FINAL EXAM

FOUR university students were taking an organic chemistry class, and each had received top marks for their assignments and exams so far. Now the final exam was approaching, but the four friends were so confident they’d do well that on the weekend before the exam they decided to go on a road trip to the coast to party with some friends there.

They had a great time, so much so that they didn’t get back home until early Monday morning – the day of the exam. Extremely the worse for wear after their weekend of revelry, they decided that rather than take the exam then, they would track down their lecturer afterwards and explain to him why they missed it.

They explained that they had gone to a university on the coast to do some research in the university’s archives, and had planned to come back in time to study, but unfortunately they had a flat tyre on the way back, didn’t have a spare, and couldn’t get help for a long time. As a result, they only just arrived now!

The lecturer thought it over and then agreed they could make up their final exam the following day. The guys were elated and relieved. They studied hard all night and went in the next day at the time the lecturer had told them.

He placed them in separate rooms and handed each of them a test booklet with only two questions, worth a total of 100 points. The first problem was worth five points. It was something simple about free radical formation. “Cool,” they all thought in their separate rooms. “This is going to be easy.”

So each student finished the problem and turned the page. It was then they read: “Question 2 (for 95 points): Which tyre?” Fay L Yerr, email