My First Final Exam...

This morning I had my first final exam at Copenhagen Business School and it was an interesting experience. It was a four hour written, closed book exam for my International Mergers & Acquisitions class. The exam was pretty much what I had anticipated and I feel like I did very well, however, what I found interesting was the process.

It seems that in Denmark they are a little bit less trusting of the students than in the US. Take into consideration that this is a masters level graduate course and one would assume that the students were less likely to cheat at this level. CBS doesn't seem to think so, however, and during the process this morning, I laughed to myself several times because it was just so odd to me that they needed to go to such extremes.

Let me explain. First, we were directed to an off campus location, which I found annoying because I had to break out a map to find this place. I soon learned that it was in an alternative off campus location because the test was conducted in a gymnasium. The entire gym was filled with desks which were separated by about 15 feet on all sides. Before they would let us into the gym, we had to hand over our cell phones and any other electronic devices. Now, I have no cell phone or electronic devices, so they were a little skeptical of that right away and wanted to do a quick search of my bag. "????, no cell phone?" Nope, no cell phone. Laugh number 1.

Next, as I took a seat, I found an abundance of different materials on my desk and right away I was confused. I called over one of the proctors and asked, what is all of this? She explained that first, the slip of paper was for me to write my name, student number, Danish social residence ID number, exam date, and signature so they can record the desk that I sat in. I thought to myself, what, no blood or pluck of hair? Laugh number 2. Then she explained that the stack of white papers were what I was to use to write my answers to the exam. I took a look at them and each page was three pages deep. The top was for me to write on and the other two were carbon copies. She explained the top copy was to be sealed in the white folder and the pink was to be sealed in the pink folder and the third copy was for me. I thought, ok, complicated like everything else in Europe, but ok. Laugh number 3.

We then began the exam and I realized just how many people there were watching us. There were three or four people at the front of the room, one guarding the door, and about four or five others walking around the room. And they weren't just walking around leisurely. They would actually come by and stick their head right over your shoulder to see what you were writing. Laugh number 4, 5, and 6.

The last thing, and icing on the cake in my opinion, was the bathroom process. If someone had to use the restroom, they had to be accompanied by one of the proctors... yeah, not kidding. Big laugh number 7. Needless to say, I chose not to use the restroom during the test, but I watched several students go through the process as if it was normal.

In all of our exams during our first year of the MBA program at UW, there was not one time that we had to go through a process like this. I don't think I went through anything like this in undergraduate either. In fact most of the professors in the MBA program would hand out the exam and then leave the room for the following four hours as we completed the exam pretty much shoulder to shoulder. Heck, half of our exams were take home. Even the closed book exams were sometimes take home. I explained this to my other European roommates and they almost fell on the floor in disbelief. I told them that we just sign an honor code promising not to cheat and that was it. They couldn't believe it.

When I think about it, I am proud that we live in a culture where we can trust that students at such a level of education will not participate in cheating and don't need to be watched under heavy security during a testing process.

What an interesting cultural experience.