Something is just backwards, here...

Ahaha -

We had a midterm in my Mus698 (Psychology of Music Teaching & Learning) class two weeks ago - right before spring break - and I really didn't know how I felt about it when all was said and done. All I remember was feeling irked that we were getting a test with definitions and matching on a graduate-level test - the essay questions I was fine with - I like those! I was a little nervous 'cause I didn't know what to expect from this professor, exactly, and I totally suck at remembering names and dates and details like that - I am a big-picture person more than I am a fine-detail person in most cases (not all the time - I'm really pretty decent with details in many cases, if I may say so, myself), and I don't mean that as an excuse, it's just a pattern I've noticed and I have experienced much less anxiety since I have acknowledged that fact. Accept it and deal with it rather than fight it, and play to my strengths. Really, my learning strategies & approaches haven't changed all that much, but I feel much better about things - until someone expects me to memorize details, and then my anxiety goes up, again. But oh well.

Anyways, that isn't even the point - the point is that I was (comparitively) looking foward to the essays, but kinda' cranky about the definitions and matching. And the only points I missed on the entire test were from the matching. 100% on the definitions and the essay questions, and even some of the "very good" comments - but botched the matching. Go figure.

So what does this say about me - that I do fine with the long-answer questions but botch the "easy," straightforward ones? Much speculation has ensued, including the thought that maybe I'm just good at b.s.-ing, but I just don't feel like typing it all out right now. Suffice to say that, next time, I'll focus a little more on ... um ... the details, I guess.

Go figure.