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Topic: Exams (07/26/04)
TITLE: My Three Most Memorable Exams By Annette Agnello 07/29/04 |
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My sophomore year of college there was a retreat that ran from Thursday through Sunday. I didn’t really want to go on the retreat when my friend suggested it and was relieved to find out it was full. Thursday after lunch Dan called and told me to pack a bag for the retreat. I said, “That’s impossible, I don’t have time to pack before they are leaving, I’m due to cook the Sunday dinner at Newman House, Besides I have a mid-term exam under my most unreasonable professor Friday that I can’t miss.”
Dan told me, “Call your professor, I’ll take care of Sunday dinner.”
I called the professor and he said, “Sure see me after class Monday and we’ll reschedule.” As easy as that, form a professor who started the quarter saying, “There will be no, make up exams you have to be there or plan to retake the class next year if you miss one.”
Just before Dan called back to tell me he had someone cooking Sunday dinner, Kathy came in to write down my recipe while I packed. They were conspiring to get me on that retreat. I think they both knew I would meet the Lord that weekend.
In my junior year of college I was taking summer school so I could finish in December instead of waiting until June. I needed one more math and the last one had nearly washed me out of school. Calculus is way over my head, Trig wasn’t even taught in my high school, and I was never better than average in algebra I had made it through all of them, barely. I was so intimidated by college math I had been putting off Statistics and was running out of time.
In summer school you can get very small classes; mine had four students. With a class that small you get to ask more questions and visit your teacher’s office with the least little question and she would have time to explain until you understand, I mean really understand. My teacher was nice most of the time but I will always wonder if she had a split personality. One time when I went to ask a question she bemoaned, “I wish Betsy was here, she’s a better teacher than I am.”
I never got a straight answer asking, “Who’s Betsy?” I watched her closely the rest of the class, there did seem to be more than one teacher standing before the class, personality wise. Was it Betsy and whoever I was talking to in the office. Anyway the exam for that class was the last day of the exam week. The rest of my exams were the first two days of exam week. I asked If I could take the exam early and go home for three extra days. My teacher, or perhaps her alter ego, was kind enough to let me take the exam early.
The three exams were important because, they allowed me to go places. The first let me go have fun. The second exam being delayed let me go keep an appointment to meet the Lord.. The last exam being given early let me go home and have some rest before the start my last year of school. They are truly memorable.