jettison some dead-weight

Sometimes, for a moment, occasionally, just for a teensy tiny bit, I worry about my memory.

I got my last mark back today. It was for my economic geography class and it was an A+ which pleased and astonished me. I'd gotten an A+ on my final essay, but the rest of my marks in the class had been ordinary, so I deduced that I must have written a good final exam. I got to thinking about the exam and trying to remember what was on it.

Let's see, there were some short answer questions and an essay. I remember struggling a bit with the short answer questions, but the essay question had been given to us beforehand. What was the essay about? Don't know - the essay was an absolute blank in my mind. Then I thought how it was probably still posted on eclass and it was. But worse and worse - I still couldn't remember the essay at all even seeing what the question was. I wondered if I had actually even written the essay, but of course I must have because I'd obviously gotten a good mark.

I have only the vaguest memory of preparing that essay and almost no recollection of writing it. I don't remember one thing I said or any argument I advanced. I couldn't even guess at the examples I gave and if I had to write it again right now, I have no idea what I'd say. I only remember going way over my word count.

I know I went straight from that exam to preparing for my other 2 exams - and I do remember those, so I can only guess that my mind felt it needed to jettison some dead-weight and it felt no need to remember an exam that was in the past.