Talk:Victor Tugelbend

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Ref Victor's continual achievement of a just-less-than-pass grade of 84, so as to continue living off the legacy.

The Bursar eventually notices this and gave him an exam with one question - "What is your name?", to which Ridcully exclaims "I'd like to see him only get 84% on that!"

Here's how Victor might have got around 84% on this one...

...there are fifteen letters in the name Victor Tugelbend. If spelling the name fully and correctly is a 100% correct answer, then each of those fifteen letters is worth 6.6% of the total score. If Victor argues afterwards that the stress of the exam room was so severe he couldn't remember how to spell his own name, he can make a case for the answer

Victor tugelbe

as being worth 82.5%: he has got twelve letters absolutely correct and in the right order (12 x 6.6 = 79.2%) but he would like to draw the attention of the examiners to the fact he failed to capitalise the "T", which is surely only worth a half-mark of 3.3% on that letter? Therefore although 13 x 6.6 = 85.8%, he really needs to play fair and draw attention to the inaccuracy, et c et c.

Thus he retains his student status and the legacy...

Could anyone come up with a hypothesis that gets it nearer to, or dead on, 84%?--AgProv 17:04, 28 September 2007 (CEST)


6.6•12.75=84.15 Perhaps it could be Victor Tugelb£ or so with 3/4 of an e.--Confusion 03:22, 20 October 2011 (CEST)


In any case, the University, in creating this exam paper for Victor, is seriously bending, if not hopelessly fracturing, its own rules and precedents here, which offers Victor (an expert in exam procedures and regulations) another opportuinty to appeal against not just passing but against the very legality of the paper he has been set.

We are told elsewhere that a student wizard called Rincewind managed his highest-ever Final grade by managing no more than to spell his own name correctly at the top of the page: this earnt Rincewind a total score of 2%.

Therefore, the precedent has been set, by Unseen University itself, that the question "What is your name?" , which is implicit at the top of the first page of every exam paper everywhere, is worth only 2% by custom and accepted examination practice. As this is still 86% short of the pass mark, Victor can then correctly argue that:

  • With no opportunity to answer any further questions and make up another 86%, this is inherently an unfair exam paper which he can only fail by a calamitous margin.
  • Any expectation that a pass mark of 88% may be gained from this one question fails any number of tests for reasonable and fair exam-settting, and the paper can be regarded as invalidated. --AgProv 12:42, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
It's silly to assume that "What is your name" always is 2% of the score. It's implicit that 2% of the score corresponds with about 2% of the whole exam. In the case of Tugelbend, it was 100%. --Sanity 14:28, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Nor do you get 83% for saying that four times twenty equals eight, even if five letters are right...--Old Dickens 19:07, 23 April 2008 (UTC)