h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay not about GCSEs but actually an exam I had to take in my first year of my Maths degree...

There I was, having skived most of the lectures for that subject (I started off thinking, "Yeah, easy, we did this at school"; then a couple of weeks later, "Uh, hold on, I don't recognise *this*"; then, much much later, "Oh dear".)

So there I was in the exam, about two and a half hours long I think it was. And I made a pitiful stab at a couple of the questions before getting bogged down going nowhere. And I sat and stared at the paper.

Then I suddenly thought, "Hey, wait a minute. The last time I actually made any progress in this exam, and the last time I actually *wrote* anything, was a full sixty minutes ago.". And I left.

At this point I think the Maths Gods intervened and just bumped me up to the pass mark. What a coincidence. *No way* I could have got that many marks with the answers I put down.

I know how you feel, I had the same problem with an engineering exam many years ago. All of the questions hit weak areas. Luckily there is also an Engineers God who judges you on your behaviour in the pub rather than by exams!

I think the worst part of exams is when you talk with your mates afterwards and find they have given completely different answers to the ones you gave! Of course, in those rare instances when you know you have answered every question well, you can afford to be smug. (this hasn't happenend to me yet!)

It's university that does this to you though, isn't it? Far too much else to do other than actually do any work (drink, sit about, sleep, have sex, take drugs etc) unless you're a real spod without any life. I certainly didn't go to university to get a degree, and considering the amount of work I did, it's amazing that I did actually come out with a good 2:1. But there again, there was people I know who worked their arses off and only got 2:2s. So I think it also boils down to basic intelligence.

Above text should read 'there were' not 'there was'. And with a degree in Linguistics...!

Learning is a two-way street.