IF I JUST HAD MORE TIME

What's your take on midterm examinations?  I, unlike most students, am indifferent to cumulative-based testing, because it does help to retain the knowledge one has gained over a certain time-span, but my most recent midterm in my AP English Literature and Composition class caught me by surprise.  With the given that Dr. Preston takes advantage of the freedom of concocting his vocabulary tests in whichever fashion he feels, I should have known to better prepare myself.  If only I had a little more time, I would have been a master at vocabulary, and I would have been able to incorporate them into an impromptu essay.  Plus, I strictly remember Dr. Preston hinting that "we should be able to use these words in a sentence," but given my naive nature, I entrusted him to make the midterm a little easier than it was.  For the future, it would be helpful for me to train myself to not only recognize the big words when I see them written down, but to also utilize the new vocabulary in my everyday language.  The next time I'm asked to recite vocabulary words and definitions from memory, I'd hopefully be able to remember the words that I was asked to learn in the first place...