Word: exam
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...most interesting thing about Dukakis in his student days is not that he excelled, but that he did so at a predetermined pace. His is not the brilliance that disdains looking at books until the final exam, and then crams. He does not move in spurts, or take things at a gulp. He learned his lessons every day, and left time for other things. He boasts that he never stayed up all night to study -- in fact that he never stayed up all night for anything. He early established the arc of his own effort, and maintains that trajectory despite...
...talked about such behavior in my Latin American history class freshman year, and I guess I could just never accept such things as true. I had written essay question after essay question on my final exam on that very subject, the PRI's manipulation of the public, but the facts had never sunk in until then...
Across the country, other police officers face the same ordeal. In San Francisco only twelve of the 80 officers who sweated through the ten-hour captain's exam in December made it. In Phoenix 37 crammed for up to two years for last April's lieutenant's test. Among them was Sergeant Lee Bennington, 46, who has taken the exam six times since 1972. This time he put in some 700 hours over twelve months, drilling with 3,000 homemade flashcards -- and passed. In Washington 1,187 who took May 21 officers' exams still await results...
They have been waiting for three years in Chicago. There a sergeant's exam, taken in 1985 by 6,000 officers, is under review by a federal judge after discrimination charges by minority candidates. The court has scolded the department for testing in a way that "had a substantial adverse impact on blacks, Hispanics and women." In New York minority candidates who failed in 1983 brought suit, and 200 won higher rank. Little Rock and San Francisco have faced similar challenges...
Some cities have added oral exams and simulation exercises. In Corpus Christi, Texas, contenders for the job of police chief had to face interrogation by real reporters at a mock news conference. For many of those cramming for such challenges, major life choices are at stake. Jeanette Dice, 26, and her husband Brian, 31, both took the New York sergeant's exam last week. If she passes, says Dice, "I could take off for a year, have a baby, then go back to work and have enough money to hire a sitter." Otherwise? "I might look somewhere else...