Can someone explain how studying grammar made my grammar worse?

Question

I did an experiment. I took a grammar test (used the one at Elance.com). There were 40 questions on it, and the first time I took it I scored 7/10 on the ranking system and was ranked somewhere inside the "Top 10%" of all test takers.

So then I studied for about a week--all kinds of grammar rules--to the point where my head was aching. Then I decided to take a retest to see what would happen:

I scored a 6/10 and went down 10% in the ranking of overall test takers (now inside the "Top 80%").

Do you think that studying too much grammar nukes your brain and impedes with your natural ability to judge a good sentence from a bad one?

(Not to mention the first time I took it I was tired and burnt out from working all night long. The second time I was fine.)

Answer 1

It may simply have been a case of over-preparation. You had amassed so much knowledge that you were making the test more difficult than it actually was. Over-thinking can be just as dangerous as not having any knowledge at all.

Answer 2

Or maybe you got lucky the first time, and all you proved was that cramming for a week doesn't improve results. Or, you just demonstrated that you don't work well under pressure. After all it was only 4 questions difference between them, for a stupid internet test, that's hardly grounds for any kind of scientific experiment.

Answer 3

Yeah, but what's the margin for error in such a short test?  You got one more question wrong; that could be just chance.  Another day, you might score 10/10, or 5/10.  

Answer 4

My grammar used to be perfect. Even though I am dyslexic. I would always read what I wrote out loud to make sure. If it sounds right, it usually is right. But then I started learning other languages. First came farsi, then arabic, then kurdish, then russian, then somali and now spanish. That doesn't include all those years of french that I took in school. Well, since I started with all those other languages, I can barely read english anymore, and as far as spelling and grammar go, well, dangit, I am now a complete mess.

Answer 5

Simple. You were getting tired of studding gramer, and just wanted to get it over with, therefore, you weren't 100% focussed as you were the first time, when grammer was fresh to you. Does this make scense??? Well, it's the truth. Hope it helps!!!

Answer 6

For me proper grammar is somewhat instinctive. If I focus on the rules and worry about it, my grammar also gets worse. I think it's because there are too many arbitrary rules. So many of the rules have exceptions that break the rules and branch into additional rules.

As an avid reader with exposure to generally literate people my brain will unconsciously do a good job with grammar. I find it best to keep my conscious mind out of it!

Aint these the truth? LOL

Answer 7

Grammar is not a universally accepted thing.  You could very well have studied proper grammar from one school of thought, and then tested it in another.  

There are several different nuances, and trends constantly emerging in "grammar."  Agencies like the MLA do their best to create a standard, but it constantly evolves.  And it's been evolving faster since the rise of the internet than it ever has before.  If you get a copy of the Little Brown Handbook (just one example) from ten years ago and compare it to the most recent edition, they'll be vastly different on multiple counts.  Even comparing one style guide to another published in the same year will show tremendous inconsistencies.  

This is one of the reasons college professors dictate the style papers need to be written in, so there is a known grammatical and formatting standard.  

You could very well have a better understanding of grammar now then you did, and just did worse on the test.  You may also have done some subconscious sabotage to prove one of your own theories.  There are a variety of explanations for why you did worse on the test, the least likely of which is that you studied grammar.

Answer 8

I guess you are slowly becoming more of an idiot. Sorry to hear it.