DanBlather just brought forth a repressed memory: C++ final was to write a program from scratch. Took half the time just to read the requirements and, just like in real life, the final result was short of optimal. I passed but that was final #3 that took the entire period.
In high school we had an option to take a class that essentially taught us how to take tests, and from the end of that semester forward I’ve almost always finished early. I don’t know if they still offer it, but it should be taught in 4th and 8th grade as well as 12th. My high school GPA could have been almost a point higher…
In high school often I couldn’t leave early–exam periods were three hours long, and you couldn’t leave until halfway through that. More often than not I was done before we were allowed to leave. The worst one was my grade 11 physics exam. The first part was all multiple choice, so it felt like it was taking forever, but when I had finished the entire exam I looked at my watch to see that I was 45 minutes into the exam period, meaning I had to wait as long again before I could actually leave. It was mildly amusing, as a couple people near me finished early as well, and we were all just sitting there, kinda looking at each other but not really, trying to figure out how to pass the better part of an hour when you have nothing with you but a pen, calculator, and teacher-sanctioned cheat sheet.
The other one that sticks out in my mind is from one of my french classes–grade 10 science or grade 11 history, I forget which. That was one of the longest ones I wrote in high school, being one of the few that took me over an hour and a half. I finished shortly after though, and was the first one finished. I called the teacher over, handed her my exam and left. Later I was told that she had given me the death-glare for leaving so early.
In university I’m rarely the first one finished. Probably because I’m taking humanities more now, which is harder to breeze through quickly. The only one I can remember finishing first on was Intro to Computers for Non-Majors, which sadly did not cover as much material as I had expected after my friend took it the year before. Suffice it to say that that class, especially the practical aspects, were easy as pie–a lot of it I knew before taking the class.
I think I had one or two finals in my entire college career that I didn’t finish early. I graduated with a 3.6. I have a BA in English Lit. so most of my exams were essay exams. A lot of my professors chose to weight the research papers more than the tests, so the test did tend to be basic overview stuff. If you showed up for the class discussions and paid attention, it was hard to mess up.
I’m fabulous at multiple choice tests. I wish more of my tests had those. Not pratical for a lit class though.
I was usually the last person out of the class and almost always had the highest grade.
I think I left almost every single exam or final earlier except for a couple of tests where I left almost last and took the whole time in a Stat course I didn’t study nearly enough for. I almost always end up with the highest grades too. I just read the question look at the choices, pick the one that looks right (assuming it’s not math related) and move on, never question the ole first instinct
I walked out of the New York State Bar Examination just shy of two hours before the alloted time was scheduled to elapse. On both days.
Passed with a really, really healthy margin (20%) according to the results they sent me.
I do tests well.
Also, if I don’t know the answer to a T/F or multiple choice question immediately, it ain’t coming to me. Essay questions are the same - either the framework of the answer is something I know right off the bat, or I’m sunk.
I routinely check my work - to make sure I haven’t missed pages or questions and to make sure I marked the answer I meant to mark, but I’m still generally the first one out of the room.
I took a Shakespeare course in college, along with several friends. After the midterm, as one friend and I walked back towards our rooms, he asked me what the name of the antagonist was in Measure for Measure.
After a moment, while I pondered the question, and whether the obvious answer was the right one, I told him a name. He agreed that the name was the right one. He’d come to the essay portion of the test, and drawn a blank on the name of one of the most important characters in the play. Answering one of the available essay questions with “The antagonist in Measure for Measure did X” seemed inadvisable, so he chose the essays (I think we had to pick 2 of 3, and may have had our choice of plays) that did’t require naming that character.
That was my thought as well. I looked over the exam a couple of times and nothing else sprung to mind. Plus, it seems like I never have to pee until someone tells me I can’t leave the room.
I’ve left several of my law exams early. Once I’ve written everything I want to say I don’t really see that there’s any point in continuing to say it over and over again. I also mark university exams and I know that I’d much prefer to read a concise answer than a long waffly one.
I think the most impressive one I recall doing was an exam on ear training and theory in music. Little headphones and you had to mark which voice had the root, which had the third, which had the fifth, and what kind of chord it was. I circled the answers as fast as I could write, while other people around me were playing and replaying the audio clip and scowling and doing odd things in mid-air with their fingertips. I would have had more of a challenge if I had to distinguish augmented ninths from minor sevenths with fourths superimposed in the bass or something, but these were simple major and minor chords and my ear is good enough to know the answers instantaneously, it’s like someone holding up a piece of colored cardboard and just knowing that it’s yellow or red or whatever the instant you see it.
