Ok, update/rant time.
I was allowed to do the mock exam at home and bring it in. It's an hour and 45 minute exam and I timed myself. 40 minutes left over.
<rant>
So, since the beginning of college, they've hated the fact that I'm with Plus.Net and I've had consistent e-mail problems with them, happily avoided by just giving my lectures my e-mail directly. But, the Functional Skills exam requires an e-mail address. So, after almost a year, they finally cave and sort out the e-mail.
Only to find out that the exam board decided to ignore the e-mails and just put the stuff on our desktop 
So we get into the exam, take our assigned computers and login. First part, 15 minutes out of a 2 hour exam. First question. "You must have access to the Evidence Document". Stupidly, we haven't been told where ANYTHING is, so I raise my hand to find out where it is. And just my luck, I get a completely computer-illiterate guy to help me. Granted, it's not his fault. He shouldn't have been assigned to the exam if he doesn't know what he is doing. But apparently, neither of the invigilators were told about the Evidence Document, so they didn't have a clue.
One phone call later, and the guy comes back over and tries to give me instruction. "Ok, go to the icons." Seriously? The icons? Which one? Practically everything is an icon. "You know, the icons at the start." Start of what?
Eventually, I manage to decode that he's talking about going back to the desktop. Quick folder navigation and I have the files. I begin working through Part A. Most of the time has passed, but c'mon. Like I need 15 minutes for it. "You must write an e-mail to the specified address, containing the attachments that you found." And yet, they don't have an e-mail client installed. This would've been helpful to know BEFORE the exam. You know, something along the lines of "We don't have an e-mail client, so just use Word." Bah. One mock-up later and I STILL have time left. For some reason, if you finish Part A early, you cannot move on to Part B, which makes no sense. I have nothing more to do. There is no need to check it. Let me move on.
Part B. "Use the file named 'Stock'". Yeah? Which one? There's two of them. The other one is actually never used, so it's beyond me as to why it's even in there in the first place. Blah blah blah "Design a poster. Make it look clear." So, I spend time making something that is quite visible and I make sure the colour all fit together. "Oh, by the way, we don't have a colour printer." Bam. All that work is now totally worthless. So I'm left with something that looks bland. "Insert an appropriate picture of the product you are advertising." The product is a surfboard. So, we get a picture of a man with a surfboard wading into the ocean, logically.
And a picture of a freakin' snowman. I'll admit, it's only Level 1 IT, but how stupid do you think we are? I'm fairly certain that a 3 year old would know the difference between a surfboard and a snowman.
So, I finally get EVERYTHING done, look at the clock and find that I still have an hour left. So, I've managed to condense a 2 hour long exam into one hour.
It's not the fact that I had this exam that irritates me, it's the collection of every stupid thing being thrown my way, including the fact that I was done in half the time than recommended. I swear, I better not have to put up with this next year.
</rant>
____________________
"The last Metroid is in captivity."
And yet, the galaxy is STILL fucked.
Thanks Xkeeper, Bagel and Sanky for the help!

|
|
|