Answering An Essay

[The Dude]

I took the CBEST exam this past Saturday, and was faced with the following essay question:
It has been said that we can learn more from our failures than our successes. Choose a specific failure that you, or somesone you know, has learned from and discuss it. What lessons did you learn? Be specific, and support your claims with examples...

I took this test w/ 4 friends, and after it was done we discovered an interesting trend. I thought I'd see what you guys thought.

[M2d]

"So this one time, I'm in the big blind with rockets. six people called, the SB completed and I knuckled. the final board was AA543 and I dragged a medium sized pot. After talking and corresponding with a number of friends and experts on the subject, I realized that the deception value I gain by checking btf doesn't equal the extra money that gets put into the pot when I hold the best hand. I will never (well maybe never) limp or check with aces btf again."

[NLSoldier]

This one time, I had A6o and flopped a gutshot. The Dude bet into me and I raised, but he called, so my semibluff attempt failed. But then I hit my gutshot on the turn. So I learned that The Dude sucks at poker.


Do I pass?

[The Dude]

This one time, I drove to San Diego to meet this one guy that I thought was cool, but it turned out I was wrong. In fact, he was so not cool, he made comments like "there's nothing to do on a Saturday in San Diego from noon to 4pm" and "I called the turn hoping I had the balls to raise the river." Yeah, lesson learned. Won't be hanging out with him again.