I'm Gretchen Ruben and this is a little happier.

This is a story about the importance of preparation.

And it has to do with exam taking.

So when I was in high school, when it was time to take an exam,

there was a very clear process for how we did it.

You would go into a big room and there would be rows of dust set up.

You would all sit down at our desk, put our papers on our bags under our desks and just have

the bare surface with our pen or our pencil.

And like five minutes to 10 a.m. or something, the proctor would come in and pass out the blue books

where you would answer the questions. Everybody gets settled.

And then they slowly pass out the exams and we would leave them face down.

And then in a very kind of ritualistic way, the proctor would say something like,

it is now 10 a.m. You have two hours to complete this exam.

Be sure to read all instructions carefully, turn over your test papers and begin.

And everybody would turn over their test paper and start writing.

And then two hours later, the proctor would say, it is now 12 o'clock.

The exam is over.

Turn over your test papers and pass in your exams.

And everybody would turn over their test papers and then up through the rows would pass up their

exams. And I didn't really think anything of this.

It just seemed like a very natural way to hand out exams to me.

But it was a very kind of calming, ritualistic way to get everybody in the mood to focus and

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