Surprise or Not - Part I

A few days ago, the professor for one of my classes chose to announce his intention to give us an exam. Ack! A quiz, would you believe it for a masters’ class? I’ve been jittery for the past few hours thinking about it.

Usually, I’m not so nervous except that I missed the previous class and wasn’t able to ask anyone to record audio for me. Since the class is Financial Analysis, I calmed down a bit. After all, business is in the blood (or so my friends think), maybe I can wing it. Btw, I’m only confident because most of the discussion has already been covered in my accounting undergrad class.

After not being a student for so long and not having any type of exam aside from the office’s yearly health exam (which I haven’t had since Jan 2006), there has been no reason to have and prepare for exams. Most of our requirements are homework and tons of papers on topics covered in lectures or readings. We did have a final exam for one of my classes last semester, but again a semestral exam is one you’d expect at the end of the course, but a quiz just after 3 meetings/sessions.

We’ve memorized or rather heard all the initial lecture before. eg. types of companies, stocks, stake holders, maximize profit, etc., but what we like more is a discussion of relevant issues (I actually think of this a free business consultation time). We’ve been promised a long sessions to tackle the Enron story. I’ll have to pick up/download one book about it soon.

What is your opinion on giving/receiving exams?