Exam legends

[snopes]

Comment: While reading your sub article "exam scams" I recalled a story my
college mentor recalled. He took an anatomy class in undergrad the grade
of which was based almost entirely on the final exam. When the students
entered the exam room they saw a table up front with several numbered
envelopes. When the instructor entered the room he went through the usual
exam protocol and then explained the envelopes. Each contained a
different exam question of varying degrees of difficulty. The instructor
explained that in life some people will invariably be given a leg up
because of nothing more than circumstance. One question in particular, he
said, was so easy, that anyone who knew English could answer it. The
students approached the table, picked up an envelope and returned to their
seats. When the instructor gave the signal, the students opened their
envelopes to begin the test. Almost immediately came a gleeful scream
from a girl near the front row. All eyes were on her as she quickly
scribbled something on a piece of paper, handed it to the instructor, and
walked out of the room. The gossip mill after the test was quick to
reveal that the question was this: "If your front is your anterior your
back is your (blank)?"

[Cervus]

Maybe I'm slow today, but I've read this story three times and I'm not sure I understand it. I know the answer to the exam question, but why would the girl scream and react that way? Was that the question supposedly able to be answered by "anyone who knew English"? That doesn't make sense. Am I just taking this too literally or something?

[Banrion]

Originally Posted by Cervus

Maybe I'm slow today, but I've read this story three times and I'm not sure I understand it. I know the answer to the exam question, but why would the girl scream and react that way? Was that the question supposedly able to be answered by "anyone who knew English"? That doesn't make sense. Am I just taking this too literally or something?

I don't quite get it either. I am in the same boat, I know the answer, but I am missing the point of the story.

[SplishFish]

I think there is something missing here. The only way I can see this as funny or having a point is if the girl's answer was "butt" or "a$$" and she got the simplist answer wrong (and presumably failed the class because so much of the grade depended on the exam). Otherwise it sounds like a reasonable anatomy exam question.

Splish "or I just could be talking out of my (blank)" Fish

[robbiev]

Same here. I'm not sure what the point is either.

Robbie -scratching my head- V

The only thing I could think of would be that it's a jab at the professor for the "anyone who knows English"-thing, since "posterior" is derived from Latin, although that a) still doesn't make much sense and b) would still be a lame story.

[Mycroft]

My interpretation is that she was excited as she had paased the exam by just giving one simple answer, when she expected a huge exam

[Dropbear]

I would be prepared to bet that its a variation of a 'dumb blond' story and the punchline was that she wrote "Bacteria" and thus flunked the test.

Dropbear

I think the whole point of the story was that every in the exam got invariable degrees of difficulty on their questions, so some would have got a big essay question, whereas she got a question that could be answered in one word, the easiest question in the room. I think the UL is whether a professor would actually do (and be allowed to do) that in real life.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Dropbear

I would be prepared to bet that its a variation of a 'dumb blond' story and the punchline was that she wrote "Bacteria" and thus flunked the test.

Could be. The OP sounds like a joke with the punchline missing. It made no sense to me either unless the missing punchline was due to "anterior" already being such a well-known med-school joke that it's assumed the readers already knew the joke.

Anyway, we all know that bacteria refers to the back of a cafeteria (where the kitchen usually is)

I was reminded of this Snopes page on exams recently. I met a professor who taught a course on another campus that was either about Zen Buddhism or at least included it as a major topic. He (the professor) said that in past years for an exam he had asked the essay question, "What is Zen?" (or something similar). He says a few students sat through the whole exam without writing anything, then turned in the blank exam. He claims to have given them full credit.

Bee

[Eddylizard]

I think we're over analyzing here. There is no point to get, other than that the commenter wished to pass on an anecdote. The girl got up and screamed (presumably with happiness) because she got the easy question. No more, no less, no punchline.