[Arizona-students] My First Non-DRC Exam!

[Tom O'Brien]

Arielle,
Very interesting, thanks. When you get a moment you should covert this into a Kernel story and submit it.
Tom O'Brien
From: Arielle Silverman <Arielle.Silverman at asu.edu>
Reply-To: Arizona Association of Blind Students List<arizona-students at nfbnet.org>
To: arizona-students at nfbnet.org
CC: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Arizona-students] My First Non-DRC Exam!
Date: Sat, 07 May 2005 14:43:51 -0700
Hey, listers! Yesterday I successfully took my first exam (a fimal) on my Braille Note, in the same classroom as the other students, without having to fill out a testing form with the DRC or worry about someone else transferring my exam answers to the professor! I wanted to tell everyone how it worked, in case anyone is a Braille Note user who wants to take exams without going through a testing office.
 
    First, I purchased a Compact Flash card at a computer store. I also bought a USB-compatible adaptor with a USB cable and a slot for the Flashcard. I gave the adaptor with the card inside to my professor, who uploaded the exam from his PC through his USB port onto the Compact Flashcard. Then he gave me the card when the other students got their exam sheets, so I put the card into the Braille Note's Flashcard slot (between the serial and parallel ports) and copied the exam file from the card to my internal FlashDisk. Finally, I filled out the exam, copied it back to the card, put the card back in the USB adaptor, and gave the adaptor back to my professor like I was turning in a printed copy of the test. My professor will grade the exam and I will pick up the card and adaptor on Monday to be used again.
 
    One caveat of this technique is that, at least for KeySoft Version 4.01, the exam file needs to be saved in MSWord 6.0, 95, or 97. However, I thought that this method is very convenient for Braille Note users who want to take their exams with a minimum amount of special accommodations or bureaucracy from a testing office. Doing this does require some extra trust on the part of the professor, just like taking exams on a laptop, but my professor was fine with it and I have mentioned it to two other professors who also had no problem. It seems that when professors see my Braille Note, they are so impressed by the technology that they don't worry as much about integrity issues. I would recommend making the investment in buying the card and adaptor to use for all your exams so that you have the most control over the process.
 
    Happy final studying, everyone!
 
Arielle Silverman
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