It's All A Bit Of A Blur Really

I have enrolled, through the almost hysterical encouragement of colleagues and managerial grades, for a course of vocational learning leading towards examinations in the spring.

I'm far too idle for this kind of thing and doubt I'll last the course. It all feels just a little bit too late now, having swam through a sludge of apathy for the best part of twenty years. I have a certain status, some authority, plenty of respect and a decent wage and secure and generous pension. Do I really need this hassle. This time intensive, stress inducing, hassle.

Study is something I haven't done for years. The last exams I took meant the writing down of reams. Splurges of written work - finger aching, eye watering, head dizzying (a sincere promise of a world class migraine to come) bellyaching, writing. And now it all seems to be multiple choice. Tick the box. Tick the right box. Tick the right box and surge towards your dreams. Tick the wrong box and you might as well climb into it and hammer the lid down - you're going nowhere baby.

I Googled multiple choice. I always thought it was a poor mans examination system. Surely luck and little gut instinct would get you through. A nose for the answer, develop a feel for what is right and you're there. A chimpanzee could do it through random selection - even if it applied no logic, no rationale whatsoever. And let's face it, Bubbles isn't likely to. The logic and rationale thing I mean. And I'm at least Bubbles' equal if no-one elses.

But no. That never works. The one in five chance of getting it right decreases throughout the test to such an extent it's a wonder there's no chance of ending in minus territory. The scheme is brutal. Gone are the days of two silly options and two credible, one more credible than the other. Now we have nuances so fine, without an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire subject from which the question has been sourced, they are all right and all wrong, all likely and all ludicrous. Pick yourself a winner sucker and yowl at the moon all night for disregarding Bloom's Taxonomy and treating the whole thing like a quiz lifted from Titbits.

Blogging's getting rare. Rarer. Unless I bin the whole course thing and dedicate myself to blogging instead.