… which I had been dreading all weekend and yesterday.
The task: Go into the store by myself and pick up three items (no list), and then go pay for them using my debit card and remembering the PIN.
Okay on the items except I messed up on one of the sizes (got medium - needed a large t-shirt)
Not okay on the PIN. Remembered what the numbers were, just not their order. Counsellor was watching and we finally had to run it as a credit.
I guess I could excuse myself by saying it’s the first time I have been out shopping by myself in over a year, but I don’t want to do that.
We were supposed to go out to eat after that, but I had them bring me home instead. It’s not that I cannot remember what to use for what food (although I usually as for something that is easily speared with a fork), it’s that I feel like I’m “on stage” when in that kind of environment.
One exercise I haven’t ever mentioned here involves this place. I have been told that it’s okay to LOOK at the keys, (didin’t used to have to do that), but try not to look at the screen after every sentence. Sometimes I do okay, but other times I will leave off a letter or use the wrong word.
Also someone here has noticed that I will emphasize a word THIS way rather than bolding it. We’ve noticed that this is usually on BAD days.
However, if I type out someone’s name, I always stop and go through the bolding procedure. To me it’s a sign of respect here, and I will not skimp on thaty, ever.
I’m finished and I have not checked the screen once since I have started typing, and I will leave the mistakes as they are.
I forgot something: The items I was supposed to get were a pair of sandals, a sheet set for my bed and a pair of shorts. I could ask where each section was, but then I had to go staright from one to the other without getting confused.
I dis okay on that, but only by stopping and thinking and trying to remember.
One thing I forgot to do (which I told MYSELF to do) is try the shorts on. Couldn’t re-find the men’s dressing room after having passed by it to get the shorts.
OK, I just don’t get this one. You’re not supposed to look at the keys, but you’re not supposed to look at the screen, either? Where do you look?!?
Every once in a while, I can tell I’ve made a typo without looking because what I typed doesn’t “feel” right. But mostly I know because I look at the screen.
That being said, I can’t begin to imagine how nerve-wracking it must be to have someone watching you like a hawk while you’re trying to pass the test! I don’t blame you for feeling like you were “on stage”!
It sounds to me like you did fairly well, given the constraints you were under. I’d see this as a positive sign and the minor slips (getting the wrong size or not trying your shorts on) as just that, extremely minor things that could happen to anyone. And I don’t always remember my PIN either.
The idea comes from back when you were always transcribing stuff when you typed. You were supposed to keep your eyes on the document, so you wouldn’t lose your place. Every look at the screen costs you time, snapping your eyes back to where they were on the page.
I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to look at the screen otherwise.
OK, that makes sense, if you’re transcribing. But if you’re composing as you type, as Quasi and all the rest of us do? That standard is completely out of touch with the reality of the way people use computers today.
And just a final word about this: I felt really torn, you know?
On the one hand, I felt like I needed to get a “baseline” on what I could or couldn’t do anymore, but on the other, I was thinking, “WITF am I doing here??? I have genius level IQ and here I am like some kinda chimpanzee in a cage, letting myself be examined and assessed!”
