"separate the best among the good students"

xiaoqi just had his 1st test today .. and learned a valuable lesson in life - on listening.

The test was the close-book, non-collaborative (aka cannot-discuss-with-others) kind. It was on statistics, and the test will make up one-third of the final Statistics grade. The remaining two-thirds of the grade will come from the past 2 (open-book-free collaboration) assignments.

As the lecturer put it :" the test is to separate the best among the good students." As the past 2 assignments and the sample test questions the lecturer gave us have been fairly easy (thank goodness for that), xiaoqi brushed his words off as remarks made in passing. With sky high confidence, xiaoqi decided to just spend just an hour to revise the Statistics notes, and spent the rest of his time studying other subjects.

Gosh .. as it turned out, the test was at least one order more difficult than the previous assignments or sample test questions!! Not only was it substantially more difficult, it was also tedious & time-consuming!! xiaoqi could hear his heart pounding so loudly during the test .. something that has not happened since the days of WPPM or briefing to Chairman! Haha .. Thinking back, the test was, indeed, best described as "to separate the best among the good student ..."

A valuable lesson in life - on listening.