They are over

Hallelujah, the exams are over.

Exams are serious business here. Everyone wants to pass, everyone takes them very, very seriously. I had a short toilet break between my two evening classes today and on the way to the loo I was amazed at the serious atmosphere in the school. Students coaching each other on the different conditionals, testing each other on the past simple versus the present perfect, checking the meaning of vocabulary - "What's a synonym for serious?" I know I get stressed when I have to take an exam but I never realised how stressed I get when I have to invigilate one - it's a serious business.

And sometimes students do stupid things. It's unbelievable the number of times I have been asked, in all seriousness, the meaning of a word. Seriously, students have asked me what answer they should put for any number of questions - and I was seriously pissed off when one student told me it was my fault that she didn't understand the questions because they were the wrong format (they weren't) and I, as a teacher, shouldn't make mistakes. I was seriously tempted to dock her some marks (but I won't, I take my job too seriously for that).

So, hallelujah, the exams are over. Now I just have to give them the results... where did I put that flak jacket?

This post was brought to you by the colours orange and purple and the word serious.