MID TERM EXAMS

Oh no!  Mid term exams coming up fast and furious!

I have an anthropology mid term next week, and a couple weeks later, three others in two days.  Don't want to look beyond that for now.

Well, I don't really do much studying, if you know me.  At least not studying in the sense of cramming into memory all the definitions and vocab etc.  For all I know, that's what they look for, in which case I'm screwed.  But I can't change the way I am.

Today's anthro class (coming up in a couple of hours) will have some time for an exam review.  Have no idea what the review will be like.  Perhaps I'll know what kind of information I have to retain in my head.  Rote memorization, though, will be the death of me.

It's much harder than you think, going back to school as a 1st year undergrad.  So many things that are elementary to me, that seem second-nature or common sense, I now have to SHOW that I actually understand them as though they were earth-shattering ideas.  Let me give you an example.

A recent assignment for anthro illustrates this quite well.  We had to write a short little essay on some ethnographic study.  OK, before we go on, you should know that I have actually PUBLISHED ethnographic studies in peer-reviewed journals.  So it should be a piece of cake.  Or so I thought.

Well, I got a B+.  What?

I asked the TA, this very nice young person who graded my assignment, just what was "wrong" with it.  Her response?  "Well, you used the terms emic and etic, and you used ethnocentrism, but you didn't define them in your assignment, so I don't know that you actually understood them."

Or something to that effect.

Huh?  These things need defining?  OK.  To me, that's like saying "boil some water" needs definition.  You mean heat the water (H20) to 100 degrees celcius?

Live and learn.  It's my bad, actually.  I assumed too much.

I didn't really mind whatever grade I got.  They have their rubric, and I have to abide by that.  Now you understand why I don't assume I'll do well on the exams?  Haha, for all I know, I might even flunk, for being unable to regurgitate stuff.