Goals for 2008

2008 Goals

After a month into 2008, I have actually made progress on most of my goals for the year. Here’s a quick update on some of the more interesting goals I have.

Run a half marathon

I’m right on schedule in my training for the 13.1 mile run ahead of me. The race isn’t until the end of April, but this month I’ve already run a total of 51 miles in training. I’ll really start adding on the miles in the next 3 weeks or so.

Stop drinking Dr. Pepper

Dr. Pepper – I love you, but you’re bad for me, especially since I’m running. I’ve had no Dr. Pepper since the first of the year. Running has been my major motivation for this.

Read all the books I get throughout the year

I’m well into three books right now. Even though I’ve not completely read a single book yet, I would say that the progress in this area is moving forward. We’ll see how far a make it through the already growing stack of books.

Start learning Spanish

Rosetta Stone arrived in the mail about two weeks ago. This is really the only avenue I have to start learning Spanish right now. To quantify this goal in some way, I think I’ll try to make it through at least the first CD within the year (Rosetta’s recommended time is about 6 months). The lessons so far have been a lot of fun. I’m really excited about this one.

Memorize Romans

The time frame for this goal is a year, but the pace I’ve been at will have me finished within 10 months. Those extra two months will definitely come in handy when I have to review huge quantities of the book at once. I have currently memorized through the first chapter.

Although I do have more goals including, financial, family, and social goals, these are just a few of the more easily measurable ambitions that I’m excited about.

What are some of your goals for the year, and how is your progress coming along?

Multiple Choice Tests

test-score.jpg

I’m glad to know I can still pass multiple choice tests with little effort or knowledge of the subject.

Thanks to Daily Writing Tips I passed a basic vocabulary test with 90% accuracy. What does this mean? Nothing really, and here’s why:

  • I actually only know 8 of the 20 words
  • That’s only 40% actual knowledge accuracy

The test was fun to take, and I learned a few new words from taking it. In the end however, the test did a better job at evaluating my reasoning and deduction skills than my actual knowledge of the words.

Of all the test I’ve taken in my life - academic and professional - I’m guessing more than 90% (including math tests) were multiple choice tests. I learned how to pass this kind of test at such a young age, it’s scary to think about how much I actually don’t know.

I’m still convinced that multiple choice tests are one of the least effective ways of measuring someone’s understanding and comprehension of a subject. While they are efficient - apposed to an essay form - they fail at accurately assessing knowledge savvy of a given subject matter.

Maybe one day tests will look more like this.