Memoirs of Midterm Madness
Is it already mid-term time yet? It’s always surprising, and a little alarming, how fast that fun little week sneaks up on you. One day you’re trying to memorize your new class schedule, and the next you’re writing an essay test on a subject you were entirely ignorant of just a few weeks ago. And you’re not so sure much has changed in that department.
In fact, I failed more than my share of tests in university. Some were my own fault, caused by lack of studying or not going to class… Like the time I walked (late) into my early morning zoology class for the first time in a month and was startled to see everyone bent over their seats writing furiously. “What’s going on?” I asked the nearest person. “Mid-term,” came the reply. Unfortunately that wasn’t the last such occurrence.
I like to think of it as a batting average — a .360 average is considered phenomenal amongst multi-millionaire baseball players, so my test-passing average of roughly .540 or so was astronomic.
Speaking of astronomy, I failed an astronomy mid-term once. Both my friend Jon and I walked into our astronomy mid-term without a calculator. We left helpful notes explaining to the marker that we had to do the test sans calculator, hence the lack of actual answers on the test. The tests came back with failing grades, and the written admonishment to make sure to bring a calculator to the final, as answers would be somewhat mandatory by then.
Another time, I was in my fourth year as a senior taking a first year freshman physics class. It was sooo easy, compared to some of the 400-level geology I was doing. I had a midterm on Friday at 2pm, and that week I ran into Jon, so we made plans for donuts Friday at 3pm.
Since I keep no daytimer, I just repeat appointments in my head until I memorize them. So I had “Test at 2, donuts at 3. Test at 2, donuts at 3 . . .” running in my head over and over, but unfortunately I must have been distracted at some point, because it became “Test at 3, donuts at 4.”
Friday came and I was ultra-prepared. I was studying in the geology common room with some of my buddies, and at 2:30 I decided I would head over to my Physics room to see if any of the first year freshmen could use my help in the final half hour before the test. Honestly!
Imagine my surprise when I get there and see all my classmates already in the room, writing something, wit my prof at his station! I thought there must have been a study planned session that escaped my awareness, so I walk in and stride down the stairs to the prof and ask him what’s going on. He just glares at me. He was a super nice guy but he looked kind of mad. So I was like, “The test is at 3, right?”
No answer. I look up at the clock, struggling with the mental arithmetic. “The test is at 2?”
He nods.
“But it’s 2:30!” I say, hoping he’ll see the obvious injustice.
“Well, then you better get writing,” he says, and hands me a test.
Considering I had less than half the time to do it, I didn’t totally flush it down the toilet. But dammit, I would’ve gotten 100 % if I had just showed up at the right time. It was especially frustrating because Physics was at 2 every Friday, so I should have known better.
The donuts were good, though.
It’s been a while since I’ve had to write a mid-term, and I sure don’t miss it. You have my sympathy if you are stressing through exams right now. Hopefully you can laugh at me a bit and think maybe it’s not so bad — at least you’re not as dumb as I was, right?
So good luck, study hard and don’t forget you calculator, or your class time. And eat lots of donuts — they’re good for you and they help you learn.
Nathan Waddell has no special qualifications to be an iamnext writer. Sure, he has a BSc, but really . . . However, Nathan has traveled extensively, in Asia and Europe, and has hitch-hiked across Canada, and he has learned a few things along the way. Just enough things to know he still has a lot of learning still to do. Copyright 2003 iamnext.com May not be reprinted without permission.