17-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, September 25, 1912: Was rather surprised at the mark I made yesterday. Didn’t think I would hardly get that. Twas the kind that dummies get.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Whew, I’m surprised that Grandma did poorly on this geometry test. She never worried about the upcoming test during the days preceding the test, and the previous day she’d merely written, “I had a test in geometry.” and then moved on to other topics.
Usually Grandma had a pretty good sense of how she was doing in classes, and if she needed to study—though sometimes she never actually got around to studying.
I can relate. I too have been similarly surprised on my performance on math tests in the past. 🙂
Me too, I think I understood what the teacher was saying and then zap – bad grade. 😦 I feel for her.
So many people can relate to the surprise of an unexpected bad grade. Nice post.
Sometimes our perception of how we did is out of kilter with results. Perhaps the new teacher was a hard marker.
Getting a bad grade was just the half of it, then you have to face the music at home…that was really the crumby part.
awww. I hope she can bring the grade up over the semester. After all this is her last year.
Hi. I got an ‘F’ once and I cried for days… I also remember it 40 years later!!! Poor Helena! Jane