A story: During exam period last June, a student became so worried about an upcoming final that he asked his roommate to smash his finger with a hammer. The roommate obliged, with some precautions taken for his friend's safety and comfort, and the distraught student suffered his way into an airtight medical excuse.

Nobody seems to know whether that story is true or not, but it made the rounds late last year, always passed off as the gospel truth. The people who should be able to confirm the story--officials at UHS, for example--say they've never heard of the incident, that such things rarely happen.

"No, at Harvard College you don't have to go to that length to get out of an exam," says Dr. Paul Walters. Indeed you don't. You can generally bail out by walking into the UHS clinic and pleading sickness; the doctors are generally professional enough (or unprofessional enough) not to press you.

Students in a panic who don't want to bail out can always consult the Bureau of Study Counsel, where private tutoring for specific courses is available. For some reason, though, the Bureau's workload, fairly heavy through the year, does not significantly increase as exams approach.

Nor is there a significant increase in the number of students who seek psychological counselling at UHS during reading and exam periods.

It might be that Harvard students know how to handle academic panic; or, if they don't, they might not think official Harvard has good advised to offer.