Blank mind, blank page

TAMU-T:

Hey Daniel, are you an Aggie?

I had an experience like that once and learned my lesson from it. I didn't stay up all night, but I had been studying constantly, intensely, without a break right up to the time I walked over a couple of buildings in to take the test. It was calculus, and suddenly I couldn't come up with the answer to 2+2= if it would save my life. I mean I went brain dead. I was totally spaced. I wanted to take the test, but my brain was on spring break. Luckily I recovered in about half an hour and finished the test in the time remaining. Believe it or not, I lost 2 points because I screwed up a part of a calculation requiring the answer to 2+2 in the first problem that I solved (apparently not completely recovered).

Tips:

1. Don't study all night. Schedule your studying with awareness of test schedules for the semester. You need your sleep.
2. Take a break of at least 10 minutes each hour.
3. Stop studying one hour before the test and just relax.
4. Soak your feet in warm water before you leave for the test.

(Note: #4 has to do with the winters in West Lafayette, IN)

When you get older;

5. No coffee after 8 pm.
6. No working or studying past 10 pm.

So now if we just combine the two theories, one having to do with short term memory loss at test time, the other with over stimulation of the vagus nerve, the appropriate name for this phenomenon would be "loss vagus". (Sorry, I'm getting a bit testy)

Maybe the word wanted is examnesia?

Barbara,

I'm sure it is. There is another amnesia that applies, which is "cramnesia", another "jamnesia" where forgetting puts one in a jam. We must be careful, though. Too often the student gets the test score back and improperly uses the term "damnesia" for the phenomenon.

Barbara,

I think you just made Special Agent of the Week with that one. Give yourself a t-shirt.

Why, thank you, Roger. That's very generous of you. But in fact, I've had my eye on another response or two to another Fugitive or two as candidates for this week's award. I thought I'd wait a few more days to see if anyone else has anything even cleverer to say about any of the Fugitives ...

In Malaysia, the appropriate slang for "Blank mind, Blank page" is "Blur". ex. "I am so blur"

The case for stubble.

usage: "I was reduced to stubble from last minute cramming.", and (referring to more than one student at a time);
"The proctor looked out over the field of stubble that was about to take the exam."

On 5/29/99 10:37:14 AM, Jeffrey Dykstra wrote:
>In Malaysia, the appropriate
>slang for "Blank mind, Blank
>page" is "Blur". ex. "I am so
>blur"
>
Ok. It's really obvious that when you combine the word student with blur, the proper, french-latin-polinisien transformation brings us directly to the word, stubble -- (if this isn't obvious, not that it does so by way of stubblier)

Stubble, from middle English stuble, old french estuble, latin stupula (meaning stalk, straw); refers to the basal part of herbaceous plants and especially cereal grasses remaining attached to the soil after harvest.

Ok -- now you should see how this goes already. Someone who can't think anymore is commonly referred to as a vegetable. But now we have the more extreme case of someone who's only the remaining part of a plant after harvest. That's even stubblier than a vegetable.

Rus,

Thanks for strengthening my case, although I was a little thrown by your use of words like "except".

Since I'm still wandering the foothills in Tibet, absorbing new wisdom every day and contemplating poverty; I was easily able to consult another wise man. He said;

Those who exhaust themselves in preparation are like the stubble in the fields. There is nothing left to harvest.

You can't argue with a wise man in Tibet. People who pull all nighters are "wasted" in the morning -- a modern phrasing of being reduced to stubble.

You might have tried too hard to prepare an argument against my proposal. You've become totally stubbled. (A stubbled youth? The product of a stubbled childhood?)

And don't forget the famous words of William Shakesphere, Jr., which is particularly right on point.

Muddle, muddle, toil and trouble,
turn the students into stubble.

Roger,

Indeed, at first glance I thought your proposal for "stubble" was a stroke of genius. I went looking, not to prepare an argument, but to find support, to put an exclamation point after your posting.

