This week, thousands of fresh students are ready to start higher education. One of them is 19-year-old Oskar Dahl Johansen. On Sunday evening he came with the moving load from Trondheim to Volda. He will study journalism for the next three years. The student is one of those who come from the corona cohort, and has not had a single oral or written exam at upper secondary school. This year was the third year in a row that the exam was canceled due to the pandemic. – I think there are many who can go on a rampage there when we are not used to such an assessment. We come without any experience from it, something we might have been happy about in high school, but we’ll see how it affects us now. I have faith that it will go well then, he says. – Having an exam is a competence. And these students don’t want it, says Professor Peder Haug. Photo: Øyvind Sandnes / news Thinks the exam is important training Peder Haug, who is professor of pedagogy at Volda University College, believes that having an exam is an important experience and competence, which these students come without. This may be a concern for some students. – In higher education there is no prayer. Performing over a short period of time is common. In addition, exam reading is about training yourself, and this leads to learning that you can benefit from long afterwards. – It’s like Karsten Warholm. When he runs the 400 meter hurdles, he has trained for a long time so that on the day he is going to run, he is highly motivated and in top form. This is also the case with exams. It is about having read up to be at the very top of what is possible on the day of the exam. Making it happen, and having that experience, is absolutely fantastic. According to Haug, the students benefit from having learned to perform under pressure. He thinks it’s sad that many of the new students haven’t practiced it, and thinks it’s essential that higher education takes into account students with slightly special starting points. – It can be both to follow up the students more closely, to have more contact with them and to motivate them. Measures to ease the transition from pupil to student Odd Helge Mjellem Tonheim, who is pro-rector at Volda University College, says they have been working on the problem for several years, and several measures ensure that the students are doing well. – Those who came last year only had one year of exams. We have set up a working group that works on taking the step from pupil to student, where we look at it with students who have not been through a normal upper secondary school. Odd Helge Mjellem Tonheim is vice-chancellor at Volda University College. Photo: Øyvind Sandnes / news He adds that they are also working on creating more courses for the students so that they are aware of what is in an exam. 19-year-old Oskar Dahl Johansen is now ready for a new everyday life, and is looking forward to being a student. – I am looking forward to getting started with the education, and experiencing the wonderful study environment. People say that studying is the best time in life, so I hope it will be like that for me too. Oskar Dahl Johansen inside his new room in Volda. Photo: Øyvind Sandnes / news
ttn-69
Oskar believes that many people can fail their exams
