Exam 2

I shall now bore you all to sleep with another blog about accounting.

The deadline just passed to take our second midterm. Here are the highlights from exam #2:

Desperate theives and cheating scandals, grown women brought to tears, and three varieties of M&M's.

On Monday morning the exam period began in the infamous BYU testing center. 11:00 AM, and still no one had taken on the beast. Perhaps some students believed the 75-minute in-class optional review would provide the necessary finishing touches on their thorough preparations for the exam. More likely, most students then filing into 151 TNRB came in hopes of using this class period as the necessary jump start to their unbegun cramming. With hopeless amounts of material to cover, Professor Hobson flew through example problems: "You should all understand this by now," and "We'll quickly skip through this one - that principle should be easy enough for you."

I imagined a proud elementary-school graduate rapid firing the ABC's; his toddler sibling gasped for breath before H, hopelessly trying to keep up.

By the time the wall clock read 12:15, anxiety hung thick in the room. Thoroughly prepared students sulked away with shaken confidence. Those hoping to jump-start their cramming began to realize that it was everlastingly too late. Many in that emptying BYU classroom would no-doubt clinging to their final lingering hope - a miracle. But would their faith be sufficient? One person didn't think so.

In the commotion of snapping binders, zipping backpacks, and students filling the aisles, the culprit struck. Whether the theft was premeditated or an unrepressed act of desperation I do not know. But the deed was done - the first step in a genius plan of cheatery. The distrought victim inquired for her missing backpack at the lost-and-found, but in vain. Her wallet was inside. It may have crossed her mind to cancel her credit card, but no one would have guessed it was the BYU ID the crook was really after.

On Monday night it was time for the testing center to close. The ominous hall was vacant, and all tests were accounted for ... except one. An accounting 210 exam was outstanding. The girl it was checked out to was probably still searching for her lost backpack.

It was Tuesday afternoon when I learned of all this. I had been studying on the ground floor of the testing center and was about to take the exam. My confidence was checked more than once as I witnessed teary-eyed students burst through the exit in frustration. One girl sobbed audibly. I swollowed and went over my notes one more time before running into Kylie on my way to start the test.

"There's some scandalous stuff going on with that accounting test." She whispered. "The professor canceled the version of the exam that was stolen and re-keyed a new one. Someone must have used a stolen ID and they have no way of tracking who it was."

The news added an unexpected twist to the unfolding drama of exam 2. "Who done it?" I wondered. My mind was suddenly relieved of accounting rules and time value of money calculations as I played detective in my mind. Maybe they were caught on a security tape. Or maybe we can bring in a k-9 unit to sniff out the stinking cheater.

...to be continued.