The two-wheeled dolly gave him away. The stack of reference books teetered precariously as the man and his dolly whirled a little too fast around a corner and down a long aisle to his seat. You could tell by the dolly, he was not ready to face our professional engineering exam.
As an open book test, the rules allowed us to bring any material we felt necessary. Like most people, I brought two textbooks, with small bright colored sticky-notes poking out from various pages. The Dolly Man raided the Library of Congress for its technical material, but there was no indication he’d looked through the materials by marking anything. At least one book looked brand new and unopened.
The exam itself consisted of the technical version of essay questions – show your calculations, and show step by step how you arrived at your answer. The exam was not the time to get acquainted with the information in the reference books you brought because your pencil had to be continuously flying across page after page. Success depended on being so familiar with the material that cracking a book was a last resort. To pass, we needed to already have the knowledge tucked into our memory banks so we could draw on it and use it.
I have no idea how often the guy had to say “Hello, dolly” to answer a question, and will never know if he passed the exam or not. The hours of studying and familiarizing myself with the content of my two reference books definitely paid off because I only opened my books two or three times, and passed.
In effect, I had already stored the knowledge so I could use it, just like the author of Psalm 119, who said “I have hidden your word in my heart” (v. 11), referring to God’s Word and His promises of deliverance. His statement implies he had not just heard sermons on Sundays, and he did not need to spend time wading through a library full of other books for answers. By studying and familiarizing himself with God’s promises in Scripture, they were ingrained in him so he could confidently face trials and troubles when they happened.
As an open book test, the rules allowed us to bring any material we felt necessary. Like most people, I brought two textbooks, with small bright colored sticky-notes poking out from various pages. The Dolly Man raided the Library of Congress for its technical material, but there was no indication he’d looked through the materials by marking anything. At least one book looked brand new and unopened.
The exam itself consisted of the technical version of essay questions – show your calculations, and show step by step how you arrived at your answer. The exam was not the time to get acquainted with the information in the reference books you brought because your pencil had to be continuously flying across page after page. Success depended on being so familiar with the material that cracking a book was a last resort. To pass, we needed to already have the knowledge tucked into our memory banks so we could draw on it and use it.
I have no idea how often the guy had to say “Hello, dolly” to answer a question, and will never know if he passed the exam or not. The hours of studying and familiarizing myself with the content of my two reference books definitely paid off because I only opened my books two or three times, and passed.
In effect, I had already stored the knowledge so I could use it, just like the author of Psalm 119, who said “I have hidden your word in my heart” (v. 11), referring to God’s Word and His promises of deliverance. His statement implies he had not just heard sermons on Sundays, and he did not need to spend time wading through a library full of other books for answers. By studying and familiarizing himself with God’s promises in Scripture, they were ingrained in him so he could confidently face trials and troubles when they happened.
Life is an open book test. The questions are tough. Are we using the Bible for reference, or do we each have a dolly loaded down with advice from gurus, self-help professionals and pitchmen? Are we ready for the next big test from work, our marriages, our kids, and our health? If you’re looking for answers, God’s “promises have been thoroughly tested” (Psalm 119:140), so we can confidently rely on them when we get tested.
