Management Core Exams

Before I start my little rant, I would like to point out that I am writing this post before the Information System's midterm (this Friday for those of you who are oblivious). And so I'm not actually talking about the Information Systems midterm, but rather the countless other exams for core management courses I've taken in my past 3 years of studying at McGill (yes, i am a fourth year taking IS...I know).

In addition to Information Systems, I am taking Operations Management this semester. The midterm exam is next Friday. The professor has already warned us that they do not give us enough time to finish the exam so that we shouldn't waste time writing out and explaining our work. Just write down the correct answer (diligently making sure to not have made any calculation errors) and get moving to the next one.

I'm sorry but how on earth is this a good method to test our knowledge!? First of all, it puts all native English speakers at an advantage (and this is coming from a native English speaker!); who necessarily will be able to read and understand questions quicker than non-native speakers. This may not be a huge problem at most schools but McGill has tons of students who's first language isn't english.

And second of all, a student may know exactly how to answer a problem but makes a little mistake while punching numbers into their calculator and POOF! they lose ALL marks.

Absolutely ridiculous....