Kimmy Schemy

Vincent* is our regular student in the tutorial center and he is one of our least favorites. First, because he doesn’t seem to understand why he is in he tutorial center, second, he doesn’t seem to understand that we are doing our best to help him pass his subjects and third, he is none the wiser after each session.

One time, he had a quarterly exam in Civics, he gave his book ahead of time to give us the pointers for his test. So, I was like.. ‘Civics? Isn’t it memorization? Does he really need to go to the tutorial center for that?’

He did. After leaving his book to us for 3 days, he came back. So, I prepared about 6 pages long identification type of test for him to answer. But since his book was with me, obviously, he didn’t study. So, he didn’t know the answer to any of the questions.

So, to save time, I gave him the summary of the test first, for him to study. Then, I made another copy of the same summary replacing the answers with blanks. So, all he needed to do was fill the blanks with the correct answer.

I’ve given him ample time to ready and memorize the details in the summary before I finally made him answer the test. He did not do well in the first 2 pages, meaning, he remembered very little from the summary I gave him.

On the third page, however, it took him longer to study. But I was amazed that he nearly got a perfect score in the test. Even the spelling of the answers was perfect, so unlike Vincent. I felt funny, so I gave him the 4th page of the summary and observed him from a distance.

So, I saw how he brought out his cell phone and copied the itemized details in the summary. After a few minutes, I gave him the test and as expected, he nearly got a perfect score. But to show him that he didn’t outsmart me this time, I asked him, orally, the questions from the summary. He wasn’t able to answer any.

I didn’t know how I would feel, mad or sad. Mad at Vincent for cheating on the review or sad for him for cheating himself. Didn’t he realize that whatever he got from the review didn’t mean anything to me, that I exerted an effort to make him a test just so it would be easier for him to study. He didn’t cheat me, he cheated himself. He paid for my services but he didn’t learn anything..

It was simply.. sad

*not real name

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