Final by lottery

Carolyn and I had our final exam for the Conversational Spanish class we just completed. Like other things our instructor has done this semester, the final was not like any other I have ever taken. It was an oral exam which is probably appropriate for a class that purports to be "conversational". In fact, if there wasn't some sort of measurement for how we can now converse in Spanish, I might be tempted to say there was something missing in the class.

But what I found unusual was the way the orals were given. Our instructor prepared 9 scenarios or dialogs between two people with fairly clear directions about which way each dialog should go. Our task was to be ready to carry out one side of whichever dialog we happened to "draw". And it really was the luck of the draw as some of the dialogs were more difficult than others.

It appeared that most classmates did as we did by mocking up an actual dialog which followed the scenario and then trying to memorize all nine dialogs. In the end, Carolyn persuaded the teacher to let us draw our two scenarios several minutes before we actually took the test so that we had time to review our notes, and then Carolyn kept her notes in front of her during the test. The teacher didn't mark her down or complain so I guess it was okay. I'm not going to complain. It was a more positive experience and I did better with her having the notes as well.

It was sad to say good-bye to the teacher and several of the classmates tonight. But that happens with every class that has so much interaction. I'll be interested to see if my German class develops the same camaraderie.