Don't Panic: Late Semester Update

I'll be honest, before I came to Aberdeen, I was nervous about graduate school. For example, postgraduate programs in the States require applicants to take the GRE or other entrance examinations. I never took nor studied for anything of the sort, so even though I thought I'd be able to do alright, I was still concerned that I might not be able to perform to the level necessary to succeed.

I mentioned some of my solid work previously. As of Wednesday, here's the tally of how I've done so far.

Strategic Intelligence Tutorial Presentation: Non-graded, but I was told by both E and some of my classmates that I did well. My topic was Intelligence Agencies of the World.

Strategic Theory "In-Class Essay" (Mid-Term Exam): I tied for the highest score in the class with an 18/20. My essay discussed changes in the conduct of war between 1815 (the end of the Napoleonic Wars) and 1914 (the beginning of World War I.

Strategic Intelligence Essay: I turned mine in a week early, and received a mark of 18/20. E was particularly pleased that I had used examples from John John Le Carré's The Looking Glass War and the 1992 Tom Clancy film Patriot Games to illustrate some of my points.

Strategic Theory Team Presentation: CN Odin and I finished our slide deck and memorandum for this requirement a full five days early, and we were both quite pleased with both. We presented Wednesday, and scored 19/20 - the highest score in the class. We discussed requirements for success in modern counterinsurgency campaigns, and used the Algerian War and the Dhofar Rebellion as contrasting examples. The Director recommended that we turn it into a formal paper and submit it to the Small Wars Journal.

So, that leaves final exams in January. I would have liked to have gotten more reading done during the rest of the semester, but I'll try to get another couple of books completed in the next few weeks. As it turns out, I've performed very well this first semester, which will hopefully be an indicator of my performance over the course of the entire year.