Pretty interesting questions for History exam

Section I (choose any ONE question)

Q1
What themes can we use to discuss the history of Asia that do not place an emphasis on geographic categories such as “Southeast Asia”, “East Asia” and “South Asia”? Discuss at least three themes and show how they cut across all the regions listed above while using examples to illustrate your points.

Q2
You are at a job interview and the interviewer asks why you took HY1101E. Explain to the interviewer how the material in the course is applicable to “real” life.

Section II (choose any ONE question)

Q3
Japanese imperialism in Asia was far more destructive than European colonialism. Do you agree?

Q4
Imagine you were born in 1900 and lived for a hundred years till 1999. In which of the following countries – China, India or any Southeast Asian country – would you have liked to spend your life? Discuss your answer by analysing the major developments that took place in any ONE of these countries in this time.

Q5
If you were asked to weigh the pros and cons of colonialism in Asia, what would you write?

I did Questions 2 and 5. For Question 2, either I

1. Didn’t study deeply enough to do a more ‘specific’ question or
2. Trying to act smart or
3. Am a risk-taker (surprise, surprise) and so challenge myself or
4. Have a weird fascination for weird questions or
5. Was reckless or
6. Was just plain stupid

* * *

After the paper we are held up for half an hour.

The invigilators, upon counting, realise there is one extra answer booklet. You see, each answer booklet contains ten pages of writing paper. When you’ve filled them all up, you can request for another booklet to continue writing in. But when you submit, you have to tie both booklets together.

They count again, then realise there’s another extra answer booklet. Oh jeez.

So there are several possibilities to the mystery.

1. The person didn’t tie the booklets
(a) The invigilator collected but didn’t check that the booklets were tied.
(b) The invigilator didn’t know that the person used two booklets because the booklets were placed in such a way that it looked as if only one booklet had been used.

2. The string came lose during collection, and nobody could do anything about it because both booklets had already been separated from one another.

If you have other conspiracy theories please feel free to add.

Half of the hall is taken up by us History students, the other half by some other module. We finish at 7:00pm, the other finishes at 7:30pm. When the invigilator for the other side informs the candidates to stop writing, we’re still sitting in the hall…

Tough luck.

And the invigilator has to emphasis the warning to ensure that the candidates hand in their scripts properly. She adds, “The HISTORY students are having a problem with their papers…”

Thanks, yeah.

We History students are dismissed just before the other group is given permission to go too. So much for the making of examination history…