Chewing over exams

from w...... There's a cute Letter to the Editor of the Fiji Times in today's paper. It concerns the three hour exams and the writer reckons that chewing lollies or some kind of sweets during the exam will give them energy to do the hard work. Well, that's a new one for me. I know that some students do like to have a flower on their desk to sniff at occasionally during an intense exam. I'm not sure about chocolates. Jelebi, gulab jamin, vakalolo too? I think a bottle of water would be better, but then who's gonna accompany a sweating student to the loo halfway through an exam? While on the subject of three hour written exams, I do wonder how students are going to manage today to hand write for three hours, when they use mainly computers and type in their data. Writing is different to keying in words...... Sweet surprise It came as a surprise when one of my lecturers at USP told us that we should bring sweets like chocolates to our exams. In two weeks time, USP will hold its final exams and it was nice to hear the reason behind what he said. When students think, a lot of energy is used burning up a lot of calories. He said when students think for three hours, the amount of calories lost is equal to that used for a five-kilometre run so it is important to eat sweets during a three-hour paper. He said once a student did this, he/she would see a great difference in their results. I very much support this and students should be treated fairly as their health and mentality are very important during a three-hour paper. I think all secondary schools must allow students to have sweets during a three-hour paper so their energy levels allow them to solve problems and answer questions quickly. RAVINAL PRAKASH Lautoka