The Kitchen Sink | Featured Artiste: Hadassah


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[Kitchen Sink / Flickr]
So, how did your Thanksgiving go? Any left-overs? LOL! I had a lovely Thanksgiving ... thanks for asking :D

I don't know if you are still in school or you're already done (like moi).  Regardless though, you might have to take exams and then, it would matter what style of exams you prefer or tend to excel at.  Without forcing you to relive any exam nightmares, I was wondering what style of exams you prefer.  From my own experience, I am aware of these styles (please add to the list if you want):




1.  Multiple Choice a.k.a "Objective" or "OBJ" (no not "Baba Iyabo")

e.g. The three levels of government in Nigeria are:

A.  Legistlature, Executive and Judiciary

B.  Army, Navy and Airforce

C.  Federal, State and Local

D. Aki, Paw-Paw and Aki-Paw (a hybrid)

E. None of the above

*** If you picked option D, it is well with your soul *laughing uncontrollably*
Correct Answer: C

2.  "Fill in the blanks"  - Do I really need to give an example? Alright, alright, see the following example:

Nigeria gained her independence in ________________ .
Correct Answer: 1960 

3.  Short Answer - e.g. Describe your favorite teacher in 100 words or less (God help the student that mis-reads the question and proceeds to describe their worst teacher).

4.  Long Answer - I like to call this one "free for all" because this is where you can write from now till Kingdom come (this is a nightmare for those who don't like writing and you can almost hear them cursing the teacher who set this yeye question.  As for the students who actually love this type of question, multiple bad eye from classmates might follow. LOL!)

Example: Describe (in detail) the political changes that took place in Nigeria between 1960 and 1999.

As for me, I prefer the "Short" and "Long" Answers, but I find that the exams that combine all four exam styles work well.

The "Kitchen Sink" Approach really applies to "Long Answers" because it basically allows you to write just about anything and everything you know about the subject-matter the question is asking about, although technically, you are limited by time.  In other words, you can throw the "entire kitchen sink" (figuratively speaking, of course) into your answer / response just to make sure you have covered every possible angle to the question (In Yoruba, I guess this would be called the "ona kan o w'oja" approach, i.e. "there is more than one entrance to the market.")  This actually worked for me all the way up till law school, where I had to actually learn to craft my answers properly, organize my answers and go straight to the point.

So what style do you prefer?

Featured Artiste: Hadassah

[Hadassah / ReverbNation]
Today's Featured Artiste is Hadassah.  Her song 'O Tobi' (meaning "He's Great") from her debut album, IGNITION, is the perfect anthem for the rest of the year.  If you've made it this far in 2011, you better be telling God how Great He is! Here is the audio version of "O Tobi":

ComScore
And some brief information on Hadassah:

Artiste's Stage Name: Hadassah

Artiste's Real Name: Beatrice Hadassah Abosede Bada

ReverbNation Pagehttp://www.reverbnation.com/hadassah2011

Featured Album / Song: IGNITION / O Tobi (He's Great)

Finally, here is my brief opinion of "O Tobi":

Likes:  Hadassah leaves you in no doubt as to who is leading this song.  She takes charge all the way! It sounds like highlife is the main genre for this song, and this tends to be a "win-win" with Nigerian / African music.  I am yet to decide though who does highlife music better: Nigeria or Ghana.  I am leaning more towards Ghana funny enough.  But back to Hadassah, because highlife is the main genre for this song, the beats make you just want to dance. *does a quick komole* One particular thing I really liked about the song was the unpredictability (to me) of the "bridge" part. I don't know if you can even properly call it a bridge, but I know that I did not see it coming.  I am referring to the "Baba mi o" (My Father o) part right smack in the middle of the song.  The beats change and that section can properly be made into a separate song.  It makes the whole song sound like a mini-medley of sorts and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The funny thing is that the first time I heard the song I didn't really "feel" it but after going back to listen to it a couple of times, I am now gbadun-ing it!  Hadassah's vocals are good and the background voices also blend well.

