And not even 46%, but 46/120, or 38%. Pretty bad, but that was the risk I took. I had no idea what expectations were, what I was supposed to make, or anything. I made a guess based on what I would like to know, took a stab in the dark, and predictably missed.
"Didn't you ask for help?" Yes, some, but here are some comments that I heard along the way:
1.) According to the guidance, ICOS is an "individual exercise" to test what we've learned in the past six months.
2.) "Let's not make this harder than it needs to be." - one of the instructors.
3.) "There's no doctrinal format for what a logistics estimate should look like." - my instructor.
4.) "Don't copy other people's products -- we'll know."
So, with those things in mind, I charted my own course, developed my own estimates, organized my own brief that I thought demonstrated what I've learned, and went from there. We were not provided any grading rubric of any sort, so I had nothing to compare myself against.
Ah, but my grader had one.....
There were a couple points at which I thought, "People around me sure seem busy," and -- looking at the screen of the guy next to me -- asked, "do we have to do that?" I remember his answer: "No, I'm doing it this way because this is how we did it in my old unit."
Well, OK then. I guess I'm already done.
Even now, I don't know what exactly I need to fix -- I won't know that until my "retraining" brief tomorrow morning. Then I'll get a chance to do revisions before I present again on Thursday morning. If I pass, I graduate on Friday. If not, I fail the course.
No pressure.
The good news of the day is that we sold our second car.
I put it on Craigslist for $6000, and ended up getting $5800. Very fair, all things considered. I had debated whether to list it in early March (so there was no time pressure) or mid-March (so we'd have lower rental car costs), but I'm glad things worked out the way they did.So, with our first car en route to Korea, we're renting.
2 comments:
So you passed? How'd icons go and were there any draw backs to being in the "re-test" group? In currently in your predicament and am quite nervous for my retest.
Yes, I passed eventually, and there were no drawbacks to having been a first time No-Go. Bear in mind ICOS is about being a SPO (a major's billet) in a BSB for a Heavy Brigade. After CLC3 I got assigned to a CSSB in a sustainment brigade, so I've never even used those skills.
Try your best, and make sure it looks like you put a lot of effort into your product. If the cadre see that you weren't just goofing off, they'll probably understand and let you pass.
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