Diagnostic Test Results

I did reasonably well on the diagnostic test – 44/50 isn’t too bad, although it could be better. I was pleasantly surprised that I got all of the questions on John Donne’s work right, because I often have trouble breaking away from literalism to interpret poetry. (I think I have the ACT to thank for getting me used to these types of questions.) There was a general pattern to my incorrect answers. I was surprised to find that I did well on questions that asked me to interpret something or asked what the author meant in a metaphoric sense, but poorly on the questions that seemed to ask me to find the relevant section of the text and just copy what was in there verbatim or almost verbatim to get the answer. Instead, the correct answer was often the second closest to what was actually written in the text or one of two good answers. I suspect that if I had taken more time to go over the questions and reread the paragraphs a few more times (which is easier on paper than in a PDF), I would have caught some of them. On the other hand, I also missed the question asking me what the purpose of the Austen excerpt was. I overthought it and figured that in the context of the book, it was probably part of a larger satire, but it really just wanted me to say that it was a discussion about the new guy in the neighborhood.