An Irrational Rationalization

December exams have slowly been trotting toward the student body, a vague notion of an idea weeks on the horizon. Academic advisors in all grades have been recommending study and gradual review of the term’s material so that when the exams come, students will be relaxed and prepared. December is now upon us and so are the exams. In the past fortnight they picked up their pace, galloping faster and faster. Now nothing can save us except the preparedness of our minds.  Preparation for the winter exams requires organization. As Henry Ford said on the construction of the Model T “nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs”. No exam is too difficult if a little bit of study is done every day.  But what if I did not listen to Henry Ford? What if Henry Ford had attempted to build an entire car from scratch on his own in less than a week? What if a student (me, for example) was forced to review for five exams in only a few days? For those procrastinators in the Brentwood community, this is the challenge we face. We ask ourselves, is it possible to do well on five exams having only begun review a few days before they begin?  Firstly, all of the material on the winter exams should, in theory, have been tested by teachers in their individuals units already. Thus, students who did well on unit tests have already demonstrated a strong understanding of the material. Secondly, the purpose of education is composed of two important parts, learning and retention of that learning. According to this logic, would not an attentive student who does well on all tests leading up to the exam, who has absorbed all of the teacher’s information, would not this student be demonstrating a stronger knowledge of the material by not studying and then doing well on the exam?  In my mind, it is not difficult for a student to memorize a list of terms and basic concepts the night before a test and then rewrite the information on their test. But true education, through strong retention, would certainly be better demonstrated by students who are able to learn the information, stagnantly retain it for a term, and then frantically apply it on the exam. Would this theory work on a large scale? Likely not. But, nonetheless, someone must stand up for those who thought these exams were a millennia away until they realized when they woke up this morning that they were right in the middle of them. Stand up for those who thought they knew the course through and through until they looked at what they would be tested on and were shocked. Stand up for all of us sitting at our desks now panicking and frantically grasping for an irrational rationalisation: why did it take me so long to finally begin studying! Robin J