First Test Down

My grad school class had its first test yesterday. I’d say that it went pretty well, and not just because the multiple-choice section was accidentally made from the answer key. The essay questions will likely carry a lot more weight now, but I’m as cautiously optimistic as I can be after a test I spent a good amount of time preparing for.

It always surprises me how many people call attention to an error in their favor. As soon as I started taking the test, I noticed that the answers I was selecting had an asterisk by them. It didn’t take long to surmise that the test had accidentally been made from the answer key, but I was still intending to solve the problems in case there were errors in the key. However, the professor’s attention was rapidly drawn to his mistake as students began going up to him and asking what the stars meant.

If nothing had been said, would those folks have gotten some of the questions wrong? Surely the professor would have figured out what happened when he was grading. Would it have mattered if he’d never found out? I suppose it is better in the end that people did say something rather than having him realize both the mistake and our silence about it after the fact. At any rate, he realized what happened and more or less invalidated the multiple choice section of the test.

Studying drove me underground over the past couple of weeks, so now that the test is over I’m hoping to have a bit more breathing room—at least for a few days. Tonight, Rachel put a kelp and honey mixture on my face, briefly transforming me into a green terror. Tomorrow night, I try playing racquetball.