Diary of a Law student. Episode 1

It was time for the final paper of the semester. Students were everywhere revising and muttering words to themselves. Some were sitting while some were standing and others were pacing back and forth with their books in their hands trying to cram some cases and sections of the contract law because they knew fully well how their contract lecturer loved cases. She would always shout "I love cases! I love cases and you must answer each question and support your opinion with cases!"
As soon as the examiner entered the auditorium, she said "put away everything that will incriminate you. And you better don't allow me to catch you cheating."
Some people began to mumble as they put their books away to begin the exam.

As some other invigilators began to distribute the question papers and answer sheets, they told everyone not to start yet. Immediately they finished, they asked everyone to begin.
"You started by 9 am sharp and you all are stopping by 12 noon sharp," said the examiner.
Some people's faces went pale at the sight of some of the questions while others were smiling and writing.
While the students were still trying to focus on the questions, the examiner began to address the students saying:
 "remember that your handwriting must be very legible otherwise your score will be reduced! All of you that love stressing my eyes, this time around I'll not take it. I love cases o. Make sure you site a lot of cases and tell me what each of the cases is all about! If you don't cite any case, then I don't know what you are doing in this exam hall. Also, remember that I will not accept any.....
Before she could complete the statement, the students began to murmur that they've heard enough coupled with the fact that they were still trying to get their heads to focus and think.
The remaining invigilators began to laugh as they could relate with the students' predicament.


As the auditorium became quiet and students busied themselves with their examination, the examiner spoke up again " you have one more hour to go!"
At this point, the ones that knew what to write were fully engrossed in their papers whilst the others were busy turning their heads in desperation.
Twenty minutes after the announcement was made by the examiner, Gaius, one of the students stood up from his seat as he knew that nothing else was clicking on his brain and was equally tired of looking around. He bounced out in a very stylish way (like he was on a runway) and submitted his paper.
Some others whispered in amazement because they knew that even the whole three hours apportioned to them were not enough to answer the five hot questions before them.


As time went on more people began to submit their papers. Then the next thing that they heard was " you have thirty minutes shouted the examiner. "Make sure you cross your 't' and dot your 'i'. I hope you all know that by now you should be rounding up! Everyone begin to go through your work! Oya o, start getting ready to submit your scripts".
As she was speaking out loudly, the hall was becoming noisy. As some panicked and quickly summarized their work, Maria said to herself "I can't fail this course again; I will rather help myself out now since the invigilators are already" moving away." She immediately smuggled out a piece of paper where she wrote down some cases and their principles. Due to the short time she had left, she began to shake uncontrollably as she used the paper to fill in the spaces on her answer script. She finished writing everything down but just as she tried putting the paper back into her handkerchief the examiner came from the back and snatched the piece of paper and the script from her hand.
At that very point, she put her hand on her head as she exclaimed: "I am finally finished". The examiner alerted the other invigilators and they made her sign the malpractice form which obviously had the implications of failing the course again.
The examiner raised her voice one final time but this time other invigilators joined her and they chorused " stop writing everyone and submit your answer scripts immediately".


Cheating has a lot of implications. Maria not only failed the course but was suspended for a year. She didn't know how to handle pressure and the outcome became greater problems.
 What a person does when he/she is under pressure really matters. In comparing Gaius to Maria, it obvious that Gaius's decision was better off.