Saturday, October 22, 2005

Midterm Review!

This past week, I've managed to put four of five midterms behind me. Philosophy will be next Tuesday because he's just got to be different. Actually he gives us four tests during the semester, one of which can be used to offset a lower grade so, in reality, I'm kind of grateful - even if it does drag out the drama one more week. And all my love to the authors of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Philosophy. I'm not kidding when I tell you I've learned more from the first twenty-two pages of that book than I have in class all semester. I'm only kicking myself that I didn't think of this sooner. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Tuesday's dance midterm practical only required us to follow along as the teacher played a videotape of barre exercises. That I can do. But then she finished class with a combination of turns ending in a series of eight pirouettes - and the cheerful reminder that the second half of the semester would build on those moves. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to sort out fifth position, spotting, and not tripping myself or anyone else when we move across the floor. But as long as she keeps her promise of grading only the barre work, I should be fine.

Of course, the realistic part of my brain is screaming, "It's only a one credit class! I'm there to get exercise and enjoy moving, and I'm better than when I started, so why am I worrying about the grade?!" I've often said of myself that I'm not happy unless I'm in over my head but I have to wonder what the payoff is when I keep frustrating myself like this. Head, meet brick wall. Again. That being said, next semester is all about RateMyProfessors before, not after, enrollment.

Wednesday was my Gay & Lesbian American History two-essay-question midterm. In the past I've been able to pull together really good essays out of nothing, but despite some really good advice, I think I may have fucked it up. I spent too much time on the first essay, to the detriment of the second - classic beginner mistake! - and altogether too much time trying to remember things like specific Bible passages (Corinthians who? Leviticus what?) that I had neglected to memorize. What's really interesting is that I was able to relate larger themes from lecture to examples from reading, which is not typically my strong suit, but it's all going to depend how he weighs big ideas vs. specific citations from memory. I have no idea since he's only given multiple guess quizzes so far. Survey says? We'll know in two weeks.

Friday was two midterms, Voice and Art History. Our voice teacher took pity on us and gave us both the questions and the answers last week. (Although she says she does this with every class, so I don't feel too pathetic.) I crammed in the 15 minutes before class started and was able to write most everything down before I promptly forgot it all again. I really need to look into B-12 or something - this is starting to get ridiculous. Oh, and my second solo is on Friday. Whee! I think.

And speaking of Mongolian BBQ (High-five, natasha!) - the poor memory thing nearly killed me in Art History. Despite all reason - I failed to realize that we'd been expected to memorize all the art works listed on our study guide: the artists' name, the name of the piece, the year it was produced, the style it belonged to, and what geographic area each work came from. We had 36 slides - slide being appropriate, because most of the names slid right out of my brain. Following that, we had blind items. For works we'd never seen before, we had to answer the same series of questions, then follow up with a few sentences defending why we identified the piece as we did. Last but not least there were three essay questions, where we were asked to provide specific names, dates, patrons, historical context, comparing and contrasting similar works - and while I could answer with generalities, she was very interested in specifics that I couldn't provide.

I can honestly say I did the best I could with what I had learned so far - but I wish I had spent much more time on rote memorization than I had with making sure I'd completed all the reading and understanding the nuances of color, tone and composition. I'm really going to need the extra credit I turned in - there are only three opportunities to earn points in this class: the sad, sad midterm, term paper, and final. Let's hope she grades on a curve - it blew my mind how many people walked out after looking at the test paper.

Oh, well - if nothing else, at least I've learned what I'll do differently next time. Note to self: memorize, memorize, memorize.

posted by Space Kitty at 10:34 PM|| Comments (1)