How to fail at exams with dignity

[Philip Miller Tate]

They may be the happiest people at the time, but when you amass a  
population of young people who are ignorant and proud of it, there's  
precious little dignity left to fall back on (and only a limited  
number of jobs at fast-food restaurants).

Interestingly, friends of mine gave me a MENSA puzzle-a-day calendar  
for Christmas. Tellingly, all the 'word' problems (e.g. anagrams,  
find a word that can prefix all the following words, etc.) are  
considered "easy" and score only one or two points. I really struggle  
with them (and hate word games like 'Scrabble' which I find horribly  
frustrating). However, any puzzle involving any kind of maths,  
however trivial, scores five points and I complete them with ease. It  
will be interesting to see what my students make of them.

<sigh>

Phil M1GWZ