Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: the final exam
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 18:14:46 -0500
X-Sender: jwarren () mail well com Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 09:28:52 -0800 To: nobody () well com From: Jim Warren <jwarren () well com> Subject: the final examThis past fall semester, at Duke University, two sophomores were taking Organic Chemistry and did pretty well on all of the quizzes, midterms, labs, etc. Going into the final exam, they had solid "A's." These two friends were so confident going into the final that the weekend before finals week they went to the University of Virginia to party with friends. However, they ended up staying longer than they planned, and they didn't make it back to Duke until early Monday morning. Rather than taking the final then, they found their Professor and explained why they missed it. They told him they went to Virginia for the weekend and had planned to return in time to study. But they had a flat tire on the way back, didn't have a spare and couldn't get help for a long time. So, they were late getting back to campus. Their Professor thought this over and agreed that they could make up the final on the following day. The two guys were elated and relieved. So, they studied that night and went in the next day on time. He placed them in separate rooms, handed each of them a test booklet and told them to begin. They looked at the first problem, which was something simple about free radical formation and was worth 5 points. "Cool" they thought, "this is going to be easy." They were unprepared, however, for what they saw on the next page. It said: (95 points) "Which tire?"
For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
Current thread:
- IP: the final exam David Farber (Oct 31)