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From the Archives: Exam Season

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We all get a little stressed out at this time of year. It’s natural.

Just remember: no matter how bad your exam schedule seems, it could be worse. Dalhousie once forced students to write exams while attending lectures.

Why?

Well, it seems the schedule was messed up when the city was LEVELED BY THE LARGEST EXPLOSION IN HUMAN HISTORY PRIOR TO THE CREATION OF THE ATOMIC BOMB.

To make you feel marginally better about your own miserable lot, here’s a story from the most stressful exam season the Dalhousie Gazette has ever reported on.

“Not Even T.N.T. Could Stop The Exams” – Volume 50, Issue 1 – January 29, 1918

(This article appeared in the first issue of the Gazette published after the Halifax Explosion—a horrific disaster that killed 2000 people and injured 9,000 more.)

The Faculty, always so tenderly considerate of the students, felt that, in spite of the catastrophe, it would be shameful to deprive them of the Christmas Examinations, and so, on the twenty-first of January, they played Santa Claus, by presenting us with a series of one hour quizzes. Then, lest we grow blase with inaction, they ordained that lectures should continue through the Examination period. Great was the gnashing of teeth among the afflicted, as the explosion had blown every molecule of knowledge out of many a normally near-vacuum. Everyone agreed that district visiting was much more educational than the Ablative Absolute, but alas the callous Senate refused to adopt this humanitarian idea.

“Wake-ups” advertisement Volume 95, Issue 10 December 5, 1962

A small tablet helps keep you awake and attentive just when you need it most. Behind a wheel! Examinations! Social Dates! or quick stimulation at anytime. Over 2 million sold every year. No prescription needed. Ask for Wake-ups 49c at your store. Adrem Ltd., 20 Eglinton E., Toronto 12.

 

John Hillman
John Hillman
John Hillman is the Gazette's Opinions Editor. John is a second-year law student, but he has been at Dalhousie for much longer than that. Recently discovered cave paintings indicate he was first observed lurching around campus by Halifax’s original human settlers some time during the late Pleistocene epoch. He started writing for the Gazette back when you were in elementary school, but he unexpectedly went off the grid a half-decade ago to concentrate on helping found Punditry.ca, a DSU-focused political blog. Where exactly was he hiding between the years 2009-2013? Certain individuals would prefer he not comment. Why has he returned? Not because of a top-secret Illuminati indoctrination project known only as the Omega Initiative, that’s for sure. You can email John at opinions@dalgazette.com.
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