20060926

Bad Dreams

For a long time, I've had the occasional (maybe a couple of times a year) had an Exam Dream. The situation was usually that I had to take an exam, but for whatever reason I was unable to do it -- not because I didn't know the material (it never even occurred to me that I wouldn't. but rather for whatever reason external factors meant that I couldn't get started: maybe there was something distracting me so I couldn't begin, or I didn't have any pens that worked, or something like that. These have become more infrequent over the years, not overly surprising since I haven't had a real eam for many years.

I had an exam dream at the weekend. The twist was, this time I was giving the exam. I needed to get the exam papers out to the students. But, I hadn't finished putting the questions together. Or the photocopier wasn't working properly. Or something. And time was running out!

Plus ca change, as they say in Nice, plus c'est la meme chose...

Update:
nicholas adds the following:

I tried to post this on your web log but it kept demanding that I type
in the words displayed in an image that it refused to show me, so I
thought I'd email you instead.

About a fortnight before my MSc exams (nine and a half years ago) I had
a dream where I'd overslept and missed the beginning of an algebraic
topology exam. (In my dream) I leapt out of bed, hurriedly got dressed,
and legged it across campus to the Paranoia Room. I burst in through
the door just as Colin (who, six months later, was to become my PhD
supervisor) said "OK, everyone stop writing now, please". I did the
whole slow-motion "Nooooo!" thing as I rushed into the room, at which
point Colin turned to me and said "Oh I wouldn't worry about it - nobody
else could do the exam either", and I woke up.


Post your own scary exam dreams, if you can get past the evil comments system.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My father had exam dreams well into his 50s. I suspect I'm doomed to follow this kind of trend.

Mind you, since I don't have exams on this course, they've been replaced by forgotten deadline dreams.

Anonymous said...

I never have exam dreams, but I did have a very dream-like exam in real life, when I sat down to one of my A-levels to discover I hadn't brought anything to write with. Fortunately I was the only one sitting the exam, and there was just enough time for the invigilator to drive me home and back again so I could pick up a pen. Why they couldn't just find one from within the college itself, I've really no idea.

Anonymous said...

I actually overslept 90mins into my Computer history final during my fun commute between R1 and Coventry final months at uni. Begging to be let in did actually work though as no-one had left the room so I could start. Hurrah.