I made the mistake of cheerily greeting Prof Civ Pro this morning, who then said great, you can take us through today's case. The very case where, for the first time, I barely skimmed it and thought eh, somebody will walk us through it in class. Bad luck.

The split-second of panic gave way to a triage technique, where I announced the two facts I knew about the case, and each time the professor talked for a few seconds, I scanned the pages looking for more useful details, hoping that I would be able to stay one step ahead of his questions. I ended up giving the impression of knowing quite a bit more about the case than my preparation would've suggested. Too bad that technique won't help on the exams.

16 Nov 04