Hmms.
WARNING: DON'T DO STUPID THINGS LIKE ME.You would not want anything like that to happen to you.
This is an example of what will happen when over-confidence caused you to make wrong assumptions under a different system. The whole experience is not fun at all.
Thursday I had an organic chem test... Well the test is not too easy, considering I am not sure about one question which caused me to totally change the answers for 3 complete parts at the last 5 minutes (which I believe now is correct) and be utterly confused by 1 question (even after intense discussion with friends I am still entirely confused, and their conclusion is 'I think too much' which I admit :P).
It was what happened afterwards. After the paper we were supposed to hand it in at the front of the lecture hall. So when my friend was ready to hand his paper in, he walked pass my seat which is by the aisle, and we started talking. At that time I am still getting ready and my paper is not closed, and obviously I was sitting down. So we started talking happily, about the exam of course, and since I have unsure questions of course the focus of the conversation would be on those 2 questions...
Hmms. Suddenly, to my extreme surprise, the professor for the class appeared behind me and roared (I am not exaggerating at all) at us, ordering us to hand him our papers. In that situation we have no choice but to follow his orders. We do not know why he was so mad at all... Everyone in the lecture hall was talking more or less to some extent, and there are even people who are still doing the paper when the test should have ended. We thought he was mad because we were talking with paper in our hands, so we went up and tried to apologise and explain, but he wouldn't want to listen. We don't know what the heck he is going to do with our papers. Oh well...
After class we went for lunch and discussed this matter with more friends. It became more and more scary as it occured to us that there is a possibility that he might be thinking that we were cheating! This is something really serious. We definitely have to clarify this.
(Hmms I know in Singapore this is definitely something that is not allowed, but I thought they don't care in America... They do not seem to care from the previous tests that I have taken. People were talking all the time during the paper handling process. Well, from now onwards, I will just do it the Singapore way. Safest.)
This is really extremely scary. I wrote an email to my TA which he did not reply to. So, I spent the whole afternoon and evening thinking about it, and getting haunted by it... And even went to figure out that if I was given a zero for this test, I need to get full marks for the next so that I can get a B. Hmms then I will need all As for my other courses to get a 3.73 GPA. Luckily this semester is pass/fail...
So we decided to go and see the professor (from everybody's advice) to clarify any misunderstanding. And? Well, he really has the ability to stun people... We went to his office, and saw him in the conference room with all the other TAs marking papers. I did not approach him at first, but he saw me first. Basically, he gestured that he did not want to see us, and when we approached him, he said something like this: 'There is nothing to talk about. I am not going to penalise you, so there is nothing to talk about.'
Well, what does that mean?! Since he had said something like that, we cannot insist in talking to him (he is busy anyway) so we left (with him closing the door). After some intense considerations, we decided that we should take his word for it for the moment. Later we will be sending him an email to sum up what we want to say, and leave the matter alone for now.
Hmms. I will only know if he is the sincere kind or the extremely evil kind when I get back the paper on Thursday. I am counting on the fact that he won't want to destroy his own reputation by doing something bad to us after misleading us and without even giving us the chance to defend ourselves. But then, if he really did not do anything, he would have won my gratitude and respect, but why he was so angry at that moment would remain a mystery.
So look out for next Thursday. If you see a post title which has an Chinese idiom on it (I will not say it here because it is reserved only for extremely evil people), with me sounding damn pissed, that means I am screwed and it would be good game for me this semester. Though I am sure this will not happen.
Hoping for the best again... hoping all will be well...
Labels: Life
