No Memory

There are three (principle) reasons why I’m not a good grad student. Today, kids, I’ll talk about one of them.

We’ve been meeting twice a week to study for the PL prelim in the fall — a brutal oral exam that pits you against two profs. The reading list is massive, so we’re set up a study schedule that lasts through the summer. We read six papers a week and meet to discuss them.

Anyway, the bad thing is that I forget nearly everything I’ve read. I’m talking about papers that I’ve read slowly and deliberately, making sure I understand them as I go. After like two days, I can’t remember a thing about them. The other guys I’m studying with are amazing: they recall the papers with ease, and even reference papers they read as undergrads! (Of course, this highlights another problem: I never took any PL courses as an undergrad, so I’m already woefully behind).

So I’m pretty concerned about that. How am I going to learn anything? Noooooooo….

It’s possible that later I’ll write about the other two reasons, my lack of motivation and my short attention span, but most likely I won’t be able to concentrate long enough to do so, and even if I could, I wouldn’t want to ;).

I do promise, though, a tribute to the one and only Beth…