*grumblegrumble*

The other day, I ranted about one of my biggest pet peeves- the idea of the question,

"What should I know for the exam?"

In my previous argument, I chose an interpretation implying that the student is misguidedly striving towards the superficial end of a grade.  There's nothing I hate more than attaining knowledge for something other than its own sake.

But an alternate possibility occurred to me this morning, when a girl asked the question in my biology lecture.  Maybe what a person means by asking this of a professor is something along the lines of,

"What do you, as someone who has (hopefully) already done this, believe is the most pertinent information for me to grasp at this point in my learning?"

...with the implications that the exam is equivalent to, "relevant information," and that impertinent information would only serve to muddy the waters and impede progress. 

Setting aside the obvious point that the idea of a lesson plan itself is inherently what one (namely, the professor) would call, "relevant information," should we be able to decipher the pertinent information independently?

I think the answer is a resounding, "yes."  At some point, we must become self-sufficient.  We may seek advice, but we cannot depend upon it.  If you're building a table, the instruction manual is helpful (maybe necessary).  But if you wish to become a carpenter, you can't still be gripping tightly to that crumpled piece of paper without any of your own additions.  If you do, when someone takes it away you'll end up like my father and I with a backwards computer desk and a disheartening amount of "extra" screws and washers.

 God help you if it's from IKEA.

I sat in the lecture hall thinking, "Good lord, look at your career path.  You want to be a scientist?"  Scientists have to, perhaps more noticeably than others, interpret novel information.  But even if you're not a scientist, you still have to make decisions. If you're presented with a set of information, you need to have the tools to examine it and to separate it into its important and unimportant pieces.  If you don't have those tools within yourself, I don't see how you can succeed in the highest level of academia.

I'm not saying that I'm not equally guilty of the same thing at times.  I practically cling to my chem lab TA on certain days, acronyms (HPLC! TLC, DMSO, LDA?) and second-guesses flying through my head faster than the chemicals in my reaction vial.  But I'm slowly working on improving that in myself. 

So, when you look at the professor and find yourself asking him what, precisely, you should be focusing on, perhaps you have good reason (maybe he or she is just a really awful professor).  But don't expect him to know what to tell you. Don't expect that from anyone but yourself.