As part of a larger physical examination performed for various reasons, none of which were life-threatening, I took the test administered by a neurologist.
My performance on the test was very good, but not excellent. All my life I have had a problem remembering things presented to me orally. My aural memory is at best mediocre when only presented one time. In college and professional school I relied upon written notes which I and others took to learn. No matter how many times I sat in lecture and functioned and paid attention to the best of my ability, I did not take away from the lecture what other students had. I recognized this very early in my academic career and performed compensatory behaviors to avoid, quite frankly, failure.
Now I have known about my limitation almost all my life, so when it was manifest on the exam, the repetition of the words uttered to me 10 minutes before, I knew that the problem I was having was consistent with my brain power, or lack of, my entire life. Interestingly, and anecdotally, this problem arose for me when I struck my head on the floor having fallen off a chair in junior high school. In those days you just made the best of a difficult situation, and moved on. Now of course, there would be MRIs and brain scans and significant testing in follow up, and possibly rehabilitation.
I graduated from a very fine university in the top quintile and from professional school among extremely capable students also in the top quintile and although not anywhere near the top of the class, that ethereal group of hyperachievers, I had a distinguished academic career during and following school. AsClint Eastwood said in the film Sudden Impact, a man has got to know his limitations.
There is no question that this guy in the White House is cognitively impaired in many regards. I guarantee you that he has never attempted any compensatory behavior or rehabilitation because his ego would not permit him to accept his limitations. The fact that He keeps reiterating that he did so fantastically well on this test means that he did abysmally poorly. This coming from the same individual who said that he might live to 200, you know exactly what’s going on here.
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