Turns out it was yesterday. I thought it was today. Whoops. Pleading e-mails and voicemails sent off, now all that’s left to do is bite my nails and wait.
Someone reassure me that I’m not completely incompetent.
Well, it did happen to my daughter last year on her lab final. She was in the college cafeteria eating lunch when she ran into her TA (I’m unclear as to why he was getting lunch when he was supposed to be proctoring), who pointed out the exam was at noon, not two. She ran back and was able to finish in plenty of time (it evidently wasn’t all that hard).
But she was definitely lucky.
Eeek! I worry about things like this happening to me all the time. Good luck. I hope they give you a chance to make it up.
During one of my lesser caring years I had plans to skip class to go out with my buddies. However an hour beforehand one of them canceled and the whole plan fell apart. So on a whim I decided to actually go to class, and it turns out we had an exam. It wasn’t a surprise, I just didn’t care enough to read the class schedule. So instead of throwing away 1/3rd of my grade I ended up with a B+.
Not that this will make you feel any better, but hopefully you’ve learned the same lesson I did. The most important thing the teacher gives you is the schedule.
I never made that mistake again.
I assume this is college. If you were in my class, frankly, you wouldn’t get a whole lot of sympathy. It also depends if it was an intro or freshman level course or an upper level course where you just expect better from your students.
Hope your prof is easier on you than I would be!
That’s horrible. I’ll restrain myself and simply say that I’m glad you weren’t one of my wonderful professors. Your name suits you BTW. 
So anyways, Catalyst, have you gone to your professor’s office yet? This happened to my brother and he got leniency simply because he camped out in front of my professor’s office for 3 days (prof went out of town). For 3 days, the secretary of whatever department it was berated him for being irresponsible, etc. Like Job, he continued to sit in front of his prof’s office, taking her abuse, and informing her that he was going to wait until his professor returned from vacation.
When the prof came back, he thought it was kinda funny. Let him take the test. So there’s hope.
- Peter Wiggen
Tons of people have missed exams, or been late for exams, or showed up in the wrong place before. It’s not the end of the world. If you were doing fine in the class beforehand, there’s a slim chance that even if you can’t take the exam you’ll pass - but it really depends on how much the exam’s worth.
Just remember, every normal person’s screwed up that bad or worse at least once. What’s done is done, so if it doesn’t work out, don’t beat yourself up about it. Just don’t do it again.
Most of my students consider me very accomodating and helpful. I really go out of my way to help out when there are family crises, work related conflicts and childcare problems (and most other issues when we can plan for them in advance).
But if one of my students showed up and said simply “oops I forgot we had a test”… well might work something out, but I would not have a lot of sympathy. Can you imagine me going to my class next semester saying “oops, I forgot all my grades were due so no one gets to graduate on time”! 
I suggest you go in to your prof’s office with a lot of humility and offer to write a make up at any time that works for the prof. Expect to take a garde hit on the test, or write a more difficult exam (many profs do that) so that you can be really happy when s/he makes it easy on you.
I know for me that I have a very short time from when I give my last exam to when I must submit my final grades, so it’s just not a issue on principle, but time management for me as well.
If you were one of my students, I’d have to consider if you’re just trying to game the system … whether you really forgot or didn’t show because you weren’t ready and wanted extra studying time. Usually, it’s not hard to tell. If I believe you, you can take the test.
My university actually lets you apply to do a deferred exam if you missed the original due to circumstances beyond your control - got the flu, car broke down, kid started projectile vomiting… You have to take it at the end of February, though, when you’ve (possibly) started to forget everything.
I don’t know if being a total dumbass and forgetting is considered circumstances beyond your control.
Show a lot of contrition, show that you got in touch with them as soon as you realized it, and show that you know they don’t HAVE to help you out. (Also, be a student who has actually attended class and turned in homework. That helps.) I’d be surprised if that doesn’t get the rules bent at least a LITTLE in your favor - enough to let you pass, at least.
I did that once. I was double checking the time and room of the exam on the morning of the day I thought the exam was. That was on a Thursday. When checking the other information I learned the exam was Tuesday. Right away I sent off a email to my TA explaining what had happened, that wasn’t missing it as some form of protest, and that this in no way reflected her teaching as it was completely my fault. It wasn’t a suck-up type email at all. I took all the blame.
I wasn’t doing too well in that class and began skipping my tutorials. My prof wrote me back asking about my absences, and I honestly explained what the problems were that I was having. He sympathized and gave me some suggestions on how to better cope with the workload and such and allowed me to write a make-up exam. I studied like hell for that exam and ended up passing the course with a B. That’s not too bad considering my attendance record and tests/assignments prior to that point. That second chance really helped me get out of the slump I was in.
I should mention as well that that prof had an honesty policy where if one was honest with him, he would be fair with that student. I’m thankful of it because it allowed me to straighten up my act and approach university in a more mature way.