Sanskrit exam.
Dec. 13th, 2006 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icarusThe Sanskrit exam.
You know it's rough when you're picking through the test, trying to find individual words you can translate because entire sentences are a lost cause. Knowing that you've seen this before, dammit, but it's only barely familiar.
In my estimation, I got about 70% on this test.
I've never been in this position, of struggling so much. Normally I finish the test early and spend the last half hour double-checking my answers, adding details I left out, catching stupid slips. I don't normally find myself guessing. I know I'm in a class of classics majors, grad students, people who've already taken years of Hindi or who speak Hindi as their native language. I am infinitely jealous of the classics major who finished this test in 20 minutes, and I joined the group of laughing students afterward who said, "Oh, you just wanted to strangle her, didn't you? Augh."
I chanted, "I'm not jealous, I'm not jealous... oh hell, yes I am."
I'm used to being one of the "front row" students, you know, the Hermione type with her hand in the air, trailing the teacher home with questions after class. I'm getting used to trudging along, not aiming for the top of the class because that's totally out of reach, but instead just working on my memorization technique, putting my shoulder to the wheel and doing more drill, more drill. My performance sucked? Do better next time.
No matter how poorly I did, I do have one thing to look forward to:
Next quarter is going to be harder.
ETA: At our study group Sunday, the guy who's learned two years of Hindi and lived in Sri Lanka to study Sinhagalese debated whether to continue Sanskrit next quarter. He finally decided to stick with it, saying, "Well, I've suffered this long. Might as well make it worthwhile."
Yep. That's about right.
You know it's rough when you're picking through the test, trying to find individual words you can translate because entire sentences are a lost cause. Knowing that you've seen this before, dammit, but it's only barely familiar.
In my estimation, I got about 70% on this test.
I've never been in this position, of struggling so much. Normally I finish the test early and spend the last half hour double-checking my answers, adding details I left out, catching stupid slips. I don't normally find myself guessing. I know I'm in a class of classics majors, grad students, people who've already taken years of Hindi or who speak Hindi as their native language. I am infinitely jealous of the classics major who finished this test in 20 minutes, and I joined the group of laughing students afterward who said, "Oh, you just wanted to strangle her, didn't you? Augh."
I chanted, "I'm not jealous, I'm not jealous... oh hell, yes I am."
I'm used to being one of the "front row" students, you know, the Hermione type with her hand in the air, trailing the teacher home with questions after class. I'm getting used to trudging along, not aiming for the top of the class because that's totally out of reach, but instead just working on my memorization technique, putting my shoulder to the wheel and doing more drill, more drill. My performance sucked? Do better next time.
No matter how poorly I did, I do have one thing to look forward to:
Next quarter is going to be harder.
ETA: At our study group Sunday, the guy who's learned two years of Hindi and lived in Sri Lanka to study Sinhagalese debated whether to continue Sanskrit next quarter. He finally decided to stick with it, saying, "Well, I've suffered this long. Might as well make it worthwhile."
Yep. That's about right.
