Prelims at
Cornell are a
beast somewhere between a
test and a
final. We generally have
two or
three of them in each
class during the course of the
semester. Mostly, we take them at
night, not during class time.
Prelims tend to come in bunches, so there are about 3 weeks of Hell scattered throughout the semester, 4 weeks if you count finals. The administration likes to schedule my prelims for the exact same time, forcing me to reschedule them and take two in a row.
Bastards.