So I have worked on the City of Plaistow question for the entire week getting ready for study group on Sunday. I just finished the class diagram this morning and am thinking to myself that this is a very small part of the question but takes a very large effort. Let see the test is given over a 3 hour period. I took 3 hours to draw the class diagram with tools outside of the test. Tools allow for more easy moving around of things on the screen and a less messy diagram. Readability is important on a test and in the real world drawing class diagrams. Tools should make it easier to draw a diagram not harder. I find it interesting that this is a sub part of a question with multiple parts to the answer for that sub part. The class diagram took me nearly 3 hours itself. What do I leave out on the test? I would still have 3 more questions of the same complexity to answer within the 3 hours that the test is given. In this derivation I have already taken up much of the 3 hours drawing a class diagram with tools that I would not have on the test. You get the idea. I find that this kind of question is terribly unfair because of the complexity of the answer and the amount of time to execute it. You will have to have memorized the answer and hope that the test question is close enough to the study question to use parts of it on the test. It is not like I had to look up how to do this. This is actual work doing the drawing. Maybe they expect you to run out of time. If you answered this question to the fullest you would have not answered any of the other 3 required questions. You pick 4 out of 5 questions on the exam. So if you did not have time to do the 3 other questions is this the question you should have skipped. What if this is your PhD area of expertise. Are you discriminated against for being good in that area? It makes me thrash just thinking about the strategy to pass the test. I find this so frustrating. On the last test I did a rudimentary class diagram to fulfill this part of the question. That rudimentary class diagram was not enough for my adviser when reviewing the exam with him. He saw no quality in my design. I find it hard to argue with what he said but given the time limit he should have been more lenient. I have completed this question except for a complex sequence diagram that I expect to finish in another 3 or 4 hours. You stink test designer.

I discovered something interesting this past week. My combination lock I use for swimming helped me understand something that I attribute to my learning disability. I have always been tested and shown to be able to remember large numbers and repeat them back to the tester. I always thought this was funny because I think that I can never remember large numbers. I thought that on the test I just recorded what I heard and replayed it back therefore being able to pass the test. I always thought that the test was not useful for understanding anything. The assessment showed nothing about my learning disability but always appeased the tester. Anyway, I know that there are some numbers that I remember well. When I learned my phone number in kindergarten my father taught it to me using rhythm and music. This is still one of my techniques for learning today. 523-0058...I can still hear it now. But, every time I would get a combination lock in gym or something I would never be able to remember the combination over time. At some point I would forget it the combination and be charged for getting it back from the instructor. I devised an encryption code and started putting a piece of tape with the letters of the coded combination written on it on the bottom of the lock. It never occurred to me to try and understand what was happening and why I could not remember the code. Until last week it finally dawned on me what was happening. I always wait until I forget the combination and then re-read it off of the bottom of the lock in code and then set to memorize it again using rhythm and music. Until I learn it again some days later I continually decode it from the bottom of the lock. I have finally learned what is going on. When I make the transition from rhythm and music to number in memory my memory adjusts the number to make them more memorable. Over time I either change them one at a time to all even or change them to all odd. That makes the combination be off by just a little bit. Over time the combination creeps more and more away from the actual numbers until it no longer works. At that time I have to go back and learn it again. Precision, precision, precision. I guess my brain figures that it is more important to remember a non-precise number for a long period of time or remember a precise number for a short period of time. Now I wonder what other kinds of information are automatically adjusted for longer term memory retention.