…pretend to have read the reading and prayed you wouldn’t be cold-called.
…PRETEND TO HAVE READ THE READING AND PRAYED YOU WOULDN’T BE COLD-CALLED.
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Remember those intense seminars, the ones where the reading list felt impossibly long and the discussions moved at a breathtaking pace? We all felt it, that subtle knot of dread when the professor’s gaze swept across the room. Did you truly finish all 100 pages of dense theory? Or did you master the art of the strategic skim – the introduction, the conclusion, a few key topic sentences – hoping it would be enough to contribute meaningfully, or at least survive?
The precise moment of the internal prayer: "Please, just not today." The quick glance at a classmate, hoping for a non-verbal cue. The fleeting relief when someone else gets called, giving you precious seconds to formulate a (semi-informed) answer based on their response. It was a universal language spoken in every lecture hall, a silent pact among the brightest minds: we’re all doing our best, and sometimes our best involves a little academic improv. The expert nod, the thoughtful hum, the subtle pivot to a related but better-understood concept.
This wasn't about being unprepared; it was about navigating an incredibly demanding intellectual landscape. It was learning to think on your feet, to synthesize information under immense pressure, and to bluff with an air of sophisticated confidence. It's a shared memory, a unique badge of honor that unites us, a testament to thriving in a high-stakes environment. It’s a reminder that even at the pinnacle of academia, we were all human, learning and growing, one cold-call evasion at a time.
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