Dr. F's Mid Term Exam

Dr. F was a fine teacher of Gross Anatomy, however, we could not be sure that there was not a quiet malignancy in his manner at times. It was little comfort to start a new quarter without at least one or two "retreads" joining us. Retreads were students who had busted a subject and were allowed to repeat the whole quarter. Unless you were a real mental case, most everyone could get a chance ONCE to repeat. The faculty of each quarter held a grade meeting after the final exams had been graded and discussed each student and their grades. Boy!!! Wouldn't you think that would be interesting!

Anyway, a mid term exam was usually worth about 40% of your grade in a subject, so they were respected. The day of our written mid term in Gross Anatomy, Dr. F wrote on the blackboard ONE question! "Compare the upper and lower extremity."

We were all stunned. There were as a rule, 20+ questions on the two hour exam. We all thought at once, "One question means one right or one wrong". Pass or fail. Well it was not the case, but it was the first thought. Panic began to set in.

I thought what the heck, I can only bust the exam once. Then it struck me. Both extremities are made up of bones, blood vessels, muscles, nerves, as well as external landmarks. I took my little blue exam book (remember those?) and drew a line down each page with upper on one side and lower on the other. We had learned the lower extremity anatomy just six months before, so one had to consider what we learned then as well as the recent weeks. After that, it wasn't too hard. The structures are comparative even though they have different names. We had two hours.

Afterwards, there were the usual post exam worries. "Had I put this or that?" "Had I left out this or mistaken something for another structure. Some guys were distraught. It was a week before we met to receive our papers back. The grades ranged from the 20s to above 90. Dr. F was apologetic for having thrown us a loop, and I believe he was genuine. He was reassuring to those that had failed and praised those who had done well.

What was my grade? I don't remember exactly, but it was over 90. There was no one in the class that could not have passed, if the panic had not taken hold of them.