I remember in the past, whenever I’ve had any exams, there’s always been somebody to point out how boring the job of exam invigilator must be. Quite right too; imagine standing around in a room for two hours in complete silence while students write an essay and you can’t so much as bring in a book to pass the time with. Well, as it turns out, the invigilators actually do have a few sneaky little games that they play in order to make the job a little more fun. Just the other day, in an English Literature seminar of mine, one of the professors at the university was talking about the times he’d been an exam invigilator. Now, before I tell you them, I must warn you that they should be taken with a pinch of salt; he has quite a sense of humour and could have been joking or exaggerating, but I don’t think he was.
The first game, he said, was called Exam Pac-Man: since there are usually three or more invigilators in any given exam there are enough of them to have their own game of Pac-Man. Between them, presumably before the exam starts, they decide who’s going to be Pac-Man and who’re going to make up that team of dastardly ghosts. Since they don’t have any white pellets for Pac-Man to eat, the desks used by students replace them: the person playing as Pac-Man has to walk past every desk without being caught by a ghost. That sounds like innocent fun doesn’t it? Well, just wait until you hear the second one.
The second game, I can’t actually remember the title of, but we’ll call it The Ugly Baby Game. Basically, the invigilators look out at all of the students and the have to pick the combination of them which would produce the ugliest baby. So, next time you’re in an exam, worried about what you’re writing, if you’ve remembered enough or any other exam related anxieties, be sure to make sure you look nice, because you’re physical appearance is being judged the whole time!
These’re the only games he mentioned, but I find it quite amusing that they exist. I’d never assumed before that exam invigilators play any games, but, thinking now, it seems pretty obvious that they’d need something to pass the time with.
The first game, he said, was called Exam Pac-Man: since there are usually three or more invigilators in any given exam there are enough of them to have their own game of Pac-Man. Between them, presumably before the exam starts, they decide who’s going to be Pac-Man and who’re going to make up that team of dastardly ghosts. Since they don’t have any white pellets for Pac-Man to eat, the desks used by students replace them: the person playing as Pac-Man has to walk past every desk without being caught by a ghost. That sounds like innocent fun doesn’t it? Well, just wait until you hear the second one.
The second game, I can’t actually remember the title of, but we’ll call it The Ugly Baby Game. Basically, the invigilators look out at all of the students and the have to pick the combination of them which would produce the ugliest baby. So, next time you’re in an exam, worried about what you’re writing, if you’ve remembered enough or any other exam related anxieties, be sure to make sure you look nice, because you’re physical appearance is being judged the whole time!
These’re the only games he mentioned, but I find it quite amusing that they exist. I’d never assumed before that exam invigilators play any games, but, thinking now, it seems pretty obvious that they’d need something to pass the time with.
