Online Exam Experience

Hey,

I had a terrible exam experience.

I took International Management Class this term. It was offered online. It was such a great class. I learned so much about trade, international business and economics. As a requirement for the class, we had to take two online exams. The first one was a month and half ago and the second one was four days ago.

The exam was set in a way that once you enter the exam; you had to finish it in three hours. There were 60 multiple choice questions. However, the tricky part was that even if your internet connection was disconnected, your exam was gone. Just to remind you, I am in Afghanistan.

I took all the precautious measures. I went to a friend’s office and hooked up to a wired connection.  I stayed there late night so I will not be disturbed. I started my exam at 7:00 PM. And I informed the guards that I will be having an exam and I need good internet.

I copied the exam to a word file so I can start working on it. The problem is that once you select one choice directly in the exam page, it saves the answer in 4 second automatically so there is not room for correction. Therefore, I wanted to make sure that I have all the answers right, then I will post it.  I was working on the exam until 9:00 PM and finished it in word file. As soon as I wanted to transfer it to the exam area, I lost internet connection. Oh man, I was so pissed off. I checked the server room and a guard was there but he said that he did not touch the internet. I checked the server and there was no connection. I was checking the server and realized that the connection was back. I did not know what happened but when I came back to my computer, my exam was gone and I could not enter any more.

I was really scared. I instantly sent an email to my professor. I did not get a reply. I called his assistant in US but she could not help me. I was in the office until 11:00 PM but no response from any side. I had to leave office and go home. There were some celebrations planned for next day so there were a lot of police check points. I was stopped almost in five places and they were asking what I am doing that late. Anyways, I got home safe but very disappointed. I had only 12 hours to complete the exam if my professor was willing to give me a second chance. 8 hours would have been spent in sleeping because I did not have internet at home so I could only sleep. I had only four hours window that could save me.

I got up early in the morning the next day and came to the office, though it was a holiday.  I checked my emails and found out that I was given a second chance but I had to take the entire exam again. I took the exam again and luckily this time I was able to submit it 15 minutes prior to the deadline and with all the questions being attempted. I was glad but I had spent a terrible night.

Regards,

Javid