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Today was the numbers exam.

I arrived to find a gratifying number of mates smoking in the car-park. So things started well, once I opened my paper things changed; for some reason my mind turned to mush.

There was a question along the lines of: prove gcd(4n + 3, 4n - 1) = 1. I couldn't see a way to do this. This is so basic that I'm embarrassed.

[Let d = gcd(4n + 3, 4n - 1), then d divides 

4n + 3 - (4n - 1) = 4 and as both 4n + 3 

and 4n - 1 are odd d = 1]

This is something that I've done hundreds of times and should be second nature, why did I freeze?

The entire exam was littered with moments like that. Under pressure it seems that I crumble intellectually.

Am I down? Not really, I will get enough marks to either get a free resit or I will pass; either is good:

• I pass, then it's over
• I resit, the groups showed me that it is possible to get a better mark than you might originally have gotten

I've always been a game-player, and the thought occurs that aiming for a re-sit may be a viable option. Is it indeed the best option?

Anyhoo, for me, for now, the maths is over. Now all I have left is the the computers.