One day more?

I have probably relyricized half of Les Mis to be about comps, but the poetic quality of such mutterings is questionable.

Instead, have a poem I wrote years and years ago, facing down middle-school science (semi-permeable membranes) and English (Pride and Prejudice). It still rings true:

It is the week of exams and we are weak from exams
We watch all our knowledge leak from our heads
As we seek to uncover one thing or another
That we know that we know, so then
WHERE DID IT GO?
It is the week of exams and we are weak from exams
All that we want is a break from our work
'Cause we're going berserk
So we'll rest with the rest
And just hope for the best.

(Line breaks are inserted wherever seems most appropriate on a particular day. Poem is best read aloud at turbo-speed in a hyperventilative squeak).

The final for my undergraduates is optional, because the prof I'm TAing for is unconvinced of the pedagogical purpose of exams. He says the good students forget the material right after the exam, and the poor students, right before. I'd like to destabilize this binary: I know my material entering the room, draw a total blank during the exam, and then remember it all in anxious waves of "how'd I forget that?" on my commute home. I wish I could, instead of the oral, do a written take-home response to a critique by the examiners. It might be more work, but it would also be more humane.