My Professor is a troll!

Context: My module Psychology of Learning has two mid-terms and one finals - all of which are MCQ (or so we are told). We had our first mid-term earlier in the semester which was 25 MCQ, and today was my second mid-term, which was supposed to be 25 MCQ too.

So at 3.30PM the professor walked into class and gave out the bubble form to shade our MCQs. As we filled in our details, he began writing some stuff on the board, and said "As you know, this mid term has 25 MCQs...' and he wrote '25 MCQ - 1 mark each'. Then he continued writing: "1 Essay - 4 marks'.

Murmurs and gasps of surprise/shock/disbelief echoed throughout the lecture room (yes it's kind of a room here, not a hall or theatre like in NUS). I heard a girl mutter 'can he do this??!' and others go 'omg' as the room was abuzz with a light chatter.

The professor kept a straight face and began handing out the papers, and said something along the lines of "If you have any questions, just raise your hand, like if the essay question is too difficult..." as he gave out the papers.

Personally, I was actually smirking inside and somehow felt confident because, well, NUS has prepared me well with MAINLY essay exams and it's only in the US here in Boston Uni that everything somehow is MCQ. I didn't doubt my smoking skills will trump the Americans.  Thus, in my mind, I wasn't thinking 'I am so screwed' but 'I may be screwed but these people are more screwed than me" LOL.

Naturally, when everyone got a copy of the exam paper we all flipped to search for this mysterious surprise essay question. When I saw it, my eyes rolled to the back of my head and came back down the other side.

"In more than one sentence, suggest how this course can be improved. Full marks will be given as long as your answer is clearly and sensibly written. (4 marks)"

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="210"] And below the question there was this image[/caption]

Ok fine there wasn't a trollface but walaoeh!!! So troll!

 

Oh, I got a 24/25 for the quiz (he let you check answers after you hand it in). Damn it silly single mistake. (oh, and +4m for the ESSAY question. Gave him a good three lines of feedback, including 'Professors should not give students heart attacks'.) (Ok fine I didn't write that)

 

False Confessions

Would you confess to a crime you didn't commit?

I watched a short film today in my Psychology and Criminal Justice class which really disturbed and annoyed me because of what transpired in it. It was a documentary on an actual criminal case in Norfolk, where four men separately confessed to a gang rape and murder which they didn't commit and were convicted to life sentence in prison without parole. How did it all happen?  Read on for the ridiculous story.

Amazing Poker Hand!!

I played some poker with some exchange friends today, no money involved, just all for fun. It was pretty fun as I ended up winning by quite a bit:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="336"] The red chips were the 2nd highest denomination. $1 green, $2 blues, $5 reds, $10 black[/caption]