The genetics test

Professors are often not ready to deal with students who have completed the Phenomenal Memory Course. Several years ago, I was teaching the Course at one of the medical colleges in Moscow. The lectures were free. I was testing memorization techniques for study material that contained a lot of difficult terminology. There, a student shared the following story:

A professor planned to give his class a test on genetics. The student, after completing the Phenomenal Memory Course, decided to apply his new skills. It seemed to him that the subject matter was insufficiently covered in the genetics course textbook. So, as a diligent student, he borrowed an extra book on the topic from a local library (a brilliant book by P. Raven, P. Evart, and C. Ikehorn) and memorized additional information on “Eukaryote genetics”, located in section 9..

He was in a great mood when he entered the classroom to take the test; and he was fully prepared to answer any questions. He was given a blank sheet of paper, and the test began.

The Pmemory student meticulously wrote down the information he had memorized the day before. He listed facts about Gregor Mendel: who he was, his years of life (1822-1884), the year his work was recognised (1900). He also wrote down the difference between eukaryotes and prokaryotes, explained the correct sequence of meiosis and syngamy, and described the nuclear fission process whereby the chromosome number decreases from diploid to haploid.

Further, he described the structure of eukaryotes in great detail. He wrote that chromosome DNA makes up complexes with different albumen, the majority of which are histones (albumen with a positive charge and high content of arginine and lysine). He also wrote information about gamete spores and diploid zygotes, about prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase, and even provided the exact number of possible chromosomal combinations – 8,388,608 for a human being.

The student then moved on to biographical data, as it is one of the most interesting parts for a person who knows how to memorize. He wrote about Mendel working in the Augustine monastery garden of St. Thomas in the Austrian city of Brunne (capital city of Moravia, now Bruno city in the Czech Republic) from 1856 through 1863. He also noted that Mendel collected different types of peas from his childhood, and by 1856, had a clear vision of which types of peas would interbreed via testcross and which would not. The student wrote down what seeds Mendel used and what part of posterity had dominant or recessive features. For example, there were 5,474 round and 1,850 wrinkled peas.

As a conclusion, he gave references to other scientists who made significant discoveries in genetics, such as Sutton, Morgan, Beadle and Tatum, Watson and Creek, Benzer, and others. Satisfied with his work, the student turned in his test paper.

What was his test score you might wonder?   The professor gave him an F! The student was shocked. He had spent an entire day preparing for the test and felt he had answered the questions thoroughly. But the professor claimed that he had cheated by copying from notes, saying it would be impossible for a normal person to give such precise information.

The student insisted that he be given another chance. He said he could answer any question with respect to any of the specific information on the subject and do so right in front of the professor. Subsequently, an oral exam was scheduled.  The student was able to successfully and faultlessly reproduce the data written in the test, and his grade was changed to an A.

Phenomenal Memory is like a martial art: if you master it, you may want to exercise some caution… and maybe even hold yourself back a little. You can’t always guess the reactions of your professors and teachers, or even other classmates.

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V. Kozarenko

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