Thursday, April 27, 2006

Thursday Three: The Final Exam

Today’s Thursday Three takes us back to the classroom.

"Testing...testing..."

Sorry for the delay. I had today’s Axis of Weevil Thursday Three all completed and ready to go, but the more I thought about it the more I disliked the entire concept. Thankfully, I was able to rely upon our crack team of university scholars, one of whom had sent along a set of questions late yesterday afternoon. Since I had at first thought I liked my (now-superseded) set of questions, I informed the good professor that I would use his set next week, but upon further consideration, I think his were much superior.

THEREFORE, let’s get right to the FINAL EXAM EDITION of the Thursday Three!

Dr. Smith (soon to be deep in the grading of final exams himself) sends along the following for your consideration:

1. What was your luckiest experience with finals?
2. What was your worst experience?
3. Finally, do you have any recurring finals nightmares?

SO, there you are. Remember, keep your eyes on your own paper. You may not use your notes or your book. Leave an open seat between you and other commentors. You may not go to the restroom until after you finish your test. Use of a calculator is not necessary. All cell phones and pagers must be turned off. You will be given partial credit for partial answers. Proper grammar and spelling does count. Please leave your comments below, or a link to your own blog. You now have only fifteen seconds left to complete your exam, and you must do it while standing naked upon your table and singing “Rule Britannia.” (That last part you don’t really have to do.)

Now then, you may open your test booklets and commence.


Generally I have no problems with taking tests. I do the readings and I usually take decent notes. Except for one class where the professor was a bore and I would nod off. Those notes were very interesting to read. They would start out and end in a fairly sensible and legible fashion, but would trail off in the middle in a distracted scrawl and then suddenly pick up again when I would awaken. Anyway tests are not a problem for me. I’ll take a test over a final paper any day.

1)The luckiest test taking experience I ever had was my Latin final in college. It was to be a combination of translation and grammar. For me, Latin grammar was easy (now it would be a slightly different story), so I just quickly reviewed what we had covered. I concentrated on the Cicero translations that had been earmarked by the professor, but that we had not covered in class. I found a great book in the library that would have passages of Cicero printed on one page and a translation in English on the facing page. I waded through the Latin and translated it on my own, using the book’s translations as a way to check my work. Then I went through and memorized my translations with each passage mentally linked to the opening sentence in Latin. When I got the test I was delighted. The grammar section was a breeze and I easily ripped through the translations. I was done in about 3/4 an hour. The final exam time blocks ran for three hours and were self scheduled (that was one of the coolest features of my college). Feeling self-conscious about my test taking rapidity, I fussed about for another 20 minutes and then handed in my blue book. I completely aced that exam.

2)My worst experience was also in college. My chemistry final was a seven page nightmare of stuff I did not remember even covering in class. I clearly remember franticly flipping through the pages of the exam, desperate to find at least one familiar item. In the end I took the test and used the entire three hours. I think I got a B in the course.

3)Nope. I do not have any final test related nightmares. I like tests.

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