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hard for Postmodern Religious Thought.There are four of us, and we’ve pretty muchtaken over the religion seminar room. Thereare books and notes everywhere. It’s ratherfun in an intense kind of way.” She isfocused and not nervous.Dandade and his classmates practicewritten and oral exams with Assistant Professorof American Studies Kendall Johnson.He spends days in the library lookingat Theater History seminar papers that heand his classmates wrote in their junioryear. “One can only prepare so much forthese exams,” he says. “Our real preparationwas when we stayed up, pulling all-nightersto read and write seminar papers during thesemester.” All the hours of study in McCabetire him. “It’s the thought of being done in acouple of weeks that keeps me driven,” hesays.Mainoo participates in a group studysession with Professor Sharpe. “We spent 3hours throwing out possible exam questions.Not only did we resolve many issuesabout the exam, but we also resolved a lot ofbig-picture questions. It was exciting andinspiring.” Assistant Professor of PoliticalScience Jeffrey Murer, her European Politicsteacher, plans a similar study session for thenext day.Neal Dandade, rehearsing with Toby David ’06, says that his honors preparation TheZoo Story enabled him to explore the Sanford-Meisner technique, in which he hadbecome interested while studying independently.prefers to work alone rather than in a studygroup. “In terms of working with otherfolks, I’m not the honors poster student.Looking over old exams and reflecting onmy several years of experience in math, Ithink there will be a large element of luck.Lots of proofs require a ‘lightning bolt ofinspiration.’ Sometimes, the bolt comes,sometimes it doesn’t. How I do will dependa lot on how many lightning bolts comethrough.”In addition to studying for exams, Graybillis preparing to present her thesis, as astudent researcher representing the HumanitiesDivision, to the Board of Managers attheir upcoming dinner meeting this week.With three exams, she, too, has a plan.“Right now,” she says, “I’m studying prettyTHE WRITTEN EXAMINATIONS END, and the students’reports are varied. Fiedler’s economicsexam, Public Finance, has gone well. Themath exams—Real Analysis, MathematicalStatistics, and Modern Algebra—were moredifficult. “The stats exam probably went thebest of the three; I could do 70 to 80 percentof that one well but substantially lesson the algebra and the analysis. There weresome theorems in analysis that I had simplynever studied before. They had not come upin class, and I couldn’t find them in any ofmy textbooks. There was no time to panic,though, which was a good thing,” he says.He and his study group research and learnthe previously unknown material until theyare confident of being able to discuss it inthe upcoming orals.Graybill has sailed through her writtenexams. “I’m meeting my study group forlunch today, but I’m pretty much ready fororals. I think it’ll be OK,” she says. She ishappy with her thesis presentation to theBoard. “I was a little apprehensive becauseit’s very academic and filled with technicalbiblical issues, and suddenly, I had to turn itseptember 2006 : 27