i think the scariest exam i ever took was in my Fisheries Management 400 course, the final semester of my degree. our final exam was an essay response to a management prompt. each of us pulled a slip of paper out of a jar at the start of the exam, for a unique fisheries management situation. like a recovery project in a salmon habitat, etc. then we wrote a response as if we were the project manager, detailing how we would manage, execute, and accomplish the project.
so i got my prompt and my heart sank because as i read it, i could only think that what i was assigned to manage was impossible. the prompt explained that a farmer asked me to stock a fishing pond with a specific species & create a self-sustaining population. based on the location and the ecological parameters of this imaginary pond, i knew it would be impossible to accomplish his goal to maintain a self-sustaining population of his target species.
basically, the answer was, “The client’s request is not possible [short explanation as to why]” and “I would recommend alternative species, or repeated manual stocking.”
In the end, my essay response was 3 sentences long. It took me 5 minutes to think over and write. By the time I wrote down my answer, most of my classmates hadn’t even picked up their pencils. They were still thinking over their no doubt far more involved management prompts. We had 2 hours to take the exam.
I sat there having a crisis for 15 minutes until I finally walked to the front and put my notebook down on the professor’s desk.
I said, quietly, unsure if he’d give me ANY hints, “surely…..this should be longer?” He raised his eyebrows and said, “Do you trust yourself and what you’ve learned in this class?” I said, “Uh. I think so?” He said, “Then you’ll have to trust it’s as long as it’s supposed to be.”
I decided to think those were encouraging words so I left the class, 15 minutes into a final exam that allowed 2 hours for my response.
Went home and took a Xanax. Got an 100%.
Nobody better ever do that to me EVER again.
This is a completely unethical way to run an exam. Congratulations to you though I’m glad you succeeded.
oh I disagree! this is a real-world fisheries management scenarios. people make unrealistic requests of wildlife & fisheries managers all the time. much of a fisheries & wildlife manager’s career is explaining the why and how of a habitat and its populations. in my four years (and 7 fisheries management courses) at the school, I learned how to create, restore, and generally manage habitats for a variety of target fish species. i absolutely should be equipped to identify when a project isn’t possible, communicate it to a client in terms they understand, and recommend alternatives. i absolutely should have known the answer to this question, and i did! it only threw me off because it was so simple. but it was only simple because i knew my stuff! this prompt tested me on my knowledge of game fish species, and their chemical, geographical, reproductive, temperature, and food source requirements. all things everyone else needed to know to answer their own prompts.
The reality is, “that won’t work” is not an unusual answer in ecological management.
amhrancas 