The January exam session is over and the post-exams time is upon us. It is a period of late nights, beer and hanging out with your friends. Realistically, we still don’t really have any academic work to concentrate on so we have all the time of the world. Especially for the people whose exams were in the first half of the exam session, this period must have been long enough to completely wipe the stress and tireless studying off their memories. I haven’t been so lucky because I had a constant reminder of my how horrible mid January was.
After one of my exams, or as I call it the APPALLING one, we decided to complain of the ridiculous condition we had; 2 hours for what seemed like an endless set of problems. Not a single person in exam room managed to actually complete the exam and let me tell you I have some n**ds in my course. In fact, EAM is so competitive everyone can be called a n**d; it’s as if someone said, “let’s gather all the Aston n**ds in one course and see who will survive!”; a little social experiment, if I may. But, seriously, there are some smart people in my course. Thus, the surprise – not a single person finished the exam. So, we started the appealing process. First, there was the matter of getting everyone involved. Then, we submitted an academic appeal form with all our signatures and as of today are all done with the appeal. Nevertheless, it kept me one foot still in the exam session (as we say in Bulgaria). So, I had time to analyze the differences between previous exam periods and this one. To be honest I was surprised how many I found.
First, this year the time we had to complete each exam seemed so little. In previous years I was one of these people who submit their exam half an hour (or more) before the time is up. I was mostly wrong about my answers but at least I didn’t take long writing them down. But this year was hell. Putting aside the exam that I am appealing, all the rest were so tight time-wise, I would start writing immediately, not even think about the answer because I know it already and still I would not have enough time to, say, go back and check my work or maybe write something extra. No, I was like, question, answer, time’s up, home, sleep, library, exam, question, answer, time’s up, no pee-break, home, pee, library, exam, question, answer, home, sleep.
The second difference from previous years was the requirements for the exams. I was surprised how much material we need to absorb to manage to do well in the exam. Actually, scratch that, not well, just good. Unlike previous years, we had to quote, know extra information, or know everything so well you don’t have to think about the answer on the exam. For example, one of the exams we were expected to have read academic literature and successfully quote and comment on it to get a first (or a maybe first). On another, due to the ridiculous amount of open question we had to know all the material in a concise and efficient manner, so that we have time to write all we know down. On a third, we had to know by heart (the longest, ever, and I mean ever) mathematical formulas to apply to the problems in the exam. I still don’t know how I found time for all the information I needed for this exam. Hopefully, I do forget some by the next because there will seriously be no space left.
The third and very personal difference from previous exam sessions is probably something that only I find different. Since the beginning of this, final for me, year, I have felt so much more energized and devoted to uni than before. I think that the placement year off uni really put my goals into perspective. (Plus I would never forget what Ms. J.S. told me back in Intel – “only one of the people we have ever hired back as a graduate after a placement has ever had a first”) So, some sick ambition got a hold of me once I got to Birmingham and did not let me go until the last exam. At some point I actually got a bit worried because I could not sleep. All I could think about is whether I know everything for the next exam - what am I forgetting? What was that formula? What was the third peculiarity of this and that? What does the bottom small lettering of slide two from page three of lecture five say?; In addition the creeping fear - you are gonna fail, you are so gonna fail, fail, fail, fail, fail. Before the last exam, I could not sleep for three days!
Anyway, once the exam session was over things went back to normal; I went back to sleeping like normal people and the uni went back to its normal outlook. Now there are seats in the library, there are people in MB and the guild is open. As a last note to this longest of posts, let me share with you the brilliant statement of one of the freshers on the accounting exam: (before you start reading this imagine you are in the dead silent GEM and mean/bore looking vigilantes are walking around you) “f***, f***, I failed this, I failed this, f*** I failed this!”
