Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Exam Tips: The Importance of Reading before you Write

Special Guest Edition

Every year around exam-time, professors emphasize that you should read the entire exam before you start writing. This is supposed to ensure that you don't screw up in some major way. For the most part, there's no reason to follow these instructions. I mean, I've written dozens of exams over the course of my post-secondary education. I think I know how it goes.

Turns out, there is a reason for the sensible instructions.

Writing an exam on a computer? Fun fact: if you put the window you're writing on over the edge of the file containing the exam questions, you may obscure the scroll bar. With the windows thus positioned, it is possible to misjudge the length of the exam. Not having read the exam from start to finish before commencing, it is possible to write a mere two essays, when in fact three essays is the norm. It is possible to subsequently go eleven blissfully oblivious hours without realizing that it would have been appropriate to have written a third essay, as the rest of your class did. It is possible to then move instantly from celebratory drunkenness to sudden, frantic sobriety when somebody mentions the third essay (the one you didn't know about 'til just then) between bites of post-bar shawarma. It is possible that you will have to take US Constitution in Detroit again next year.

1 comment:

Ryan Marr said...

Nice move doozer! Hey don't worry though, you've got that radish mining career to fall back on.