I wrote Gateman’s 2nd midterm last Friday night. (I complained about it earlier. You probably remember. Or maybe not.)

The. Suspense. Is. Killing. Me. I have reached the point where I don’t even care what the mark is (that’s a lie, I totally do), I just want to know what it is so I can sleep/focus on my other classes/have a life again.

For those of you who don’t have Gateman as a prof, here is the honest truth.

Ready?

He is a fantastic professor and an amazing lecturer. For that reason alone, his class is worth taking. (Also before someone accuses me of sucking up to get a better exam mark, he doesn’t mark them. Just putting that out there.)

As for his exams?

They aren’t really that bad. Challenging? Yes. Oddly formatted? Sure. Fair? Yes. I think the reason people are scared of these exams is because he doesn’t test memorization, which was pretty much all of high school. He wants to make sure you know the theory behind what you are doing.

That said, his exam timing = harsh. Seven pm on a Friday night isn’t fun for anyone.

I don’t know whether or not this will influence anyone’s decision about his class, but I think it’s important to know that you CAN be successful in it. I hate math and numbers and am in Arts and I’m actually doing fairly well. So it is possible. You can beat Gateman.

It bugs me when people who have never taken his class say that he’s a difficult prof or that his exams are impossible. Assume nothing. You’ve never tried.

There’s a life lesson for you there, kids. If you never try it, you can’t possibly hope to beat it.