Midterm season is definitely upon us. I’ve seen boys and girls steadily abandon their fashionable wardrobe for NU sweats, and in some extreme cases, pajama bottoms. I see it in their eyes, or, better yet, in the bags under their eyes. We’re tired, and we don’t think we did so hot on that one exam.
I feel you, Northwestern. I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in ages. Around midterm season, coffee and Diet Coke become my best friends. But never have I used excuses to aid me in surviving an exam season here at NU, like some of my peers are wont to do. I labor under the apprehension that due dates are non-negotiable, and whatever the professor states in a syllabus, goes. End of discussion.
But in my years here, I’ve seen so many students blatantly use class time to argue over due dates, the amount of reading, structures of exams and what have you with the professor… in front of other students. Audacity, I call it, because it would never occur to me to question someone in such a position of authority in front of an audience.
Just the other day, I was in class and several classmates asked the professor for hints on a quiz! A quiz, moreover, whose subjects were clearly covered in the previous class. Had homies been paying attention in class, the quiz would have been an easy couple of points. Instead, they turned the next 10 minutes into a running joke with the professor regarding the validity of his questions and grading system. Are you serious?!
I sat back, aghast that they would consider their behavior acceptable. They went on to complain that they had a lot going on, sleep was a distant recollection and, gosh, the stuff was just so hard. The professor slowly got frustrated, but the students didn’t take the hint until they’d won some concessions.
The amount of stuff covered on the exam was shortened and the professor was made to re-lecture on facts and events that, had the students been paying sufficient attention, should have needed no further explanation. Audacious, and, I’m sorry, inexcusable. Barring severe stress, familial and platonic emergencies (I’ve had a couple of these throughout my career here), I don’t see a plausible excuse for these actions.
Upperclassmen, you’ve been here before, tighten up. The quarter system shouldn’t come as a surprise after your first winter. If you haven’t learned to balance your time by now, I fear for you in the future.
Good luck pulling these stunts on the job. Honestly, you’d think with all the career fairs, résumé building and other pre-professional opportunities NU offers, you’d have come across some kind of office etiquette sheet.
I don’t see you keeping a job for long if you tell your boss, that, hey, you would have gotten that assignment done, but you just couldn’t because you hadn’t gotten enough sleep the night before. Or, sorry Mr. CEO, I can’t get that work done, it’s just a little too difficult, and I’ve got other stuff going on.
College is a stepping stone to the “real world,” treat it as such. And in the future, please pay me the courtesy of not wasting the class that I pay for. And as for the argument that a rearranged syllabus benefits all, spare me. I didn’t ask to be put on that level.
