27 September 2010 Two exams zero pressure

Tomorrow I will write an examination in history 3940 History of Modern Warfare. Thursday I will write an exam in art-history. Unlike everyone else in these classes, I’m not concerned with a grade or a grade point average. I’m auditing these classes the university does not award me a grade or require me to pass the course in order to receive credit for my time and effort. There will be no credit for either course and any grade awarded by my professors will only indicate to them and to me how well I’ve absorbed the course material before it vanishes into academic limbo.

In the past, I’ve had a very easy time with written examinations. I grew up taking exams to allow me entrance to Annapolis and West Point, to college track courses in high school, to entry into universities, the national merit scholar program, MCATs, and just about any sort of pen and paper exam that I could imagine. Other than Quantitative Analysis, a section being taught by a research chemist who hated teaching but whose contract required him to teach one class section, I’ve rarely spent much time agonizing over exams. I grew up possessing an excellent recall for things I had read. I’m not claiming photographic recall. I just found it easy to read, store, and recall bits of information. Dates, names, places, reasons, song lyrics, battles won and lost, and trivial items of all sorts.

I should mention that I always put in a lot of time studying for professional licensure exams and for continuing education courses that became part of my professional life. The rate of technology turn-over in my field required tremendous amounts of professional CE. New instruments and analyzers routinely arrived with 10-20 pounds of documentation, operational guides, and maintenance manuals. I always returned from off-site training programs with the material read.

My standard method of preparing for an exam in a class or course was to read the course material. As a rule, it served me well. Now, my standard method of preparing for an exam is to read the course material. Then I would merely wait for a word, phrase, or some other trigger to initiate a cascade of stored knowledge related to that trigger. However, I find that I may need to read it twice or even three times to absorb and recall a much at 62 as I did at 25. It depends, somewhat, upon the subject matter how much I recall after that first read. The memory cascade still happens – often much to Gloria’s dismay. Once that cascade starts, like the mechanism for coagulation and hemostasis, it keeps occurring until completed.

Over the last decade I’ve found that it takes longer in some cases to recall what I’m looking for. In some instances that familiar name has become transmuted to “that Russian guy.” I’m not overly worried about pathology at this point in time. But I do find that since I began writing daily I’m at a loss for the word I’m seeking less frequently. I appreciate that improvement.

Last semester I did sufficiently well that I would have received A’s in both my classes. This semester I should do equally as well. I intend to. The history course holds my interest and attention, demands I learn and retain the information. Art-history is also holding my attention to this point. I’m going to have to work a bit harder at fixing and recalling time periods for “les objets d’art” that are presented. I’d like to think that I could set the curve for History of Modern Warfare. But since I won’t receive any real grade, all I can do is measure my ego against class discussions and any feedback I get from Dr. Collins. That will have to be sufficient. I can look at my performance in both classes to date and know that I have greater knowledge of the subject matter for both classes than I did a month ago. That’s rewarding, and encourages me to keep studying. As I have the freedom to study those subjects that interest me and ignore those which don’t, I think I’m going to have a continuing productive time as a student this time around.

We received 1.91 inches of rain yesterday. Today, so far, we have received 0.17 inches. The creek had moderate run-off by yesterday at sunset. Today it is flowing at as low a rate as I like to see it. It appears, barring further drought conditions, that we’ll see a decent flow, capable of sustaining our trout population, over the winter.