The Best Words a Professor Can (Realistically) Say

There are lots of things a professor can say that make a student’s life much, much better. For example, “I’ll give you an extra week to work on your papers” or “This exam will be open-note” or “There will be no class next week.” Those are realistic things. It would be amazing, though totally unrealistic, for a professor to say “I’ve decided to give you all A’s, and you don’t have to turn in any work.” But today I heard the Best Words a Professor Can Realistically Say – “The final exam will be optional.”

Optional!

I wanted to hug my professor. I am so excited. I have only one final exam scheduled, and it is for this class. It’s scheduled for December 13, but I’ll be done with classes on December 6. And REALLY done! Because the final is optional!

This does mean that my paper has to be absolutely killer. You’d better believe that I’m going to finish a draft ASAP so I can spend a good week and a half to edit it and make sure I don’t need that final. Fortunately, I actually remembered that I have one longer paper for this class, so I had that topic OK-ed a few weeks ago. Glad I’m on the ball sometimes, unlike Tuesday.

This was a nice way to end my academic week (well, my two-days-of-classes-week). Sooo much better than realizing I’ve been doing the wrong assignment. But of course this means that my weekends will now be filled with paper-writing and editing so everything will be A quality by December 6. I should probably wear my glasses a lot. If they make me look smarter, maybe they will make me actually smarter, too. Or at least more productive. Maybe this will be the weekend that I can post about the Best Studying Essentials Ever. But for now, I will bask in the wondrousness of hearing the Best Words a Professor Can (Realistically) Say.