Many many years ago I was given a book in my Christmas stocking called The Exam Secret. It argued, cogently, wittily and somewhat dangerously, that the secret of exams was to entertain the examiner. This nugget of insight is something I’ve always carried with me, despite the fact that all the examples in the book were the work of congenital smartarses. I recently had to do an exam at work and decided to go full-on Exam Secret crazy. Naturally I failed it.