Silverboy, I'm a foreign teacher at a private school that has imposed the burden of eight-minute end of semester oral examinations on students taught spoken English by foreign teachers. I have good reason to suspect that the school in question is the one I'm at. I'm now gonna deal with the points you've raised.

That just sounds ridiculous Jim, and it is typical of the incompetence and stupidity that is common at many Chinese universities/ teaching institutes. The school needs to be told by all FT's in no uncertain terms that those exam conditions are absurd and unworkable, they must change the format.

I'd say that any foreign teachers who rock the boat as you suggest above will be putting themselves at risk of having their contracts terminated early. It's all too easy for private schools in China to deem individual foreign teachers troublemakers by telling lies such as their students dislike them in order to terminate their contracts before they're up. Regarding your implication that all FT's should unite and make demands as a group, you can forget that one as a likely course of action. Too many FT's are too self-centered to do so. A pity, indeed!

There should be no 500RMB fine and no specific deadline to hand in the grades as you have been asked to do what sounds like the impossible.

Exactly, but that won't alter the situation.

I have had a similar experience before, twice in fact, in Wuhan. The uni refused to pay me for the extra time ( the only really bad thing that happened to me there )

Any FT working for a private school who is in a situation like the one you describe and dares to ask for extra payment will almost certainly have his request denied, and as a result of having stuck his neck out,he can await possible retribution.

If a uni insists on the teacher testing each individual student for several minutes then a great deal of flexibilty needs to be shown.

True, but Chinese bosses are notorious for displaying a lack of flexibility.

And rich kids! Yeah.....yuk! You can bet many of the little princes/princesses will complain about the eight minutes, and they will blame you.......not the stupid school management!

Quite possibly, FT's can be on a hiding to nothing at schools like mine - blamed by management and supposedly by students, maybe unfairly, whenever it suits the leaders to do so. It's all too easy for FT's at private schools in China to be fired unfairly. Best to avoid working at those schools, if at all possible.