Students Tell: Session, exams, and preparation

As in other programmes, students in the department are required to write exams to be awarded the degree. The summer session will start in less than a month and we decided to talk to the students of our educational program to find out how they prepare for exams and cope with stress during the session.

The main goal of the the Master's degree programme “Population and Development” is to train students to apply practical knowledge to public administration for population. As in other programmes, students in the department are required to write exams to be awarded the degree. The summer session will start in less than a month and we decided to talk to the students of our educational program to find out how they prepare for exams and cope with stress during the session.  To begin with, we decided to find out how students feel about the format of exams and testing their knowledge and the majority state that they like the flexibility of the examinations. For instance, Mary Lawal, a second-year student and Ismail Abubakar, a first-year student mentioned “the fact is that exams can be done virtually is interesting”. There are many ways to organize exams and one of them is an essay. Professors on the program very often use this method and one of the student reveals that he likes the essay form as it is a winning option both for a student who can fully demonstrate his or her knowledge and for a teacher who can follow the student's train of thought and understand how well he understands the topic. The fact that the exams can be open-sourced without having to engage in rote learning appears pleasing to Anastasia Danik, a first-year student and Maria, a second-year student of the programme.However, no exams pass without a challenges and our students also note this. Waki Magarambe, Thomas Coleman, Ismail Abubakar, and Fedor Shvets, all state that there are usually a lot to be covered within short period between lectures and examination and it usually poses a lot of challenges to them in preparing for examination. The novelty of the acquired knowledge does not pass without a trace, so Maria focuses on the fact that: “courses in our program are diverse and cover a wide range of areas and topics. Some of these topics were completely new to me, which posed a significant challenge”. In other words, coping with understanding different topical issues about development that are presented in various courses in the department might at first be a difficulty to students.Despite this, our students are not used to retreat before challenges, they excel in examinations and shared how they cope with stress and prepare.  Susan Adiele, mentions that she prepares ahead of the examination and sought “all forms of clarification ahead of the examination” from friends and professors. Similarly, Maria states that “many professors offer consultation hours during their office time, which can be beneficial for getting additional support and clarifying any doubts or misunderstandings” before examination.  Anastasia Danik, Ismail Abubakar and Waki all agreed that “attending lectures, paying attention to what is being taught and adequate preparation” help students to be successful in examination. Moving to practical tips, Fedor advises that “it is better to prepare for the exam together with friends and fellow students”. According to him, “this is practical and fast because there is no need to master all the material alone”. Thomas reveals that he manages stress by taking good care of himself during the examination, he states “it’s critical to look after oneself by getting adequate rest, eating healthy food, and exercising frequently to lower stress and enhance attention”. Maria shares with useful inside that “it's important to first understand the grading system of each course” as this will help students focus on how to prepare for each exam. Finally, Ismail mention that he “create a study schedule, break the material down into manageable chunks, ask for guidance from instructors and peers, and practice critical thinking and analysis abilities.” These are the good strategies to cope with examination and stress.Students who are enrolled in our programme express that they enjoy the courses in the department and love the nature of examination. Although, they face some challenges in preparing for examination due to the diversity of the courses that are geared towards equipping student with critical thinking abilities to work as development agents, they quite successfully cope with stress and difficulties and pass all exams without any special problems.