Even at full speed, I was pressed for time

“Ten minutes.”

“Five minutes.”

“Two minutes.”

Dr. Welbourn announced our remaining time as the four-problem stats exam came to a close. With two minutes remaining, I started into my last problem, and I submitted my completed test four minutes later. That’s right—four minutes. I sloppily went through and put down whatever I could get credit for, going with an answer I had absolutely no time to double check (or even single check). 

Xi, my TA, was standing right there when I turned in my exam. She grabbed it right off the stack (for some reason), turned to my last problem (for some reason), looked it over and said, “Good,” and set it back down on the stack. I have no idea what that meant, or whether my particular intelligence just confuses my TA for some reason, but I got through it and I apparently did my sloppiest problem correctly.

The phenomenon of the accidental teacher's buddy

Dr. Welbourn told us that we will probably see our statistics exams next week and probably the grades this Friday. He also indicated that the median score is probably somewhere between 9/10 and 10/10 (for a particular problem), which means everyone did exceptionally well. I guess in a class this size (150-ish?) I expected more slackers.

Also, I’ve discovered an interesting phenomenon. Ever since I went into Dr. Welbourn’s office at the start of the semester and happened to mention that I was preparing for the first actuarial exam last year, he has become my friend in passing. Sometimes before or after class, he’ll see me and wave or give me a head nod. And during lecture, he looks directly at about five different people, of which I am one. I’m flattered, really. Karen suggests he considers me more invested than the average student, and therefore he is more interested in teaching to me personally. I don't mind that one bit.