The theory portion was some horrid chart of which chords could lead to which other chords within the confines of the rules of Baroque thru early Classical composition, and I had gotten annoyed with it and instead of learning the meaning I memorized the chart visually and practiced replicating it over and over in the week before the test, so on the test it took maybe a full minute to sketch it out. Again, everyone else was closing their eyes and staring out into space and trying to reason it out logically and making a notation and then erasing a line and putting it somewhere else, etc.
I think we had 2 hours to do the test and I handed mine in in about 4 minutes and got an A on both parts. I didn’t like the teacher (a pompous and contemptuously condescending graduate student) so I enjoyed that.
I wasn’t sure if I should post in here, because my grade isn’t back yet. I left my Literature Survey exam almost 40 minutes early on Monday, mostly because I write a lot faster than others and also because two of the questions were about authors I wrote several papers on this past quarter, so I was ready for those. I did see my professor today, and I was told that what he had read of my exam was fine.
I was by far not the first to leave, there was one girl that left about 20 minutes in. I’m convinced she answered one out of the five or six questions and headed home. I know that my friend who was in class with me stayed until the end of class and at least 5 minutes afterwards. He answered them all but felt he did horrible…
Brendon
A wee update…
The grade posted.
146 out of 150 on the final. (He gave everyone an extra 15 points because it was hard…)
3.8 out of 4.0 in the class.
tweeeeeeeeeeedle
I recently took the NASD Series 7 test. It is a six hour test. I finished the first part in about 45 minutes. We were required to take a 30 minute break. Ok, I drove around for a bit, filled up my car and went back. Finished the second part in another 45 minutes. Hit the score button. If I pass, I get the rest of the day off with pay. If I fail, I get the rest of the day off to look for another job. There’s about a 30 second delay while you wait for your score.
I passed with a score in the 90s. I’ve always finished tests early. I’m a very fast reader so I know that helps.
I once had a class in Business Ethics, and did pretty well up until the final. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t have left early if I hadn’t been caught cheating on the test. . .
Tripler
Stupid ‘ethics’ rules.
Congratulations! pops champagne cork
Everyone in my class (me included) was sneaking out after finishing the final in our Romantic literature class to compare results–what we got wrong, what we screwed up on, what we mislabelled and forgot, etc.
For really big finals, however, my friends and I head down to the local Pickle Barrel and order the biggest milkshakes they’ve got on the menu. 
We don’t have Pickle Barrels here, but I did treat myself to lunch (pho!), and some strawberries, and a massage bar from Lush.
And I plan to have a couple of drinks this evening.
See? We told you itwas a good sign! 
One of the compulsory courses for any Architecture major (5th years plus Design Project) in Spain is Draftmanship. Many schools don’t even do pen-and-paper draftmanship any more, but I’m old enough to remember when AutoCAD first came out. In most schools, the Draftmanship final would take 2 or 3 days.
Students were allowed to bring food, water and sleeping bags, as well as to leave the room and come back. It was Da Course, too, the one that would lead to asking “what year are you in?” and hearing “5th, with Draft from 1st sigh.” You got a Pass (5 over 10) if your plans were complete, looked like the house wasn’t going to come down and did not include any physical impossibilities… more than a 6.5 made you a legend among your peers.
Made those of us who had essays look at our 5-7 hour exams in a much softer light, it did.
And gratz, MerryMagdalene
Mine was not a final, nor as easy as any college test. It was the CCRN exam, which is a four hour test that one pays to take. ($200, when I took it in the dark ages, I don’t know how much now.) A fail means you pay to take it again. At that time, about half those who took it failed.
It was the hardest test I’d ever taken. I was so focused, that I didn’t notice how much time had passed. I had no clue that I was the first out until at least 30 minutes later when the next person came out. (I was waiting for my car pool.)
The next few people that came out, said that it was an automatic fail if a person took less that two of the four hours. Of course, I didn’t really believe them.
:dubious: I passed just fine. I’d finished in 90 minutes.
picunurse I know plenty of critical care nurses (I don’t get to work with the peds as much, mostly adult) but considering their amount of knowledge and competence, I salute you. I like working with ICU nurses, proportionately, more than those on the medical floors. (Though there are lots of great nurses on those floors as well; I have to contact an ICU nurse before I approach their patient, so there’s more contact.)
If I ever get to the point where I get to be a resident, I think I will have a much better appreciation of nurses than many of my cohort.
And thank you Nava.