You know what sucks? Mind blanks. We’ve all suffered them, I’m sure, but the worst part is that they always seem to strike at the worst possible time. Why is this?
Literal thinking there
We can be feeling supremely confident the day before our final exam for the HSC, but come action time, everything seems to go out the window. We always seem to succumb to the pressure of the situation (well, I know that I do).
Classic example, in the previous paragraph, I couldn’t spell the word succumb properly. According to the computer, no matter how many different variations that I used, all of them were wrong. Using spell check, the only suggestions that it came up with were ‘surcame’ and ‘sarcoma’ (whatever that is. As it turns out, it’s this, but don‘t click it if you get queasy quickly). The next step is to check the dictionary. Now I have a dictionary that is from 1990 (so it’s older than me) and most of the time, it does the job just right; tells me how to spell the word and give me a simple definition; not this time though. There was nothing that was even similar to succumb. But as it turns out, I had spelt it ‘surcome’, which isn’t a word. Oops.
Nope, definately not there
What?! WHAT?! How come I don’t know how to spell it? It is a real word; I’ve used it heaps of times before and heard other people before, but apparently I’m spelling it wrong even though it looks absolutely right.
But in the case of exams, how is it that we can get nervous, yet when we leave the room afterwards, it all comes flooding back to us and we become annoyed with ourselves. I think it’s for reasons like this that I would never go on game shows of sorts; because I would be terrified of making a fool of myself on TV. I’ll admit that I have gotten the million dollar question right when watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire before (to be honest though, I did guess because all the options were numerical and my lucky number popped up and just so happened to be right).
Good luck!
Every morning, the radio station that I listen to does a ‘Thousand Dollar Minute’ in which you have sixty seconds to answer ten questions and win for each question that you get right. I normally get 5-7 right which I think isn’t bad given that the questions can be about anything. One question the other morning was “who was considered the ancient Greek god of theatrical criticism?” I honestly doubt that too many people would know that the answer was ‘Pan’ (I know I didn’t).
But again, I’m never tempted to call in and test my knowledge, because when the spotlight is, I generally choke more times than not. In saying this though, games shows are the best type of reality television; because you get to learn something along the way, and if you don’t like any of the contestants, you only have to wait five days tops and their off the screen. You can also be assured that people who appear on game shows will never be in the newspapers for the wrong reasons. So they make money, you learn something and they then buzz off back to where they came from. If you don’t like the host of the show though…..
Not the HSC most of us will sit (in). Shame
Hologram of Baal 