Can we talk about my snowflake? A really big important snowflake?This snowflake thinks I should allow her to take her exams whenever it's convenient for her. For instance, she wants to take her final exam the following week so she doesn't have to take final exams two days in a row. After all, she needs a breather.
Oh, and she'd like to take the midterm after class instead, because it's really hard to get up early in the morning, and she has a long day. Another problem she has is that my course conflicts with another course she's taking, so she's going to miss some of the lectures so she can be in her other class. She actually had the cojones to ask me if my class was hard, because the other class she's taking is very hard so she really doesn't want to take two hard classes! Like I'm really going to say, oh no, my class is really easy, you don't have to work at ALL.
And of course the fact that it says on the syllabus that exam material will come from the text and the lecture isn't enough. I have to tell her that live, in person, face to face when she stops by my office OUTSIDE of my assigned office hours time (and I, admittedly stupidly, opened the door - guess I got what was coming to me, huh.) So after we do all this, she wants to know the exam format, like what kinds of questions are going to be on the exam. Um, questions about the MATERIAL? Yeah, things covered in your textbook and in lecture. The kind where I ask a question and you write down some stuff about what you know, that kind of question.
Oh, oh, and this was priceless: she asked me if it was going to be like a college exam! She did, I swear she did! I looked at her and I know it was all over my face, I couldn't help it, but I asked, "As opposed to what???" What other type of exam would you get in a college course? She said, "Well, I'm just looking for some direction as to what to study, because (okay, wait for it - here it comes) I'm not very good at remembering things."
All I could think was, Oh sweetie, what are you doing here?