Dislikes:  I had some trouble comprehending some of the words in the verse, i.e. the English words, but not the Yoruba ones.  The pronounciation of those words could have been better.  I think it had more to do with the speed of those verses though.  The intro was also not fantastic, but quite typical, but the rest of the song made up for it.

Have a great week y'all and Happy New Month ahead.  Can you believe December is almost here? Hmmm .... How time flies!

Nice nice song..

I like the combination of all but I prefer long answers because even when you dont know the answer you can put everything else you know and you will get some points for it..unlike obj, I use to like it until my board exam, where its either or..
I think in 9ja, the schools i went to really prepared me for the obj and theory, so it wasnt really scary..I use to like theory except when i didnt read..

I do not like fill in the blank..That is the worst nightmare anyone can have..haba, i use to despise my primary school teachers then..:P 

I prefer the simplicity of the OBJ type but there are some questions that can only be done justice by a kitchen sink answer, lol...

Glad you liked the song!

I see you're a woman after my heart ... LOL! Those long answers give room for explanation, so that somehow if you mis-read the question or did not hit the target with your answers, you will still get some points sha.  OBJ and me are not friends.

9ja was what prepared me too for theory.  Memory also helped.  

Fill in the blank is a nightmare if you don't know what goes into the blank .. LOL! Like you pointed out, it used to feature in a lot of primary school exams, but I saw some of it in my college days too.  And then when you think you put in the right answer, the teacher can still mark it wrong for not using the precise word.  That's it.  Fill in the blanks penalizes you for lack of precision. 

Thanks for stopping by :-)

The kitchen sink answer is my dream come true ... LOL.  Not all Obj questions are simple o.  Those "worst of the lot" questions (e.g. pick the worst answer or the least befitting answer) can be such a nightmare.  *shudders*

True you're right on that. I've seen 'wicked' OBJ questions in this my short life

Organizing questions and driving home your point bah? A very key thing in Consulting too. Knowing how to ask the right questions.
Personally I like OBJ(when I'm feeling lazy) and maybe theory (when I've read wella). But 'f'ill in the gap'? Neva!!! Hia.

Good sense of humour but then you make a valid point about how not to use the 'kitchen sink approach' to tackle exam questions. It reminds me of some of my students when they waffle through exam questions. But then it's my job to steer them in the right direction and thankfully it's having a positive impact.

Funny enough this reminded me also about my close friend at Uni in Nigeria. He always used the 'kitchen sink' approach and guess what he normally does get reasonably good result. Says a lot about educational system :)

Naija4Life

Sounds like someone is into consulting, or at least is interested in it :D

LOL @ your reaction to "fill in the gaps" type of questions. That's the stuff nightmares are made of especially if you have no clue.

Emmmm .... a young Fulani girl? It is not me sha :D

*bows and curtsies* Thanks a lot! I appreciate your input, especially from the point of the view of the one who hands out the grades / points for answering questions :-)

The "kitchen sink" approach funny enough, just like your friend's case, was something I learnt to do in Nigeria during my secondary school days and it paid off.  It seems to be a strategy that works well for exams in Nigeria (and here too ... in some cases) Judging from the amount of time spent preparing for exams, it would make sense to spend even more time to learn to answer them properly.

I like the OBJ and short answers, but I HATED fill in the blank spaces because it's either you know it or you don't.  I didn't really mind the long answers, if i had prepared well for the exam. If it is optional though, i will skip it. I remember then while in the university, my course-mates will ask for extra sheets of paper for questions that required long answers and i will still be struggling to fill up my first sheet of paper (that's if i didn't prepare well). 


naijabankgirl.blogspot.com

checiano

Exactly ... Those "fill in the blank spaces" questions are so specific that you either know it or you don't and if you don't, well ... you're on your own o! For that reason alone, I also hated those types of questions.  I also preferred the long answers because I could say just about anything and everything I wanted and still get credit for it somehow.  

As for those extra sheets of paper ... I was one of those asking for extra sheets *dodges bad eye*

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