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I just got back from a half-hour oral exam that was supposed to start at 2:10. I arrived, properly, a few minutes before my exam was supposed to start, and as I could hear voices from my teacher's office, I sat down to wait. After about 15-20 minutes, I contemplating knocking to remind my teacher that I was out there, especially since when we'd scheduled the exam he'd let me know that he had to leave promptly on time so as to pick his daughter up from school. However, I thought that that was rude, and his previous exam was still going on steadily- I could hear snippets of the conversation which was rather awkward, especially as it turned out that my classmate who preceded me had not done so well in the course. So I was sitting there, getting rather more nervous as time went on- especially as since I'd thought that he would need to be on time, I didn't bring materials to continue studying or even something to do with my hands. A bit later, one of the other professors on the floor walked by, having seen me waiting half an hour prior to that, and told me a story about some professor who used to run even more outrageously late during oral exams, and how when one student had knocked on the door since he had to go teach religious school (referred to by the professor talking to me as "afternoon school"), the response was "I'm trying to help your classmate". Eventually, I went in for my exam between 35 and 40 minutes after my exam was supposed to start- i.e. about when my exam was supposed to have ended.
Once I began, the whole thing went pretty smoothly- I felt like I didn't speak too coherently about some of the secondary readings I was asked about, but apparently I did well enough, since at the end I was told I had done very well and was getting an A for the semester. I don't know- perhaps I benefited from my classmate's lack of preparation since I looked better in comparison. I don't think I did badly over the semester, certainly- but I don't think that I gave the class quite as much attention as I probably ought to- I did a lot of the work while on various forms of public transit, or while mashgiaching. However, I suppose that that's perfectly normal, and I did do the work and participated in class, particularly during the later part of the semester. So it was a perfectly fine exam. It was just the waiting beforehand that got me frustrated and rather annoyed- I respect my teachers by showing up to exams on time, if not a bit early so as not to make them wait. I understand that they have a lot of things to fit in, and sometimes things do not run according to schedule. But this was the most elongated wait time I've had for an exam, and while I don't expect that teachers have quite the freedom that I have in making sure that I'm on time, well, being aware of quite how late they're running and perhaps popping out to give me some sense of when my exam would actually start would have been well, polite. Not that my teacher didn't apologize, and he did seem truly unaware of how very late things had run (and this is the same professor who never actually got around to giving us a syllabus for the course)- but it was still a bit thoughtless.
Once I began, the whole thing went pretty smoothly- I felt like I didn't speak too coherently about some of the secondary readings I was asked about, but apparently I did well enough, since at the end I was told I had done very well and was getting an A for the semester. I don't know- perhaps I benefited from my classmate's lack of preparation since I looked better in comparison. I don't think I did badly over the semester, certainly- but I don't think that I gave the class quite as much attention as I probably ought to- I did a lot of the work while on various forms of public transit, or while mashgiaching. However, I suppose that that's perfectly normal, and I did do the work and participated in class, particularly during the later part of the semester. So it was a perfectly fine exam. It was just the waiting beforehand that got me frustrated and rather annoyed- I respect my teachers by showing up to exams on time, if not a bit early so as not to make them wait. I understand that they have a lot of things to fit in, and sometimes things do not run according to schedule. But this was the most elongated wait time I've had for an exam, and while I don't expect that teachers have quite the freedom that I have in making sure that I'm on time, well, being aware of quite how late they're running and perhaps popping out to give me some sense of when my exam would actually start would have been well, polite. Not that my teacher didn't apologize, and he did seem truly unaware of how very late things had run (and this is the same professor who never actually got around to giving us a syllabus for the course)- but it was still a bit thoughtless.