Student foibles

In a few weeks, some of our students will undergo the final exams of their degree. Judging from these observations, maybe some of them are just a teensy bit stressed out?

• One student made an appointment for 12.30pm, proceeded to knock on my door at 12.15pm, and on getting no reply at 12.15pm, did not try again at 12.30pm (when I was in, as arranged), but sent me an email at 12.45pm, and later tried knocking again at 1pm. What the...?

• Another student, whom I was supervising for his final year project, got into a mad panic before his project report was due. He started giving me more and more progress reports which increased in frequency until I got six of them in one day, each report delivered in person to my office. And his visits weren't of the sort where he needed any kind of problem solving or advice, they didn't need any supervisor input, they were simply reporting on where he'd got to in his project work. It was a good job he didn't return for a seventh visit - my fuse had fully shortened to zero length and I don't think he'd have enjoyed being chased down the corridor by a roaring supervisor wielding a rolled-up newspaper. Though the rest of the department might have quite enjoyed it...

• And then there was the student who handed in their final year project, which had been beautifully bound.
  Upside-down.
  And no, he didn't notice before handing it in.