If you notice, I posted last night sometime before 10:00 pm, and I've been up since 6:00 am. So I'm "early to bed and early to rise" last night and this morning.

As I noted last night, "stubble", when used in the context of a student and his or her studies, has strong connotations of wickedness. Being reduced to stubble has to do with what is studied, not memory loss at test time.

In other words, maybe not in Tibet, but in our culture, the word is already taken, unfortunately.

Rus,

Indeed, at first glance I thought your proposal for "stubble" was a stroke of genius.

First impressions are often the wisest. An early riser like yourself should know that.

"Crammer's block" might work.

blockhead

The original post does not refer to test anxiety. The high level of anxiety is not required to get the type of effect referred to, which comes from overwork and exhaustion rather than anxiety.

Roger,

The original concept I was working on before posting "test anxiety" was "test burnout". Burnout "comes from overwork and exhaustion" and we might add "rather than anxiety." Well... at least it harkens to the overwork and exhaustion rather than the anxiety. Therefore, it seems, "test burnout" works. But it really doesn't, maybe in rare circumstances.

Another important factor that we needed to deal with is that "once the test is passed out, you forget everything until five minutes before it is time to pass it in." This has nothing to do with anything, except what is going on within the student at test time. If we assume that only overwork and exhaustion are affecting the student's forgetfulness, then we need to assume that the student got sufficient rest during the first part of the test to suddenly remember at the end.

Daniel Phelps poses his question as if it is a relatively common situation among test-takers. The relatively common explanation for it is "test anxiety."

"test burnout" would imply that the student was having motivational problems due to taking too many tests.

That would be cramming burnout then.

Correct

It was curious that most of the responses dealt with specific causes rather than a general symptom; for example "test anxiety", "cramnesia" and "burnout" are fairly narrow in their scope.

As I perceive the question, you are searching for a general terms that may arise from a variety of causes. If this is, in fact, the case then may I humbly suggest "brain fart" as a possible candidate. Like its cruder biological cousin it can happen with or without warning, can be embarrassing or frustrating, and requires a certain amount of internal fortitude in order to regain composure.

Roger,

Firstly, "The Worm Hole Effect" is marvelous, outstanding.

Secondly, the answer is yes. I offered "cramnesia" in a posting that is now #6 of 25, on May 27 at 12:21PM.

Rus

Cramnesia is pretty good in my opinion. It fits roughly with what actually happens in the brain, according to the technicians at the lab I visited. They use that as a slang term for it, as I reported in my last post.

Roger,

Oh yes, and thirdly, we presently have government agents scouring Sweden and Tibet looking to haul you in for high treason. Leaking the classified information about the worm hole effect is an inexcusable offense. You've placed your entire homeland in immediate danger, while you set up safe havens for your self around the globe.

Don't try that at home. It takes many years of involvement in the clandestine community to develop the kinds of friends and contacts that I have. You have to know all the tricks. You don't really think I was seeking enlightenment in Tibet, do you? (Well, in a manner of speaking.) I'll only reveal my true purpose at the proper time.

It takes contacts in the business just to get the equipment that it takes to interact on internet in a way that nobody can figure out where you are.

And you don't think I'm using my real name, do you?

secrET AAAGent MAAAAN!

secrET AAAGent MAAAAN!

They giva you a nombar,
And taika awaaay your naaame.

Roger, Roger, Roger,

It is exactly your propensity for the internet, and especially your weakness for Word Fugitives that has allowed us to track your whereabouts. Let me quote the words that have led to your imminent capture, the chink in your seemingly impenetrable armor, "Ah, the glory of it all! Ah, the largesse! And there's more: the identities of past winners will be recorded for all time (or at least, for some time) in the Court Record." From there, it was a simple matter of working with The Atlantic's mail room. Not so Secret Agent Man, Mr. "Gay".

"Rus"

HA! That's just what I wanted you to think.

I'm currently hidden aboard the international space station in a specially modified cargo container, transmitting my message via satellite. By the time you can do anything about it, I'll be somewhere else.

Curses!

Foiled again.