ABSTRACT
Test day: a day of stressful anxiety for some students and a day to shine for others. On test day, professors often receive phone calls or e-mails from students complaining that they are too sick to take the exam. To enhance claims of illness, a phone message is accompanied by a terrible-sounding cough, grunt, or other disturbing noise. (This cannot be accomplished via an e-mail for it would look silly to type, “I am too sick—cough, cough—to take the exam today.”) Some professors will give the student the benefit of the doubt. Others may wonder whether such claims of being sick are legitimate.
