Not being musically inclined, beyond liking a bit of the Beatles now and then, I did not expect to get anything out of the music class my wife wanted us to take. Though it had no particular recognized value, the class did award a certificate of completion after finishing the course, which was about a semester-hour spread over most of a year.
The music history we talked about was interesting, especially as I enjoy trivia such as the differences between various apparently similar instruments - did you know the viola is the only instrument to use the alto clef for notation?
The "final exam" had us play a relatively simple (or so they said) piece by Beethoven - Pathétique II. Adagio - and it was making me feel pretty pathetic. My wife had some previous piano history, and was doing quite well; but for me, the notes seemed to always end up in alphabetical order, or arrive long after they should have already left to go home. I began to slightly despair; I'd never hear the end of it if I didn't at least get a (barely) passing grade.
The evening came for the exam, and my wife reported that she'd done quite well. I stepped into the room with apprehension, knowing that the instructor's usual smile would soon turn to disappointment - but wait! The instructor wasn't there?!
He'd been called away to fill in for the Seattle Symphony, and had left instructions on how to take the test - a simple MIDI keyboard connected to an older PC. A slight ray of hope beamed through the window along with the setting sun - could it be? Would the PC be old enough? Sure enough, it was running Windows 98 (not Second Edition, that would have been disastrous)! I could do this!
The Windows 98 MIDI handler had a buffer overflow! All I would have to do is start the exam, hold down the right keys on the keyboard to trigger it, and the program would crash. Since the way it "scored" your playing was to start by writing your name and 100 points to the database, it would record that I had begun, and then there would be no recording of me making any mistakes.
I now have my certificate, and a photo of me with a slightly sheepish grin, as I was the only student to get a perfect score. I think my wife might suspect something, as she was perhaps near enough to hear that what I played sounded more like the Cascades trying to clear the track than anything Beethoven would have written, but I just told her that he was mostly deaf and probably played loud.
