Day 06 - Mock Exam

While you spend the class practicing your knots and quizzing one another informally, I will be set up in the back of the room with a pair of dice and a variety of ropes. I will call students to the back one at a time. You will roll the dice and consult the chart to see what 2 knots you will need to define and then tie for me. This is not a graded assignment; the point of this exercise is to give you a chance to see what the real practical exam on Thursday will feel like. You should also get a sense for where some of your knowledge and skill weaknesses still are, so you can better focus your efforts in class to prepare for Thursday.

The Knots

1. Alpine butterfly loop: great for putting a static bight in a rope when you cannot reach the ends of the rope
2. bowline hitch: great for any time when you need a static bight at the end of a rope, like when you are turning a rope into a dog leash or if you are using a rope to help someone up out of a ravine
3. midshipman's hitch: ideal for situations where you want to be able to increase or decrease tension in a rope after it has been tied (as when setting up tents and tarps); this knot is sometimes called the taut-line hitch
4. power cinch: this is the go-to knot any time you need to hold something down that weighs more than you do, because it will double your strength due to its mechanical advantage; this knot is sometimes called the trucker's hitch
5. sheet bend: this is the best knot for joining two ends of a rope; this lets you create one long rope from two shorter ropes or to create a strong loop out of a single length of rope