Working as a Reporter

Calculus midterm strikes NJU freshmen

By Yu Yan

The first calculus midterm examination for the freshmen of school of Foreign Studies in Nanjing University
was held this Saturday morning, closing up the tensity of preparation over the past few weeks, while marking
a new round of dread of the oncoming results.

The reviewing task aroused large scale of panic among those arts-majored students. Rita, a Germany major,
said, "Our calculus teacher really isn't the most competent one. He teaches way too fast in class for those of
us who don't have a solid grounding in maths. I have to give up listening to his lectures and begin to teach
myself. But another problem is that I can't keep up with his teaching pace, so by the time he sent us midterm
papers of the previous years, I hadn't even got to the last two chapters."

According to the seniors, to prepare for the midterm, "all you have to do is finish the papers the teacher sent
you and master each question." However, an English major Selina remarked, "There are in total six papers.
With all the other midterm examinations to prepare for, I hardly had time to finish them all."

The examination lasted for two hours, about which the teacher explained that "It would be enough time for
the students to finish the paper." It was indeed true. But another English major, Angela, said that "Although I
managed to finish all the questions in time, I didn't have enough time to check my answers. I can only pray
that my one-time calculations were accurate."

"What's more," she added, "the calculation work was tremendous. Working out that many questions non-stop
for two hours was so wearing that it literally made my head ache. Nevertheless, a guy in our examination
room handed in his paper one hour in advance. It frustrated me that the reason for my struggle was not
necessarily the difficulty of maths, but my own lack of proficiency."

Many students were not in a good mood after they left the examination rooms. A student shared a song on
her blog called "Poor Unfortunate Souls", while another posted a picture with the subtitles "There's no point
dreading. You're already hopeless." Selina commented that, "The exam this year is much more difficult than
those of the previous years. It seems that the paper is getting tougher each year."

The teacher hasn't replied to when the students will know their scores. Until then, at least the students can
enjoy a few maths-free days. English major Zhao announced cheerfully, "Now that I've finished my calculus
exam and my mother has come to Nanjing to visit me, I feel like the happiest person in the world!"