‘Good judgment’
Good afternoon,
Today is the first day of the Candlemas Semester exams, except for people who’ve had oral exams already. This is an exam season like no other. Nobody is nervously gathering outside the Sports Centre; scientists are not waiting outside Lower College Hall on a rare venture beyond the North Haugh; invigilators are not hurrying to be on time. Exams are online, and in many cases more like essays, with time periods lengthened, resources consultable. It is different this year – you really can do your final St Andrews exam in your pyjamas. You need a sign like this on your bedroom door, not St Salvator’s Quad:
It is a long time since I sat an exam, thank goodness. But every time I left for one I’d have my mother’s words in my ear. “Good judgment!” She had been told that by her father, my grandfather, for her school exams. And I now hand that on to you.
“Good luck!” would be more common. And there is luck in exams. You may be unlucky if the one area you didn’t revise was the one the lecturer chooses to focus on. But there is more of judgment than luck in exams: in knowing your subject, practising the problems, reading the paper.
Anyway, a poem by Roddy Lumsden to mark the first day of exams, with some salutary advice perhaps as to what not to write on…
The Drop of a Hat
After some months of indecision,
Sykes decided to do his dissertation
on those events which actually had
occurred “at the drop of a hat”.
He came across a minor skirmish
in the Netherlands War of Independence
caused when an insubordinate colonel
tossed a general’s cap in the mud
and then discovered the 400 yards hurdles
at the 1904 St Louis Olympics
was started with the drop of a beret
when the starting gun had stuttered
but that was pretty much the limit,
his paper was returned, marked “without merit”
though Sykes was later to fall for and marry
a girl who appeared as if from nowhere
and bumped him squarely into the gutter
while chasing her bonnet down Market Street.
Here is the invitation to tomorrow’s Chapel service. I’ve attached the order of service, but will also share it during the service. Hope to see you there.
Donald MacEwan is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: University Worship for Sunday 10 May
Time: May 10, 2020 11:00 AM London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/97757355713?pwd=bkwybzlaVCtFZVBlSHFvQUVIVkVsUT09
Meeting ID: 977 5735 5713
Password: 0QriyP
Good judgment,
Donald.