You Think Sometimes it Happens? It Is!
It's been a week since my last update. Woohoo big news. Back in the day, months would go between posts and I wouldn't bat an eye...
Anyhow. Herbs. I had my first Jeffrey Test yesterday (Jeffrey is my herbs teacher). I'd been hearing about Jeffrey tests for years, from my mom, who had him in school too. He's a little bit infamous. Two days before, I was running flash cards by myself in the Herbs Room, and someone who noticed how long I'd been there, said,
"So, do you just like hanging out in the Herb Room?"
"Yeah," I joked, "I love the way it smells in here..."
"... so, do you have Jeffrey?"
"Yeah"
"nowwwww I understand."
A teacher who was in earshot said, "I like Jeffrey. But his tests are too hard. For twenty years we've been trying to get him to change, but he always says, 'just follow me, and I promise you'll pass the boards.' -- I suppose he's right, but he's made a lot of students cry over the years."
And my mom was one of them, I thought to myself.
Anyway, so the test was yesterday. We graded them in class after the test was over. I got 74/113, or 65%. I was pretty stoked, and I even called my mom later in the day to tell her. After she heard my score she was silent for a moment, figuring out just what 74/113 meant, and then she said, "That's really good! congradulations." Indeed my score was average for the class: the highest score in the class was 95, and the second highest was 79. I got the 3rd or 4th highest in the class. So considering it's on a curve, it really is good for a notoriously hard teacher. The rule of thumb with him, apparently, is that if you get more than 50%, your doing fine.
But the difficulty itself isn't what makes Jeffrey notorious. It's the fact that he is unpredicable, and inscutible, and boarderline treacherous. Let me give a few examples of what makes his tests so hard.
Ex. 1. What herb is best for dry cough:
a) Ku Xing Ren
b) Gua Lou
the whole class answered a) Ku Xing Ren, because according to our notes, its primary usage was for "Dry Cough" -- in fact a number of us had underlined this. On the other hand, none of us had the word "dry" in our notes for Gua Lou. So we complained when he told us that b) Gua Lou, was the correct answer. So he explained, "like I told you, Ku Xing Ren only provides symptomatic relief, and besides it can have toxic side effects in high doses. So even if Gua Lou is not specifically for dry cough, it's very good for cough in general, and is better than Ku Xing Ren at getting to the root of the problem, and not simply addressing the symptoms. So B is the correct answer.
Ex. 2. A patient comes to you in july with fever and chills, no sweating, poor digestion, white greasy tongue coating, and a floating wirey pulse. What is the best herb for their condition?
a) Ma Huang
b) Wei Lao
c) Huo Xiang
d) Cao Guo
d) Cao Guo will address the fever and chills, and the poor digestion, but not the lack of sweating. a) Ma Huang will address all of those symptoms, but generally is not used in hot weather because its nature is very warming. c) Huo Xiang, will address all these symptoms, and it frequently used in summertime, and this is the answer most of of put.
In fact, b) Wei Lao, is the correct answer, because of the word "wirey." If the prompt had been exactly the same except instead the pulse was "floating and slippery," then Huo Xiang would indeed have been an excellent choice. Just as Ma Huang would have been perfect if everything was the same except you changed "July" to "January."
Here's why this was hard. There were roughly 70 herbs we had to know for this test. Wei Lao was not one of these herbs. There were a couple more instances where the correct answer was an Herb we learned in the previous semester.
gotta love it. But I definitely prefer that to my other midterms, where basically everyone got an A. I know that the board exams aren't going to be that easy, and easy tests give a false sense of confidence. Hard tests, even if they are unreasonably hard, are at least a good preparation.
My mom told me, "Just wait, at some point, usually in 2nd semester formulas, he gives you the midterm for 3rd semester formulas, and says, 'Just do your best.'"
Anyhow. Herbs. I had my first Jeffrey Test yesterday (Jeffrey is my herbs teacher). I'd been hearing about Jeffrey tests for years, from my mom, who had him in school too. He's a little bit infamous. Two days before, I was running flash cards by myself in the Herbs Room, and someone who noticed how long I'd been there, said,
"So, do you just like hanging out in the Herb Room?"
"Yeah," I joked, "I love the way it smells in here..."
"... so, do you have Jeffrey?"
"Yeah"
"nowwwww I understand."
A teacher who was in earshot said, "I like Jeffrey. But his tests are too hard. For twenty years we've been trying to get him to change, but he always says, 'just follow me, and I promise you'll pass the boards.' -- I suppose he's right, but he's made a lot of students cry over the years."
And my mom was one of them, I thought to myself.
Anyway, so the test was yesterday. We graded them in class after the test was over. I got 74/113, or 65%. I was pretty stoked, and I even called my mom later in the day to tell her. After she heard my score she was silent for a moment, figuring out just what 74/113 meant, and then she said, "That's really good! congradulations." Indeed my score was average for the class: the highest score in the class was 95, and the second highest was 79. I got the 3rd or 4th highest in the class. So considering it's on a curve, it really is good for a notoriously hard teacher. The rule of thumb with him, apparently, is that if you get more than 50%, your doing fine.
But the difficulty itself isn't what makes Jeffrey notorious. It's the fact that he is unpredicable, and inscutible, and boarderline treacherous. Let me give a few examples of what makes his tests so hard.
Ex. 1. What herb is best for dry cough:
a) Ku Xing Ren
b) Gua Lou
the whole class answered a) Ku Xing Ren, because according to our notes, its primary usage was for "Dry Cough" -- in fact a number of us had underlined this. On the other hand, none of us had the word "dry" in our notes for Gua Lou. So we complained when he told us that b) Gua Lou, was the correct answer. So he explained, "like I told you, Ku Xing Ren only provides symptomatic relief, and besides it can have toxic side effects in high doses. So even if Gua Lou is not specifically for dry cough, it's very good for cough in general, and is better than Ku Xing Ren at getting to the root of the problem, and not simply addressing the symptoms. So B is the correct answer.
Ex. 2. A patient comes to you in july with fever and chills, no sweating, poor digestion, white greasy tongue coating, and a floating wirey pulse. What is the best herb for their condition?
a) Ma Huang
b) Wei Lao
c) Huo Xiang
d) Cao Guo
d) Cao Guo will address the fever and chills, and the poor digestion, but not the lack of sweating. a) Ma Huang will address all of those symptoms, but generally is not used in hot weather because its nature is very warming. c) Huo Xiang, will address all these symptoms, and it frequently used in summertime, and this is the answer most of of put.
In fact, b) Wei Lao, is the correct answer, because of the word "wirey." If the prompt had been exactly the same except instead the pulse was "floating and slippery," then Huo Xiang would indeed have been an excellent choice. Just as Ma Huang would have been perfect if everything was the same except you changed "July" to "January."
Here's why this was hard. There were roughly 70 herbs we had to know for this test. Wei Lao was not one of these herbs. There were a couple more instances where the correct answer was an Herb we learned in the previous semester.
gotta love it. But I definitely prefer that to my other midterms, where basically everyone got an A. I know that the board exams aren't going to be that easy, and easy tests give a false sense of confidence. Hard tests, even if they are unreasonably hard, are at least a good preparation.
My mom told me, "Just wait, at some point, usually in 2nd semester formulas, he gives you the midterm for 3rd semester formulas, and says, 'Just do your best.'"