As told by Jim Taylor...
Here's one that's been going around my Alma Mater (University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) that you may have heard before...
A student is having a very hard time writing a final exam. So hard, in fact, that he continues to write a full five minutes after the professor has called "Pencils down." The professor, tired of waiting, picks up the pile of exams and begins to walk out of the room. Seeing this, the student finishes up and rushes, paper in hand, to the professor, only to find that his exam will not be accepted.
After the professor explains to the distraught student that he has violated academic code by writing past the finishing time, the student asks him: "Do you have any idea who I am?"
The professor answers, "No. But I'll have a pretty good idea what your name is when I record your failing grade."
With that, the student knocks the finished exams out of the professors hands, mixes his in with the pile, and runs out of the room.
Rumour has it, he got a B+.
As told by Kevin Weppner...
My roommate in college swore this happened in one of his engineering final exams:
The class is taking their exams, and the time runs out. The professor dutifully states, "Time's up. Turn your exams in." All of the students turn their exams in, except for one student still diligently writing away.
The professor tells the student to turn in his exam, but he continues writing away, frantically trying to finish his exam. After a couple of minutes of this, the student proudly makes his way to the front of the room and turns in his exam. The following is supposed to be the verbal exchange:
Professor: "I won't take that. You continued beyond the allotted time limit."
Student: "Do you know who I am?"
Professor: "I don't care who you are, I'm not taking this."
Student: "Do you know who I am?"
Professor: "I told you, I'm not taking this."
Student: "Do you know who I am?"
Professor: "I don't care if you're the Dean's son, you're not turning this exam in. You'll take a zero on this exam!"
Student: "Do you know who I am?"
Professor: "Okay, smartass. I don't know who you are. Why?"
At which point the student grabs the whole pile of finished exams on the professor's desk, throws his in with the pile, and flings the entire pile up in the air, where they naturally intermingle and fall all over the place (thus mixing his up with the other exams).
Analysis: A well-traveled legend indeed. This same incident is alleged to have happened at colleges and universities all over the world. In his mid-eighties volume of urban legends, The Mexican Pet, Jan Harold Brunvand cited a variant reported to him in 1984.
The story speaks directly to the common concerns of students everywhere: the importance of passing final exams, the frustration of anonymity in overcrowded classrooms, a sense of powerlessness in the face of academic regulations and unyielding professors. Though the student is unquestionably in the wrong, we cheer his boldness and his cleverness in circumventing the system. Precisely because the story has such universal meaning and appeal, it's unlikely that it has ever really happened.
But not impossible.
