Hal smiled inwardly with satisfaction.
'That should shut them up' he thought even though he knew it would probably have the opposite effect.
Not to his detriment of course.
He requested another cauldron which he was handed although he was advised to make use of his personal cauldron with which he would be more used to and hence more efficient.
Hal preferred to use the cauldron they had however because he was considering this an opportunity to refine his Alchemical skills even though that might sound silly since he was in the midst of an important test.
However, as Hal saw it, he had a margin of error which was the number of times he was allowed to make mistakes and he had not surpassed it yet for the Rank one test with which he was given even more grace.