A guy was taking his finals in the Whitlaw Hall, with about three hundred other students. Finals in Britain at most universities are what 80% or more of your degree is based on. Most classes
don't have mid-terms like in the US. You take six courses -- three in the autumn, three in the spring -- and then at the end of the whole year, do the finals.

This guy couldn't take it. He sat up in the middle of the exam (he was a science student I believe), stuck a sharpened pencil in each nostril, threw his head back and then slammed it into the desk, thrusting the pencils into his brain. He died pretty instantaneously.

The other students were given credit for their exam. Whatever grade they obtained in other exams was used for their final degree.