Final Questions That Would Suck
Instructions: Read each question carefully. Answer all questions. Time Limit:
4 hours.
HISTORY
Describe the history of the papacy from its
origins to the present day, concentrating especially, but not exclusively, on
its social, political, economic, religious, and philosophical impact on Europe,
Asia, America, and Africa. Be brief, concise, and specific.
MEDICINE
You have been provided with a razor blade, a
piece of gauze, and a bottle of Scotch. Remove your appendix. Do not suture
until your work has been inspected. You have 15 minutes.
PUBLIC SPEAKING
Twenty-five hundred riot-crazed
aborigines are storming the classroom. Calm them. You may use any ancient
language except Latin or Greek.
BIOLOGY
Create life. Estimate the differences in
subsequent human culture if this form of life had developed 500 million years
earlier, with special attention to its probable effect on the English
parliamentary system. Prove your thesis.
MUSIC
Write a piano concerto. Orchestrate and perform it
with flute and drum. You will find a piano under your seat.
PSYCHOLOGY
Based on your degree of knowledge of their
works, evaluate the emotional stability, degree of adjustment, and repressed
frustrations of each of the following: Alexander of Aphrodisias, Rameses II,
Gregory of Nicea, Hammurabi. Support your evaluations with quotations from each
man's work, making appropriate references. It is not necessary to translate.
SOCIOLOGY
Estimate the sociological problems which might
accompany the end of the world. Construct an experiment to test your theory.
MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
Define management. Define science.
How do they relate? Why? Create a generalized algorithm to optimize all
managerial decisions. Assuming an 1130 CPU supporting 50 terminals, each
terminal to activate your algorithm; design the communications interface and all
necessary control programs.
ENGINEERING
The disassembled parts of a high-powered
rifle have been placed in a box on your desk. You will also find an instruction
manual, printed in Swahili. In ten minutes a hungry Bengal tiger will be
admitted to the room. Take whatever action you feel is appropriate. Be prepared
to justify your decision.
ECONOMICS
Develop a realistic plan for refinancing the
national debt. Trace the possible effects of your plan in the following areas:
Cubism, the Donatist controversy, the wave theory of light. Outline a method for
preventing these effects. Criticize this method from all possible points of
view. Point out the deficiencies in your point of view, as demonstrated in your
answer to the last question.
POLITICAL SCIENCE
There is a red telephone on the desk
beside you. Start World War III. Report at length on its socio-political
effects, if any.
EPISTEMOLOGY
Take a position for or against truth. Prove
the validity of your position.
PHYSICS
Explain the nature of matter. Include in your
answer an evaluation of the impact of the development of mathematics on science.
PHILOSOPHY
Sketch the development of human thought;
estimate its significance. Compare with the development of any other kind of
thought.
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
Describe in detail. Be objective and
specific.
50 Fun Things for Professors to Do on the First Day of Class
- Wear a hood with one eyehole. Periodically make strange gurgling noises.
- After confirming everyone's names on the roll, thank the class for
attending "Advanced Astrodynamics 690" and mention that yesterday
was the last day to drop.
- After turning on the overhead projector, clutch your chest and scream
"MY PACEMAKER!"
- Wear a pointed Kaiser helmet and a monocle and carry a riding crop.
- Gradually speak softer and softer and then suddenly point to a student
and scream "YOU! WHAT DID I JUST SAY?"
- Deliver your lecture through a hand puppet. If a student asks you a
question directly, say in a high-pitched voice, "The Professor can't
hear you, you'll have to ask *me*, Winky Willy".
- If someone asks a question, walk silently over to their seat, hand them
your piece of chalk, and ask, "Would YOU like to give the lecture, Mr.
Smartypants?"
- Pick out random students, ask them questions, and time their responses
with a stop watch. Record their times in your grade book while muttering
"tsk, tsk".
- Ask students to call you "Tinkerbell" or "Surfin'
Bird".
- Stop in mid-lecture, frown for a moment, and then ask the class whether
your butt looks fat.
- Play "Kumbaya" on the banjo.
- Show a video on medieval torture implements to your calculus class.
Giggle throughout it.
- Announce "you'll need this", and write the suicide prevention
hotline number on the board.
- Wear mirrored sunglasses and speak only in Turkish. Ignore all
questions.
- Start the lecture by dancing and lip-syncing to James Brown's "Sex
Machine."
- Ask occassional questions, but mutter "as if you gibbering simps
would know" and move on before anyone can answer.
- Ask the class to read Jenkins through Johnson of the local phone book by
the next lecture. Vaguely imply that there will be a quiz.
- Have one of your graduate students sprinkle flower petals ahead of you
as you pace back and forth.
- Address students as "worm".
- Announce to students that their entire grades will be based on a
single-question oral final exam. Imply that this could happen at any moment.
- Turn off the lights, play a tape of crickets chirping, and begin singing
spirituals.
- Ask for a volunteer for a demonstration. Ask them to fill out a waiver
as you put on a lead apron and light a blowtorch.
- Point the overhead projector at the class. Demand each student's name,
rank, and serial number.
- Begin class by smashing the neck off a bottle of vodka, and announce
that the lecture's over when the bottle's done.
- Have a band waiting in the corner of the room. When anyone asks a
question, have the band start playing and sing an Elvis song.
- Every so often, freeze in mid sentence and stare off into space for
several minutes. After a long, awkward silence, resume your sentence and
proceed normally.
- Wear a "virtual reality" helmet and strange gloves. When
someone asks a question, turn in their direction and make throttling motions
with your hands.
- Mention in passing that you're wearing rubber underwear.
- Growl constantly and address students as "matey".
- Devote your math lecture to free verse about your favorite numbers and
ask students to "sit back and groove".
- Announce that last year's students have almost finished their class
projects.
- Inform your English class that they need to know Fortran and code all
their essays. Deliver a lecture on output format statements.
- Bring a small dog to class. Tell the class he's named "Boogers
McGee" and is your "mascot". Whenever someone asks a
question, walk over to the dog and ask it, "What'll be, McGee?"
- Wear a feather boa and ask students to call you "Snuggles".
- Tell your math students that they must do all their work in a base 11
number system. Use a complicated symbol you've named after yourself in place
of the number 10 and threaten to fail students who don't use it.
- Claim to be a chicken. Squat, cluck, and produce eggs at irregular
intervals.
- Bring a CPR dummy to class and announce that it will be the teaching
assistant for the semester. Assign it an office and office hours.
- Have a grad student in a black beret pluck at a bass while you lecture.
- Sprint from the room in a panic if you hear sirens outside.
- Give an opening monologue. Take two minute "commercial breaks"
every ten minutes.
- Tell students that you'll fail them if they cheat on exams or "fake
the funk".
- Announce that you need to deliver two lectures that day, and deliver
them in rapid-fire auctioneer style.
- Pass out dental floss to students and devote the lecture to oral
hygiene.
- Announce that the entire 32-volume Encyclopedia Britannica will be
required reading for your class. Assign a report on Volume 1, Aardvark
through Armenia, for next class.
- Ask students to list their favorite showtunes on a signup sheet.
Criticize their choices and make notes in your grade book.
- Sneeze on students in the front row and wipe your nose on your tie.
- Warn students that they should bring a sack lunch to exams.
- Refer frequently to students who died while taking your class.
- Show up to lecture in a ventilated clean suit. Advise students to keep
their distance for their own safety and mutter something about "that
bug I picked up in the field".
- Jog into class, rip the textbook in half, and scream, "Are you
pumped? ARE YOU PUMPED? I CAN'T HEEEEEEAR YOU!"
Finally, to deal with roomies...