Exam teaches students a lesson

Last fall semester, at Duke University, there were two sopho-mores who were taking organic chemistry and who did pretty well on all of the quizzes and the mid-terms and labs, etc. In fact, they did so well that going into the finals, they had solid A's.

The two friends were so confident that, the weekend before final exams, they decided to go up to the University of Virginia and party with some friends there, even though the chemistry final was on Monday.

They went, and had a great time. But what with their hangovers and everything, they overslept until late in the day on Sunday and didn't make it back to Duke until early Monday morning. Rather than taking the final exam then, they found their chemistry teacher, Professor Aldric, after the final and explained to him why they had missed the exam.

They told him that they'd driven up to the University of Virginia for the weekend and had planned to come back in time to study. But they'd had a flat tire on the way back, didn't have a spare, and couldn't get help for a long time. So they were late getting back to campus.

Aldric thought this over and then agreed that the pair could make up the final on the following day. The two friends were elated and very relieved. They studied hard that night and went in the next day at the time Aldric had told them. The professor placed them in separate rooms, handed each of them a test booklet and told them to begin.

They looked at the first problem, which was something simple about free radical formation, and was worth five points. "Cool," they thought, "this is going to be easy." They finished that problem and then turned the page. They were unprepared, however, for what they saw written.

It said: (95 points) Which tire?

This item was spotted in the Simon Fraser News. It first appeared in SFU's Department of Psychology's newsletter.