more predictions

after 5 hours of sleep and another round of weak/strong adjectives and nouns, i feel a little better.

it's not all that bad. not really. if i utterly fail this, i can correct all the wrong answers and turn it in for a 70. 70% is better than 37%.

i can't get lower than a base-line C on this, one way or the other.

the thought comforts me.

because while:

-i think i've got the strong verb conjugations down (i haven't missed one on the self-quiz in a long while)

-i can usually manage the weak verbs (except the preterit indicative 2nd person singular and imperative singular, which stump me from time to time)

-i can still remember all eleven or so of my articles

-i can usually decline the basic strong nouns

-i can always decline the basic weak nouns
...

there are still the issues of

-adjectives that i can't seem to remember (weak or strong)

-third person pronouns that won't stick in my head

-vowel changes that come in a certain order and only affect certain letters in certain situations, none of which i can recall to save my life (though the names are cool: gemination, palative dipthongization, syncopation, and breaking are the coolest; a-mutation, verner's law, loss of intermedial h, and i/j umlaut come in a close second; various arrangements of letters are dead last (i > e, etc.))

-the umlaut series of classes 2, 3(a-e), 4, 5, and 6 strong verbs that escape me now and forever (i've got classes 1 and 7: strong i, strong a, weak i, weak i; and something that matches the last one, something that matchest the next one, something that matches the previous one, something that matches the first one... like a sandwich with bread, meat, meat, and bread, though the bread may be rye, or wheat, or white, and the meat chicken, turkey, beef, or what have you, so long as the first and last match, the middle two matching likewise...)

-the umlaut series of classes 1(a-b), 2, and 3 weak verbs ( or all of them, you might say), because they're all different based on the sound changes and stuff from above

-various oddities and misfits that were tossed my way last week and which bounced off without leaving the slightest of impressions
...

so i figure i know enough to get partial credit on some stuff, and full credit on other stuff, and no credit on still other stuff. the noun thing planned is such: a noun is correctly declined, along with its correctly declined adjective, and the correctly declined article, if an article is present. each box is one point. each box contains noun & adjective & article. so, anything goes wrong, the whole point is lost.

this is why my articles won't save me. neither will my nouns, if i even remember them. my adjectives, however, are guaranteed to pull me down! isn't that nice? ah, stability...

but though i'm literally sick to my stomach over this midterm (or maybe the gumbo i made yesterday, though i hope not), i can at least put on a cheerful grimace and slog my way through the questions.

i can also repeat this mantra:

the lowest i can get is a 70, and it's only 15% of the final grade. the lowest i can get is a 70, and it's only 15% of the final grade. the lowest.....