The setting is Ohio State University about six or seven years ago in a huge
lecture hall (approximately 1000 students) for a Calculus final.

Apparently this particular calculus teacher wasn't very well liked. He was one
of those guys who would stand at the front of the class and yell out how much
time was remaining before the end of a test, a real charmer. Since he was so
busy gallivanting around the room making sure that nobody cheated and that
everyone was aware of how much time they had left before their failure on the
test was complete, he had the students stack the completed tests on the huge
podium at the front of the room. This made for quite a mess, remember there
were 1000 students in the class.

Anyway, during this particular final, one guy entered the test needing a decent
grade to pass the class. His only problem with Calculus was that he did poorly
when rushed, and this guy standing in the front of the room barking out how
much time was left before the tests had to be handed in didn't help him at all.
He figured he wanted to assure himself of a good grade, so he hardly flinched
when the professor said "pencils down and submit your scantron sheets and work
to piles at the front of the room".

Five minutes turned into ten, ten into twenty, twenty into forty ... almost an
hour after the test was "officially over", our friend finally put down his
pencil, gathered up his work, and headed to the front of the hall to submit his
final. The whole time, the professor sat at the front of the room, strangely
waiting for the student to complete his exam.

"What do you think you're doing?" the professor asked as the student stood in
front of him about to put down his exam on one of the neatly stacked piles of
exams (the professor had plenty of time to stack the mountain of papers while
he waited) It was clear that the professor had waited only to give the student
a hard time.

"Turning in my exam," retorted the student confidently. "I'm afraid I have some
bad news for you," the professor gloated, "Your exam is an hour late. You've
FAILED it and, consequently, I'll see you next term when you repeat my course."

The student smiled slyly and asked the professor "Do you know who I am?"

"What?" replied the professor gruffly, annoyed that the student showed no sign
of emotion.

The student rephrased the question mockingly, "Do you know what my name is?"

"NO", snarled the professor.

The student looked the professor dead in the eyes and said slowly, "I didn't
think so", as he lifted up one of the stacks half way, shoved his test neatly
into the center of the stack, let the stack fall burying his test in the
middle, turned around, and walked casually out of the huge lecture hall.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 02:15 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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