this doesn't happen often...

... but I'm going to sing my own praises for just a bit here.

Today was, of course, the midterm-from-hell day of reckoning. I didn't spend an extraordinary amount of time preparing for the exam, but I did do what was needed -- a thorough review of my notes, typing up answers to the practice questions (at least, the parts that didn't require some high-level analysis and critique, because I knew those parts would be different on the exam, anyway), and reading over that nine-page review of answers about a hundred times today.

When I got the exam and read over the three question choices, of which I had to answer two in 90 minutes, I breathed a heavily (and hopefully not too audible) sigh of relief. I knew it was going to be okay.

I took about 15 minutes to sketch out notes on the first two, decided I could competently answer the first two, and went to work writing.

About 1 hr 20 minutes later, I was satisifed I was done.

And I feel *really* good about it.

It could be that I missed something, or got something wrong, or left something out, but to be honest, I'm relatively convinced none of those is the case. I'm confident I answered well and fully. And I'm confident I got an A.

The rest of my class? Not so much.

I think one of the people I would have previously described as the most intelligent and intellectual of our cohort, even, made a grevious error on question #1. I mean, I should rephrase: I'm completely sure that person made an error. This is, of course, creating a serious cognitive dissonance problem for me in that I never would have guessed that person would have been the one to make such a colossal mistake. EEPS!

Ah, well. Maybe all the big talk I hear from my classmates really is just a front; or maybe I'm more brilliant than I'm apt to give myself credit for; or maybe I'm just good at preparation and regurgitation. Whichever is the case, fine. I'm happy.

Will have a grade next week ... and will keep y'all posted! :)