Saturday, August 11, 2007

High anxiety

Technically I am present and accounted for, but in reality I'm in hiding right now. Comprehensive exams start Wednesday, so I'm holed up studying. My big indulgence for the weekend is going to the gym. This isn't really an indulgence so much as a necessity in order to keep from turning into a rutabega. (I like rutabegas but don't consider them aspirational peers.) I even skipped the Tomato Art Festival, which was today, despite being very sorry I was out of town for it last year. Maybe next year will be the big year.

Meanwhile, my head feels like it is filled with a floating collection of trivia. Qualities of good estimators? They're unbiased, consistent, efficient, and asymptotically normal. Who called political systems traditionalist, moralist, or individualist? Elazar. What are Boyer's four domains of scholarship? Discovery, integration, engagement/application, and teaching. Somehow, these fragments have to be reassembled into coherent wholes for the exam - or at least most of it; the methods section is a series of questions rather than one big essay.

So if you've sent me an email and I haven't gotten back to you, I promise, I will, but you might have to wait until after the knowledge regurgitation is over.

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