Exam Stories

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:59:00 -0500
personal-stories

In the fall of my junior year in college, I got stuck with a final exam in the very last possible time block, from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. on a Friday. The test--on industrial organization theory--was more conceptually difficult than it was time-consuming, and after a little less than two hours I had completed what I considered to be a first draft. That left a little more than an hour to review my answers, look for weaknesses and correct errors.

I took a minute to relax and stretch. There were windows high on the left wall of the room, and from my desk I could see that the sky had gone completely dark. I imagined myself walking out of the room into that evening, with weeks of vacation ahead, and a reunion with my high school friends planned for that very night. But I banished the thought, because there was still an hour's worth of work to do: time to polish the rough text I had thrown onto the pages of my bluebook.

That was when the chimes began. UCLA has a speaker system that occasionally broadcasts the melodic sounds of a carillon from the library building's bell tower. No doubt it wasn't supposed to start playing during a final exam period, but there it was, impossible to ignore. The tune it was playing, gently and insistently (and quite loudly), was "Silent Night." BONG bong bong BONG. (I put down my pen). BONG bong bong BONG. (I started to think about how nice it would be when the stress of finals left my body, as soon as I turned in my exam and walked out the door). BONG BONG bong. BONG BONG bong.

It probably took 45 seconds before my will to resist was completely destroyed, and I turned in my exam and wandered happily into the December night.

Good luck on all of your exams and papers. The welcoming December nights await you too, after this last push. And luckily for you, UMBC doesn't have a carillon attached to a loudspeaker system (at least, as far as you know).

For your amusement, here are some links to a few of my other exam stories--

--The exam I neglected to turn in, and what happened after

--The exam during which I suffered an unusual injury

--My first law school exam

--The paper I finished the morning after I graduated from college