In the exam room, a few minutes before the papers are distributed, that same student is still repeating that sentence seven more times, the sound of a pen clicking in someone’s hand, their own way of relieving stress.
The papers are on the table. The timer begins. Paper flipping sounds, someone asking about the time every ten minutes. “You have twenty minutes left”, a few gasps follow, “five minutes left” and the room is still almost full. Everyone is still trying to write the last information they have.
Time is over! Everyone gathers in front of the exam room, asking each other about a question they were not sure about. Then you hear the same sentence from several voices around you: “I knew it! But I didn’t have any time to write that”. Spending weeks studying for hours for a course you have been taking for months, only for one hour to determine almost half your grade. Dreadful!
In class, the first session after the midterm, a few stressed minutes pass before the lecturer finally asks the question everyone has been anticipating: “How was the exam?” Five voices answer at once “We didn’t have enough time”. Different students, different courses, yet the experience is strikingly similar.
Midterm season seems to put the entire campus on the same rhythm: rushing footsteps, whispered revisions, racing thoughts, and sighs of relief–or disappointment. Then, almost as quickly as it began, everyone returns to lectures, assignments, and preparing for the next exam, repeating the cycle all over again.
