Danish Exams

Grades in Denmark are determined only by your exam. In theory, you could never come to class, never do other assignments, and cram all the reading in the days before the exam, and still get a top grade. Realistically, that wouldn't happen though. First, grades in Denmark are viewed in a fundamentally different way than Americans see them. We tend to think of grading as everyone starts with an A and they they go down from there. We think of grades as how far you are from the top. In Denmark, grades are seen more as working from the bottom up. Everyone starts with nothing and you achieve as much as you can. In the Danish system then, people are happier with lower scores than Americans because it shows how much you advanced, not how deficient you were from perfect.

I've mentioned the Danish grading scale before, but here's a refresher. The passing scores are 12, 10, 7, 4, and 2. Failing grades are 0 and -3. If you don't pass, you can take the exam again. If you don't think you'll do well, you can drop the course and take the exam in the next term. There are no consequences for this.

There are many types of exams. So far, I've had a six day take home and an oral exam. My third class will be a 72 hour take home. The oral exam was yesterday. Each student was scheduled for 20 minutes. I was supposed to give a five minute presentation and then they asked me questions for 10 minutes. I left the room and they the examiners called me back to give me my grade.

It's an interesting system because you end up talking to the people who went before and after you. You hear stories about how other students did earlier in the day and once you finish everyone wants to know what grade you got and which questions you were asked.

Also, they try to make the exam hygge, or cozy (I need to write a post just about hygge). To do this, the exam table always has a green table cloth and there are often candles at the exam. I didn't have candles yesterday, but there was a green table cloth. I can't say it felt particularly cozy, but it's a good idea any way.