story writing nightmare on bad result of 10th
Answers
My last final of my first quarter of college was calculus. I was doing ok in the class and went out about a half hour before the test started to unlock my bicycle and ride to the test. I got to the bike rack and my bike wasn't there. I ran around for a bit looking for other places I might have placed it until I saw a bit of the lock on the ground where I had actually left it. I then ran in sandals to the final and got there 30 minutes late. Between the running, being upset about being late, and being upset about the bike being stolen I completely bombed it. I got a B- in the class.
It was a year before I took another math class. A friend came by the night before the test and asked me if I would go over the whole course with him since he hadn't gone to class. Teaching someone else really is the best review. I finished a three hour final in 20 minutes. As I walked to the front with my test someone asked, "Are you just giving up?" "I sure am!" I replied. I got a 97.
Later still I had two Portuguese classes on the same day. One was a Phd level course that I was the only undergrad in and I had a presentation to give for a full hour. I spent the entire day preparing for it and skipped my other classes. Two days later I show up in my other Portuguese class which was mostly full of jocks. A girl from the volleyball team asked me if I was dropping the class. I asked why she would think that. "Well, you didn't show up for the mid-term on Tuesday..." I suddenly realized what had happened. I went up to the prof after class and he was very nice about it. He said I could take an oral exam on the spot in place of the midterm. Halfway through my first response he stopped me, told me it was clear that I was the only person in the class that had read the material, and offered me a scholarship to study in Lisbon that summer. I should have skipped more mid-terms.