On a regular exam, help from friends can help make up for semester-long slacking. But even the most diligent tutoring cannot ensure that someone who has blown off a class will not slip up on a standard exam. On an advance question final, only the most actively misanthropic loner is ever in danger of getting a deserved low grade.

Considered in the abstract, giving out exam questions in advance doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Students have to write out answers to a series of essay questions, without considering the course material as a whole.

Why not cut out the middle person and simply hand in the essays as if they were a paper assignment? At least with papers, ethical standards against plagiarism (or perhaps just a realistic fear of punishment) seems to carry some weight.

As it stands now, the exam tests how well the students can memorize the answers which they may or may not have written themselves. If professors want a test of photographic memory, why not organize a giant graded game of "Concentration"?

But Concentration wouldn't Probe an important ability that is essential for advance question exams: fine motor coordination. Students are expected to regurgitate their answers at such high speeds that persistent hand cramps, if not full-blown carpal tunnel syndrome, is all but inevitable. Try to stop and rest your wearied fingers and you'll fall behind. Try and pause to consider what you're writing and you'll probably fail.

Well, perhaps not fail But a Perhaps is a distinct possibility.

Benjamin I. Hellet '94 is an editor of The Crimson and he probably doesn't want you to know that he already finished his thesis.