I'm not a fan of tests...

Okay, I'm pretty sure no one is a fan of tests.  Mostly because of the grade-obsession I think my generation has, at least that's my theory. 

But I also feel like they aren't really practical.  Most of the stuff you have to learn for a test, you promptly forget.  And most of it you can look up if you need to know it.  Unless you are going on a quiz show or want to rock trivial pursuit, you life will be okay without being able to diagram the Krebs cycle or list all of the major baroque composers.  No one has ever stopped me on the street and demanded dates of World War II battles or a plot summary of The Odyssey.

That being said, I'm a huge proponent of education.  I feel like it can be the great equalizer.  I happen to love school and learning. ( I'm a nerd, its okay- I came to terms with that a long time ago.)  I think that education can be the solution, or at least indroduce you to possible solutions, to so many problems in the world.  But that's another post for another day.

I do however, enjoy things that I feel are useful learning tools.  This includes writing, and projects, and some test-like things.  For one of my mid-terms next week we can use a page of notes.  I really like this idea for several reasons.  One, it takes the pressure off of studying, so I feel like I will actually study better.  Two, making that sheet of notes is actually a great way to study.  Three, I feel like its more like the real world.  When I said above that you can look up information that you need, the caveat is that it's impractical to look up EVERYTHING.  That just becomes obnoxious.  But to have a reference sheet that you can quickly use means that you are familiar with the subject enough to reference it if you need it, especially where there are formulas involved, yet it's okay that you don't have the field memorized.  And I feel like that's like the real world.  I used wikipedia to look up a lot of structures and molecular weights at my old jobs, because memorizing all of that information for every chemical I worked with would be... well, impossible without a photographic memory.  But I could calculate what I needed to pretty easily, and that's a combination of access to formulas and experience with the material.  I think a lot of people feel like if you can use some notes during a test, anyone can ace the test.  That's not true with a well-designed test, and its not true in life either.  Sure, you can probably figure some things out on the fly, but mostly, a notes sheets helps the prepared student.

I'll muse on papers and projects another time. Ta!