Combinatorics Mid Term
Andrew scribbled furiously on the problem. He had just gotten over the last obstacle, and in hindsight that part of the puzzle was obvious. How much time had he wasted, staring off into space and stubbornly ignoring the number sitting right in front of his face? He had no idea, exactly, but he felt like it was too much, way too much time. He had something like a snarl on his face as his pencil raced down the home stretch.
A chair creaked up front and his head snapped up like a taut spring. The person in the chair was Anna Lee girls, and was one of the few people in the class who had shown themselves to be capable. As he watched, she continued to shift in her seat, as if she was relaxing. She was finishing! Andrew’s burning resentment exploded into alarmed anticipation, and he willed his pencil to go as fast as it could while hoping that the results would remain legible. He looked up again, and saw her moving her papers around, and he redoubled his efforts, laying down sentence after mathematical sentence in rushed succession.
And so the last few minutes saw him alternatively bent over his paper grinding his pencil deeper into the page, looking up to give a fearful face at the continual paper shuffling taking place in front of Anna Lee, and sometimes reaching for his big pink eraser to mercilessly obliterate mistakes from the page. At the end of it all, he pretended to check over the answers for all of the problems (he knew they were all right, what’s the point?), and then, satisfied, he stood up and walked up to the front of the room, trying to affect a poker face as he studiously avoided making eye contact with any of the other students, still toiling at their papers. He reached the front and nonchalantly waved his test in from of the professor. After a few seconds (perhaps the professor was waiting for him to ask a question!), the professor took the test with a hint of a smile on his face. Andrew walked back to seat, heard Katie and Megan laughing nervously, collected his stuff, and walked triumphantly from the room.
yes, I am a geek.
A chair creaked up front and his head snapped up like a taut spring. The person in the chair was Anna Lee girls, and was one of the few people in the class who had shown themselves to be capable. As he watched, she continued to shift in her seat, as if she was relaxing. She was finishing! Andrew’s burning resentment exploded into alarmed anticipation, and he willed his pencil to go as fast as it could while hoping that the results would remain legible. He looked up again, and saw her moving her papers around, and he redoubled his efforts, laying down sentence after mathematical sentence in rushed succession.
And so the last few minutes saw him alternatively bent over his paper grinding his pencil deeper into the page, looking up to give a fearful face at the continual paper shuffling taking place in front of Anna Lee, and sometimes reaching for his big pink eraser to mercilessly obliterate mistakes from the page. At the end of it all, he pretended to check over the answers for all of the problems (he knew they were all right, what’s the point?), and then, satisfied, he stood up and walked up to the front of the room, trying to affect a poker face as he studiously avoided making eye contact with any of the other students, still toiling at their papers. He reached the front and nonchalantly waved his test in from of the professor. After a few seconds (perhaps the professor was waiting for him to ask a question!), the professor took the test with a hint of a smile on his face. Andrew walked back to seat, heard Katie and Megan laughing nervously, collected his stuff, and walked triumphantly from the room.
yes, I am a geek.