31 Days, 31 Memories - Day 26

[bironic]

26. College

There was a girl, C., on staff with me for a journal of undergraduate essays. We didn’t know each other very well, were introduced one October at a staff meeting and saw each other half a dozen times at most that year. I think she was an English major or minor, or at least had taken a few English classes. We got along well enough; she was nice, if a little distant sometimes, but that wasn’t remarkable since the magazine was run by a department notorious for staffing pretentious faculty and recruiting pretentious students.

My friend Rick came to one meeting but decided not to continue. He knew C. from a science class they had together. That summer, knowing that I knew her because of the journal work, Rick told me he’d heard her bitching about the two of us: that we had screwed up test curves in our respective classes and thereby forced her to get a lower grade. This was wrong on a number of levels, not least of which was that I don’t think our English teacher limited the number of A’s he gave on essays. But I laughed when Rick told me this, because apparently C. had hated me in silence for quite some time, and I’d had no idea.

Comments

[kabal42.livejournal.com]

That's a really funny story, since that girl basically said that she hated you because you were smarter than her - which is rather hilarious when you think about it. "Screwing up the test curves" - what a load of ****...

Memory:
My largest regret, academically, was an exam in Biology when I was 16.
It was on the female reproductive system and I had spoken of cycle and pregnancy. I knew I ought to start talking contraceptives now, but couldn't get the words out, didn't find a good place to start. My teacher asked: "So, what about the pill?" I went "Yes, of course" and spoke for the rest of the time without needing more prompting.
I got 11 for that. It's like an A, perhaps somewhere between A and A+, really. And then my teacher said: "You'd have done a lot better if I hadn't had to ask you that question." There's only one grade above 11 and that's 13 - the true A+ - and I've regretted that moment of hesitation since.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

A shame! It sounds like when you would get a test back with one mark short of a perfect score and realize you knew the right answer but made a stupid mistake. And if you dared complain about it to a friend, they would roll their eyes and tell you you did better than most of the class anyway.

[kabal42.livejournal.com]

It was exactly such a case! And a big shame. I wish he hadn't told me how close I was.

[catilinarian.livejournal.com]

My grandmother, who was prone to reading alarmist books about the modern world, called my mother in a panic when she heard I would be attending public (not Catholic) high school. She thought I'd be beaten up by the other kids for breaking the test curves.

It's funny to look back on, considering the posh, college-town public school I went to; not only was no one beaten up, but I couldn't have broken the curves if you gave me a mallet. :)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Funny. Nice to know that your grandmother cared enough to fear for your life. :)

I don't know about you but here it was the rare class in high school that had curves, anyway. Mostly science and math classes, more so as you advanced up to senior year/AP, and then we usually needed all the help we could get.