A college student got a second chance on her economics exam after giving her professor an excuse so crazy, he figured it had to be true.
Sam Lee, a junior at the University of Georgia, claims she failed her online test because of … well … her dinner.
The 20-year-old says she was eating a sandwich when a meatball fell from the sub, hit her keyboard and prematurely logged her out of the exam. According to her now-viral Twitter post explaining the ordeal, she was unable to log back in and finish.
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Lee received a grade of 39.17 on the test, so she emailed her professor about a retake. Boldly, she explained exactly what happened — and even included some photo evidence.
“I’m not kidding I am sitting here eating a meatball sub taking my econ test … A meatball falls onto my keyboard and exits out of the test. Is this a f****** joke,” Lee wrote in a Snapchat post, which she also sent to her professor.
The intro of Lee’s email to her professor, Dr. William D. Lastrapes, read: “I had some technical difficulties and outside distractions during the test today. Something hit my computer and caused it to submit the test when I had less than half of the questions answered. By something, I mean a meatball that had tragically fallen onto my keyboard as I was taking the exam. This said meatball caused some malfunctions with my laptop and caused the test to submit itself.”
Dr. Lastrapes had a somewhat surprising response. Instead of dismissing the story as an excuse, he told his student he had no choice but to believe her.
“Well, this is certainly a new and unusual excuse for a low score! But for that reason it seems unlikely you’ve made this up,” he wrote in his response. “I’ve extended your deadline for the module 6 test until midnight tonight.”
The professor not only gave Lee a retake, but also issued some much-appreciated advice.
“I would recommend you take the test either before or after dinner,” he added.
Lee told BuzzFeed News it took her six hours to write the email to Dr. Lastrapes. That anxiety ended up being unnecessary, though.
The 20-year-old got to redo her exam, and her story went completely viral in the process, drawing more than 415,000 likes on Twitter. It also inspired thousands of commenters to share their own experiences with college professors — both good and bad.
I once emailed a professor about having an 89.4 average and asking if he could change my score by a tenth of a point because it was so teasingly close to a 90.
He said sure…and changed my score to an 89.3.
— BD (@briskide) July 17, 2020
I’ve had professors walk in, see everyone looking half asleep, and declare a mental health day
— George Adams (@geotadams) July 17, 2020
Got into class one morning, prof started collecting huge essay assignment that was due. I had completely forgotten. Talked to him after class. “Eh, have it in by Friday.”
— danideskjob (@danideskjob) July 17, 2020
If you liked this story, check out In The Know’s article about the man who quit his job and filmed the entire thing on TikTok.
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The post A college student claims she failed her online exam because of a meatball sub appeared first on In The Know.
