December Test Report, Part 1 of 2

I took the General Structures Exam today. I feel like I did better on it than I did on Construction Documents (which I passed), so I think there's a strong likelihood that I passed. I didn't feel like a complete idiot and thought I was able to be a "good guesser" (more on this later). There were some that I had no friggin clue (and knew I should) and some that I knew I had seen during my studies, but could not recall the equation. Oh well. We'll see in 2-4 weeks.

Speaking of which, I got the long-awaited results for the Building Planning Exam. You won't believe it, but I passed. Yeah, I know, you're stunned aren't you? To stunned to speak, I'm sure. ;)

While playing with the freerice.com vocabulary game, I observed something interesting. I have gotten to very high levels (momentarily to 46) and it's not because I have a dictionary for a head. It's because I'm a good guesser. I look at the word and after thinking "what in the heck does that mean," I think "well, that sounds really similar to" or "something tells me it's that one." Maybe I heard it once long long ago and don't even remember the context. I don't know what knowledge I'm drawing from but I have a higher rate of success than I think most people do (at least at vocab). This is what I think I'll have to do to pass these tests without studying more. (No, I'm not going to do THAT!)

Which brings me to a quote a coworker just told me: "Not everything worth doing is worth doing well." I think that's my current motto. This exam is a "competency exam." I don't get extra points for being an A student. All I do is get a paper that says pass or fail. So why discard perfectly lovely parts of my life (like seeing friends and family) to do very well on the test when I can get by with well? I think this is ironic on the heels of the competitive post.

And finally: Yesterday I posted about an old favorite. (Later: Janiece posting a music video gave me an idea. Here's a link to a YouTube segment of Red Dwarf.) Today, my friend Janiece posted about a favorite of hers and now I have a new favorite, a string quartet that gives a new meaning to "classical rock". Here's the song that lured me in (appropriate that it has an Indian flavor) and here's the CD I've put on my Amazon wish list.