'Am I a senior citizen?' The student who guessed her calculus grade, and slowly realised it was bad
A University of Wisconsin student tried to guess her midterm score by asking about life at that age. 7.7 million views later, every student relates.
Every student knows the feeling of opening a result you’re scared of. One TikTok has turned that feeling into the internet’s favourite video of the week.
What happens
According to Know Your Meme, Maggie Taylor, a University of Wisconsin-Madison student and lifestyle creator, filmed her friend and classmate Mia Schneider trying to guess her calculus midterm score.
The twist: Mia wasn’t allowed to ask about the number directly. Instead, she asked yes-or-no questions about what life is like at the age that matches her score:
- “Am I a senior citizen?”
- “Do I need reading glasses?”
- “Am I reaching retirement?”
As Maggie’s answers came back, it slowly became clear that the “age” wasn’t very old at all, and Mia grew more and more distressed, at one point declaring she was “gonna leave this class”. The video ends with her looking nervously at her laptop to see the actual result. The exact score wasn’t shared.
How big it got
The video passed 7.7 million views on TikTok in about five days, Know Your Meme reported on October 19. It was Maggie’s first viral video.
In the comments, people joked about Mia’s questions and shared their own terrible maths results from college.
Why it hit so hard
It’s a clever game, but the real reason it spread is that it’s painfully relatable. Anyone who has sat a maths exam, whether it’s matric, FSc, O levels or university calculus, knows the slow sinking feeling as you work out how badly it went.
Try it with your friends
The format is easy to copy: pick any score you’re nervous about (a test, a weigh-in, your screen time) and let a friend guess it only by asking about “life at that age”. Just be ready for the answer.
Sources
This story was researched and drafted with AI assistance, then checked and edited by our editor before publishing.
