I have a Bachelor of Science in Speech Communications, and I think most graduates would attest to the reality that you forget the majority (or at least the specific details) of what you once learned to regurgitate on a test. I had this one particular professor who tested in what I consider the most challenging forms of testing. Some one argue a short essay test is the most difficult, but you can generally make crap up and still get a passing grade. This prof's tests where 100-150 questions with fill-in-the-blank answers with no word banks, no study guides, and no cheat sheets. She was expecting specific words; synonyms and abbreviations were marked wrong. She simply told us we could be tested on ANY of the content that was covered, from the text or any random thing she or another student contributed to the dialogue during the class lectures. Because of having to adjust my note taking and the way I processed and filed information, I think that I retained *and can access* more knowledge that I gained from her classes than any other. I remember in my Interpersonal Communications course we were studying the implications of dialect and she showed us a video clip of one of the most unique American dialects in the entire country, spoken among only just over 500 people on Tangier Island, Virginia. I have no ties to Tangier Island, but was intrigued that fellow Virginians have such a unique culture and dialect that is almost undiscerning as English at times. So when I saw this video on ESPN 3, I was particularly entertained because of my ties to communication studies. How cool is it that Tangier Island, population 507, is considered the Biggest Sports Town in American per capita all because of the introduction of high-speed connectivity? Ironic.
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