Exam Humor

You know the jokes are good when they get forwarded all the way to New Zealand. This one was making the rounds in Phi Rho back at Case, and eventually made its way to me (thanks Pat!). In honor of the recent, current, and imminent midterm exams of students in the Northern Hemisphere, I'm putting my favorites here for you all to giggle over (click for a larger image).




I personally like these more from a grader's perspective than anything- since virtually every science major gets recruited to grade papers at some point, and it doesn't take long for you to be easily amused by anything out of the ordinary. I have a friend who graded the intro astronomy class' homework for two years, for example, and kept a list of the venerable jewels students would hand in to him in the form of answers.

Of course, everyone knows that my own personal style during a despairing exam situation is to compose poems instead. Here's one that I wrote on my AP Calc final, which I am told was greatly appreciated by the graders that year-

One day Mr. Newton
Took a file from his drawer
Showing he'd invented calculus
Twenty years before!

Everyone got interested,
Took the integral of one,
And worked backwards with derivatives
Until they were left with none.

Then a few centuries later
A kid took the Calc AB
And thanks to Mr. Newton
Got a 5 quite easily.