Blog - David Helkowski
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This invasive test is mandatory

I was homeschooled through all of middle-school and high-school. The result of this is that I'm a raging lunatic. No wait. I'm supposed to say the result is that I'm the bestest educated now. Urr. Nevermind.

The result of this is that I learned how to learn very well because after the initial year of middle school my parents no longer taught me at all. I taught myself from there on out. My parents assigned what I was to study. Which tests I was to do. Which books I was supposed to read, etc etc.

I, though, was the one who did everything from there. I studied. I did the assigned tests. I used the teachers key and graded my own tests. I then studied every question I got wrong, then I went and studied the material on those things again. Then I did the test -again- till I got 95%+ correct. If I was still under 95% percent I repeated this until I was over.

The result is that my method of learning is to learn everything possible. I didn't feel intimidated by tests. I sought to learn the material in full. Sure I could have just cheated and -only- study the bits on the tests but that is not what I did. I only used the tests to help clarify for myself places where I didn't learn as well as I thought. The tests were information only to me. They were not a grade.

Because every single test I took through all of middle-school and high-school I got over 95%, I have a solid 4.0 GPA for all of those grades. Grades effectively mean nothing to me. You either learn the material or you don't. If you don't, you fail and have to repeat.

I tested out of College Algebra via the CLEP at the age of 15, and I also began Calculus at 15. By the time I took the SATs to qualify me for unis, the math section of the SAT felt like a joke. I got 2 questions wrong on the math section of the SAT only because I went through it fast because it was boring and easy.

On thinking through the questions I knew what happened. I could have re-taken the SAT and got 100% on the math, but I didn't because I scored high enough on the SATs that:

Villanova was and is a beautiful campus. They also offered a scholarship but it was, I think, half. Even at half price it was more expensive than I wanted to pay. Plus I had a 100% free option available. UMBC. So I took that obviously.

The first day at UMBC they requested for me to take a test. I said "Huh? Why do you have me scheduled to take a test? I'm already accepted and enrolling. I have no interest in taking a test. What kind of test is it?"

I was told that it was/is a mandatory entering freshman personality test.

I responded: "Well in that case I'm absolutely not doing that. You can't force me to take a personality test to enroll." They told me they could. I responded: "Fine. But you can't make me tell the truth on it. So it will be pointless but I'll do it I'll just lie."

The person just looked at me like I was insane and let me continue.

So on that personality test? I answered whatever answer I was convinced was their "optimal human being would answer this way". I just totally bullshat the whole thing.

Later they gave us a summary of their evaluations of us based on that test in many categories. Like intelligence, EQ, cultural involvement, humility, etc etc.

For each category they showed a line where average entering freshman was, and another line where average graduating senior was ( obviously closer to the optimal human by their testings ). Then there was my score. I scored 99%+ in every category except one, off the charts basically.

The one category where I scored low? They had one to measure whether they thought the answers were truthful.

That'll teach 'em.