When candidates take an actuarial exam they have to write their name in the top right hand corner of the front page of the answer paper. This corner has a gummy bit along its edge which the candidate is supposed to lick before folding over and sealing the corner. This is to preserve a degree of anonymity.
Some people are very good at this and stick it down neatly and well. Other people are less good and their corners are sometimes at odd angles or only stuck down partly.
I was asked earlier in the week whether there was any correlation between quality and neatness of corner folding and overall mark in the exam. I wasn't sure at the time. I hadn't ever really looked out for this.
I finished marking a batch of twenty papers this evening and decided to use them for a spot of research on this matter. I looked for the paper that I'd awarded the highest mark to and checked it. Its corner was folded perfectly. Stuck tight, excellent angles. Cool, thinks I, maybe there's something in this.
So then I checked the paper with the worst mark... It was also a perfect specimen (apart from the quality of the answers, obviously). Just like the best one it was folded perfectly.
The moral here is that even stupid people can lick and fold the corner of an exam paper.
Aesop would have been proud of that story.
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