So here I am again, proctoring an exam. 

Today it is biochemistry exam for aspiring medical students.   I have nothing to do so I think. 

I keep thinking back on how many times I have done this. I remember back when I was a student at the University of Miami.  I was so nervous when taking my first exam in Chemistry.  It was at the Leaning Center, with Professor Henry Hubinger, LC 180 was the room.  I remember the number since I would teach in that room 30 years later.   I was so nervous.  I would always stare straight at the paper.  Always made sure that there was no possibility of anyone thinking I was cheating. All students were crammed together in alphabetical order.  I sat next to someone whose last name was Lopez.  I had Lopez’s on both sides.  My fellow students always told me there was so much cheating.  I was so naïve. There probably was a lot of cheating.  I just was not aware of it.

I kind of enjoy proctoring exams.  There is really nothing to do.  It gives you the opportunity of doing nothing.  To just think.  I like to observe the interaction among young ladies and gentlemen.  A lot of the body language tells you who likes whom, who is interested in whom.  Who is talking to whom.  There is a lot that can be interpreted via body language.  There is a lot of nervous energy which I kind of appreciate.  In fact, when I do proctor, I also get nervous.  That is what really takes me back to that time; the reminder of how I felt when I was taking an exam, almost 50 years ago in Professor Hubinger’s  class at 8 in the morning in LC180.  There are few things that will remind you of a feeling you had. 

Things have changed so much since 1975.  At the time, I remember wanting to buy a calculator.  I was one of the few who did not have one.  I would use my slide ruler.  I was very grateful to Brother Ramon for teaching us how to use it.   I remember he had a wearable one. Howard Moore also had one in Chemistry at FIU.  Another person did not even have a slide ruler.  He just used log tables to carry out the math; another student used an abacus.  I went through the whole semester without the calculator.  The day of the final, I decided to take the plunge and buy one.  My uncle, recommended the Hewlett-Packard HP 15, with gold contacts.  I could not afford that one.  It was priced at $310.  On the day of the final exam, I went to the UM Bookstore and asked for something a bit more economical.  I saw the HP-21 with silver contacts.  It had a sale price of $125.  I thought I got a great deal.  It could multiply, divide and had all the trigonometric functions.  I bought it the same day of the final, not the wisest decision.  I opened the very noisy package right before the exam.  I was happy since I needed to use a calculator.  I remember looking at the first question.   I took out my HP 21, with silver contacts and put in the first number followed by an operation, followed by the second number.  Only one problem…… I could not find the equal sign.  I kept looking for it, there was no equal sign.  I could not believe it.  Laughing to myself I remember thinking: “how much more would it have cost to get the equal sign?”  Luckily, in my back pocket, I still had my slide ruler.  I used it for the rest of the exam.  I did okay.  I do not know why I remember all this stuff. 

I was once proctoring a general chemistry exam as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Miami.  I was somewhat surprised when one of the students taking the exam, looked just like my dad.   I would always treat him with Usted. I kind of wanted to find out why he was there.   I kind of admired him for doing this.  I would show so much respect.  He really reminded me of dad.  One day I caught him cheating.  He did not remind me of my dad any longer.  I was not judging him; who knows what his history was.  But, he was cheating.

As a professor, the worst experience I had while proctoring was when I taught Quantitative Analysis.  It was the day of the final.  I was going through a lot at the time and did not put in as much time writing a good examination as it requires.  During the exam students were really struggling.  One of the students comes up to me and says: “I do not feel well.”  He was perspiring heavily.  He thought he was going to faint.  I grabbed both his hands and he was cold and clammy.  I sat him down.   I asked him if he was diabetic, he said no.  (I thought he was having a low glucose episode).  I called 2911, the number you are supposed to call at FIU.  Picture a whole classroom of students taking an exam and the paramedics and police officers are in the front of the class, working on one of their friends. Thankfully, it was not serious.  Apparently, the young man was just having a panic attack.  They took him to the hospital for observation and was released soon after.  I was so embarrassed.  I felt that if I had done a better job writing the exam, this would not have happened.  Even now, the police officers laugh and ask me:  Just what did you ask in the exam?  They point towards me remarking, there, that’s the one, referring to how difficult an exam I wrote.   I obviously was very generous that semester when grading the exams.  The student was one of the best students and received an A in the class.  It really was a difficult exam.

I have always liked teaching because it reminds me of how I felt when I was the students’ age, when I was going through what they are going through now.  This was a very enjoyable time in my life. It reminds me of my own experiences.  Now it also reminds me of how different things are.  The phones have made things so different.  Social media has made things so polarized.  Students believe they have mastered a topic only because they can google it to get the answer.  They feel they do not have to learn how to use the slide rule, they do not have to learn how to use a calculator, even one with reverse polish notation.  In my time, students might share notes in order to make sure they have all the material they need.  Part of the exercise was in searching for and understanding  the material. Now all the notes are shared using a classroom management system.  It Is not who you know but what do you have access to.  Students do not have to rely on each other to practice problems, these are provided by the book companies.  I am soon to take a course on Artificial Intelligence provided by the University of Florida.  It is meant to teach us (teachers) how to use AI in our classes and how to look out for students who are using it in their assignments.  With the advent of AI, who knows what awaits us. 

I look forward to it.