SHH!! BRAINS AT WORK!

Wednesday 10th November 2010

By Benard Rutto

Additional reading, further studying and extra revision; fewer sprees, less talk, no movies and no visits, Etc are the rules to be adhered to in this season and time of the semester.
“I never get used to exams,” a comrade confesses, and with a sense of urgency picks up piles of books and handouts and scurries out. He is in so much a haste that he can’t pause to utter a word or even a salutation. To some degree, exams make certain people antagonistic. Hours later, he turns up and ravenously proclaims war against hunger which apparently had caused him to abandon, sorry, to pause the ‘brain-feeding’ exercise. And to prove how egg-head he has become in such a short time, he quotes Francis Bacon, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” He probably must have digested one or more.
The library is the place to be; it now experiences a reduction in size, as students cramp in at each instant
Spots which appeared to be a no-go-zone at the onset of the semester, have all of a sudden become frequently visited, and have even become a ‘habitat’ for some. The library is the place to be; it now experiences a reduction in size, as students cramp in at each instant. For those who do not find spaces in Margaret Thatcher Library (MTL), their rooms remain closed with a graveyard silence, proclaiming an assertive message to announce; ‘DO NOT DISTURB!’
For a student in the university, tests are a common place. Assignments, group-work, sit-in CAT’s, and exams already done put together, adds up to a numerous tally. With only a few days remaining and counting, the clock is expeditiously ticking away than any other time in a normal life.
The education system in Kenya has been criticized heavily for advancing competition rather than learning. It matters more when you have scripts, papers and certificates with high grades as proofs and not the substance and knowledge it claims. This fact gives the wrong impression and promotes panic and deceives some students to resort to mwakenyas. Examination rules denounces other ways of reference during exams other than that which are downloaded from the intellect in real time.
(The writer is fourth year student in the school of Information Sciences)

Quote of the day:
‘Do not on any account attempt to write on both sides of the paper at once’
-W. C. Sellar