Two students at Stanford
University were taking a chemistry class with a popular professor, who was
known as being a very witty and interesting lecturer. These two students,
however, were seniors, and the night before the final, had a case of
“senioritis” and headed to Lake Tahoe for a night of gambling. But they
ended up oversleeping and missing the final exam. They decided to ask the
professor if he would allow them to take a make-up exam since “the car had a
flat tire.” The professor took pity and agreed.
The next day, the two young men were given their exams in two separate
rooms. The first section was made up of a simple chemistry true/false section
that was only worth 10% of the exam score. The second section was one essay
question that was worth 90% of the exam. The question was: “Which tire was
flat?”
