As some may recall, I did not attend too much of the last year of high school. I did not attend most of 10th grade either. After an incident of my insulting a teacher over her obstructing my access to a chess clock, I made a secret deal with our vice principal, Mr. Keith, that if it would be okay if did not show up at school. Before I left, I applied to colleges in Ontario and in the States because I did not want to go to CEGEP. It was a haphazard application process, especially since I was applying after most deadlines had passed, and I applied to schools relatively close to Montreal. Being in the "different" category of being Canadian was ideal for getting accepted to just about any place I applied. I leaned toward going to the University of Rochester, although I am not sure why. Maybe it was the nice fold-out application form or maybe it was freshman orientation where I met my girlfriend for the next year, but that's where I eventually went.
Not being at Wagar for most of 11th grade worked out well, except for my preparation for the English Literature matrics for which I read a Shakespearean comedy instead of a tragedy. A few minutes before the exam, Mrs. Dow informed me that I had prepared the wrong play. Had I kept a cool head, I might have done better, perhaps even arguing that the Merchant of Venice really was a tragedy (if not for Shylock, then for me), but in addition to my comedy tragedy, I left a whole section blank while I indulged in an anxiety attack. I managed to fail English Literature. This meant, for one thing, that I did not get my Quebec "Secondary V" (high school) graduation with my classmates. If you don't count the History and Geography exams I took on a lark because I thought I could pass them without ever having taken the courses or studied for the exams (I passed them), I think I failed with honours. The University of Rochester expressed a hope that this was a temporary lapse in my academics.
At the University of Rochester, I started much as I had left off at Wagar, without direction, taking it easy. I eventually changed all my courses during my first term, mainly because I had not done any work in them during the semester. In Quebec, because 100% of our grade in each course was based on a final exam, taking it easy during the term was not necessarily bad. Not so for college, and I fell behind in all my courses. After some judicious choices, including falling back on my French, which was superb by American standards, I finished the term on the Dean's List, where I stayed for my eight semesters of college. In every semester after that, I signed up for an overload so that I could drop my least favorite course at midterm.
After my freshman year in college, I went back to high school to retake the matriculation exam in English. That year was the first in which a grade was not based 100% on a single final exam. Half of my grade would be based on classwork, but I had not been in any classes. I made a deal that they could use my failing grade from the previous year as the basis for my class grade. Really, all I had to do was pass the exam. I had better study habits after a year in college, and used better strategies. I pinned down an English teacher, Mr. Derkson, I think, and asked him "What is the meaning of the title of this book?" and he said "Well, it's so obvious, because ..." and I interjected "Just tell me!" and he did. I was looking for results. I had quotes from A.C. Bradley's "Shakespearean Tragedy" ready for insertion: "Tragedy is a catharsis of pity and fear..." and "Whether Shakespeare knew that 'weird' meant 'fate' we cannot be sure, but he probably did" and so on. My score, averaged with my previous grade, gave me a 72, so I had pulled off a 97 in the second exam. I got my Quebec Secondary V certificate, a year after Wagar has graduated me and given me their diploma (maybe in the hope that I would stay away).