1 hour 15 minutes is perfect for an exam

I had to invigilate an undergraduate exam yesterday. Thankfully nobody tried to cheat. I don't care if they kiss goodbye to their expensive education, but frankly I haven't got time to deal with all the paperwork and tribunals. I've also learnt that one hour and fifteen minutes is the perfect length of time for an exam. Any longer than that would get boring, but anything less than an hour doesn't give one enough time to fully appreciate the intense discomfort in their shifty little eyes. There's the initial panic when the nervous ones think they're done for, before they settle down and start writing, leaving the idle wastrels in the class to slide into increasing doom and despondancy. You'd have to be completely joyless not to enjoy the spectacle.

I was particularly amused by the efforts of the oafish youth with the maladjusted baseball cap to look intelligent and ponderous for an entire 45 minutes. I hope he does badly - middle class white youths should have learnt by now that they will never look 'ghetto', no matter how rakish the angle of their cap. I grew up on the mean streets of Minehead, Somerset (pop. 8,000) so I know about Keeping It Real.

I suppose it's possible that his right ear is particular sensitive to sunlight and he was just trying to shade it, in which case I apologise. Otherwise I think that the corridors of climatology can do without his sort.