Proctoring Fun?

Proctoring for exams is always interesting, seeing how different students respond to different situations.

All day today, I'm proctoring for "The Computer in Business" practical exam. Students are required to work with the database system of a mock company and provide useful information with Microsoft Access. Though they’re probably better database systems out there, Access is the easiest to learn with. I admit, that whole thing is pretty intimidating, as you're under time constraints to work with tedious and detail-oriented situations. It’s not easy, especially considering most students taking the course are freshmen.

A young lady almost had a panic attack in my first round. Poor thing. She was working on her exam when Access decided to crash on her. She was about to pull her hair out and burst out into tears. I asked her calmly if she had saved while she was working. She said “occasionally.”

Tip of the day: when working on anything on the computer, save while you work-not just “occasionally.” Good thing she wasn't too far along with her queries and Access retrieved most of her work. Can’t image what she’d do if it didn’t.