A Very Testing Set Of Circumstances

(My wife has resumed working on a Master’s degree. The last time she was at it, the deal with the school was any grade below 75% was considered failing. She had surgery twice during a difficult semester and got a 73.7 in one class; the instructor refused to let her do any work to improve it. Now the school requires a minimum 80% in each class, and now her employer is paying tuition but will cease assistance and make her pay it back if she gets below an 80%. This occurs in the class she “failed” last time. All assignments are completed in an online system called Blackboard. The final exam is almost half the total grade.)

Instructor Notes: “Download the exam and work it on your computer, then upload your file when done. This exam is timed. The system timestamps when you download and when you upload. You must upload no more than three hours after you download. If you’re late turning in, I won’t even look at it. If you email me your exam instead of uploading to Blackboard, I won’t even look at it.”

(She downloads the exam, and I start a timer for her. After she finishes…)

Wife: “How am I on time?”

Me: “You have a bit more than 20 minutes left.”

Wife: “Awesome. I’m uploading now.”

Blackboard Web Site: “Due to power outages at our main campus, Blackboard is currently unavailable. We have no ETA for restoration. We apologize for this inconvenience.”

Wife: “NOOOOOOO! ARE YOU F****** KIDDING ME?!”

(She emailed the instructor the test and a screenshot of the outage notice. Happy ending – the instructor accepted it, and she ended up with 91% overall.)