least we wouldn't have to undertake this biannual pretense of 'testing' students.