Hi, I'm K, I will be your guide today. I am a graduate of TWU, receiving my MLIS in December 2018. I made this site to help others in the program navigate the Final Exam Portfolio because the FEP was one of the most frustrating, stressful, and ragequit-inducing points of my academic career. It's not that this assignment was particularly hard or that I slacked off until the last minute. I was right on top of things as best as I could be; I read all the available documentation, asked questions of my advisor and instructors, kept track of dates, etc. I was still taken completely by surprise by 90% of the FEP process.

The Final Exam Portfolio as a Pool Metaphor

We are instructed to jump into a very deep, very long pool and told we had to swim from one end to the other to find our way out. If we don't get out in time, the pool will drain and we will be trapped in the crevasse below. We are issued some inner tubes to help us so we don't get tired too fast. Except the inner tubes are deflated and the pool actually runs in a continuous track.

After getting out of breath from inflating all the tubes and then circling for a while, we ask a lifeguard how we get out. The lifeguard says to look for the ladder. We swim for a while longer, but find no ladder. We ask another lifeguard, who tells us we were supposed to get into the pool wearing lifejackets. The third lifeguard doesn't see us despite our shouting for help. The fourth lifeguard tells us the ladder is red.

The pool begins to drain. We get rid of the inner tubes because they're only slowing us down and we frantically swim faster. Finally, someone spies a pole on one side of the pool. We swim as fast as we can and begin pulling ourselves out of the pool. A few people aren't fast enough and are left down in the crevasse. Those of us who got out are congratulated and allowed to go home. Those who are stuck in the crevasse are told they can try again tomorrow, but they'll just have to wait there in the meantime. Though if they don't make it tomorrow, they will have to live in the crevasse.

You might wonder why you should take FEP advice from me when I did everything wrong. Well, I did pass my FEP on the first try, with a unanimous pass from all three members of the exam committee. I don't know if that's necessarily an impressive thing or not. Another librarian I'm acquainted with failed her first time and she graduated TWU back when the School of Library and Information Studies had a traditional on-campus program. I was convinced I was going to fail because if she failed, then I had no hope.

The example FEP I have on this site is the FEP I submitted. All the information I'm providing is information that I learned while doing the FEP, including information that was lacking in the documentation.