FishWatch had an opportunity today to sit down with F.U. Law School exam proctor, Proctor Flo, to ask the questions F.U. Law Students have always wanted to ask of the people who come in and out of our lives twice a year.
FW: Tell me Flo, how did you get involved in Proctoring?
Flo: Well, my friend Virginia had been doing it for a while over at Brooklyn Law, and I thought it sounded really fun, so asked around and found out that F.U. Law had some openings. This was about 13 years ago at this point. Wow, time flies.
FW: And what do you do during the rest of the year?
Flo: I substitute teach at East Islip Junior and Senior High School out on Long Island.
FW: Flo, how come proctors always seem to mess up people's names? And I'm not just talking about the ethnic ones.
Flo: Well, actually, it's a little game we proctors like to play, you know, to do our part for society...letting the Smiths and Jones' of the world know what it's like to be different in a world that shuns nonconformity.
FW: What do you like to do for fun during the exam?
Flo: I like to make up stories about each student, think about back-stories for each one, kind of like on "Lost." Sometimes I'll bring a book, but the other proctors tend to read over my shoulder and I just can't stand that, so most of the time I am developing the back-stories.
FW: How do you guys decide who gets to read the instructions and give the 15 minute warning? It seems to me that it's always the same person, like, you guys never switch off.
Flo: Well it's strict seniority. I have been here for 13 years, started out as a hall monitor, but worked my way up to #2 room proctor. Alice, my co-proctor, signed up about a month before me, so she gets to do the instructions and stuff, but her husband just took a job down in Florida, so I think next winter I'll start with the instructions and warnings and someone else will have to do the exam collection and singing out.
FW: What's the worst thing that has ever happened during a test?
Flo: Back in Spring 1997, Alice and I ran out of bluebooks and those people down in the [Ken P's] office weren't sending up new ones fast enough, so the kids were getting really mad. I mean, we couldn't stop time or anything, and things just got out of control. People had to start writing on like the back blue page and stuff until [Ken P's] people came about 2 minutes later. Oh and when we switched from SS#s to FINs last semester, a few people in my room couldn't remember their FINs so it created some sticky situations.
FW: Any last words of advice?
Flo: Just remember to number all your stuff before time is called, because you really can't write anything after the test is over. I know kids don't like that rule, but it would just be easier on everyone if everyone just followed it.
FW: Well thanks so much for sitting down with FishWatch, Flo. Hope to see you at the K final.
Flo: My pleasure. Good luck on exams, especially to the 1Ls.
The Examiner vigilantly continues to explore reactions to the bad, septic-esque smell on the garden level back on April 20th (4-20...huh huh...huh huh) through its online, interactive, fancy schmancy poll, and F.U. Law Students continue to agree overwhelmingly that it was, in fact, awful. A source at the Examiner tells us that upcoming polls include current, hot-button topics such as 1Ls' thoughts on "Legal Process" and whether Kanye's reaction to Katrina was overdramatic or an accurate assessment of race relations in America.
