Driving my son and a school mate back from the sports ground (where they have "Late Games" once a week) I heard them discussing their exam results.
Rewind a little: Despite a half-term break that was not much of a break, despite having to study for his Grade IV Music Theory Exam in the middle of school exams, and despite leaving out -- again -- a whole chunk of revision required for his Geography paper, son achieved very good results. In the 90s with all the papers except English.
So he and B were chatting and comparing results and talking about how difficult Geography was and how they did not have time to finish giving the answers.
Son: I got a whole paragraph wrong, but I went back and sorted it. The last question I had no time to finish.
Friend: What did you get?
Son: Somehow I managed to get about 19 or something out of 20.
Friend: What? That's 90-something per cent.
Son: 95%. I was afraid I'd get 98 or 99 per cent. Last time I got 97 per cent and Mrs W said if I scored any higher she would have to rewrite the whole exam and make it more difficult.
Me: I think Mrs W was only joking.
Son: Yes, she was only joking.
Friend: Why are you so good?
I was thinking, O, no! This is where son would say, "That's because I am clever." Not very modest, that.
Instead I heard after some hesitation: Well, I have a sticky brain. The facts stick to it.
Whew! What a relief?
