Weekend Warrior

Christmas is coming. It's just 21 days away. So, the weekend was filled with all the usual things - decorating, shopping, trimming the tree, and Saturday night church. Oh, and online Real Estate course work.

It's hard to stay focused on the task at hand when there are much more fun things to do, like baking cookies (or eating them), decorating, and shopping. But I was the hermit and glued myself to my computer, plugging through the online Real Estate modules faithfully. And after completing more than half of the modules I have an observation.

At first, it seemed too easy. Kinda like an open book test. Click though the pages, take copious notes, then when the quiz comes up just check your notes and get 100%, right? Wrong. Obviously the designers of the course know this is the case so they create some very tricky questions.

When I missed my first couple of questions, it took me by surprise. One question I missed used a term in the answer that was not in my notes. My first thought: I need to take better notes. But as the modules have progressed I have found errors in the teaching materials. And, it is clear that some of the questions are like trick questions. This weekend there was a question on material we had not even covered yet. I got it right, but I answered through deduction, not because I had been exposed to the answer.

Of course I reported my findings to the school, and they seem much less concerned than I expected or wanted them to be. The attitude seems to be, "The answers are there if you look hard enough" meaning, "We might not cover the material, but if you can make some educated guesses you could make a perfect score." So, I thought to myself, this is how they make the open book format more difficult. Ah. They are practically guaranteeing that you will miss one or two questions. That makes the course appear more challenging, not as simple as read it, write it, test it.

Well, for me it is not more challenging, but more frustrating. But I set my frustration aside, and forged ahead working with that assumption. It has seemed to prove itself each quiz. So, I am fine with that, and have let go of the vision of me acing this online course. I will pass most assuredly, but I will not be Valedictorian.