6 posts tagged “exams”

A year ago, I was starting a set of night shifts and I sat down and wrote, quite unintentionally, a list of what might be called 'intentions'.

I called that entry "Revisions and Night Shifts".

Times have changed a lot since then, and although I still have a healthy dislike for night shifts (which I no longer have to do - hooray!), I think that somehow the things on my list have managed to fulfil themselves!

Here is my list:

1. Travel more and visit interesting places
   
2. Get more free time to do the things I enjoy, like digital photography
3. Have no agenda so that I don't have to get things done all the time
   
4. Chill out and not have to worry about climate change, world politics and the price of fish.
5. Not have to sit exams to show how skilled and clever I am, ever!
6. Be more in the company of genuine and caring people

I like number 5 on the list a lot, because I've done heaps of exams in my time. I recently passed some major exams which means that I don't have any to do, unless I really start looking. I'm really hoping to try and stay away from examinations in the future!

My personal favourite, though, is number 6 because I reckon I've met lots of wonderful people who have been really fantastic and I've learnt a lot from them. OK, some have been a bit exasperating, but only in a good way! I'm really grateful for the people in my life right now, and it's lovely the way things have gone so far.

I might change my list a little, but it's a pretty good one as lists go.

And the price of fish? No worries!

It was a bit of a mammoth day yesterday: big, woolly and a little scary. I got a lift down to Birmingham for my exam the night before and stayed at a hotel overnight. The hotel was mediocre at best, so I didn't bother taking any pictures of it!

The exam started at 9.15am and consisted of 4 papers. Luckily they let us go out on a lunch break in the middle, so we had time to recuperate from the morning. The whole examination experience ended at 5pm, whereupon everybody stumbled out in dazed fashion, and looking a little exhausted!

I received a call to say that the motorway back to Leeds was clogged, so we decided to stay in Birmingham for a while and wait until the rush hour traffic calmed a little. I explored the city centre with a couple of friends, because we desperately needed a place to sit down, and have a cup of coffee. Eventually, we happened upon a Starbucks, the headquarters of Evil.

It's somewhat inevitable that people talk about exams after the ordeal as a kind of debrief. I'm not a great fan of these 'post-mortems', because there's not much you can do about things after an exam, and although it's great to confirm that I've answered questions correctly, the actual act makes me worry about the answers that I got wrong. So I tend to avoid doing it at all!

I've got to admit that I don't rate Birmingham as the prettiest city in the world. However, we were impressed by some of the developments going on in the city centre. I took a few snapshots from my Treo, but the light was running away and without timing or aperture control, or a flash, it was difficult to get anything spectacular.

All in all, I personally found it a good experience. I said in a post some time back that I wanted opportunities to travel more and take more photographs. I guess I did a bit of that!

I've decided to take four days study leave before my written exam (which is on Friday). I'm really grateful that I've been allowed to take so much leave, and I did find someone who was willing to take care of anything urgent that came up in my absence.

What's funny, and this is something that I've also noticed when I take annual leave, is that I automatically tend to think about work when I'm not at work. This is probably not really surprising, as it's something that I do every day (even on some weekends), that it's a bit of a habit I've gotten into. For example, right now, I'm thinking about what emails I've received in my work email account (which I can't access from home). How many have I got? Who sent them? Do I need to answer them? Things like that.

I've been advised by my supervisor not to burn myself out studying, so I'm taking it easy these next few days. Yes, the exam is stressful but there's a great quote that I've adapted:

Dude, it's just an exam. OK?

Life can be series of jumps through hoops, and I'm sure people know how tedious that can be. I'm currently jumping through a few hoops of my own, in relation to examinations and job applications. Luckily I've passed my latest set of university exams, so that's one thing to celebrate!

I was talking to a friend about all this, and it made me recall an entry I wrote some time ago called 'Jump the other way'. I'd felt somewhat restricted then, and decided to do something about it by taking a trip abroad to Australia. I've feel I've now come full circle again, and this is making me think a little outside the box about what other opportunities might be available, because jumping through the hoops surely isn't the only path.

We're commonly restricted first by what we believe are our limitations.

I've just started a stretch of four nights and also trying to revise for some upcoming exams. I'm painfully aware that I don't really have much to write about these days apart from work (and Palm stuff)! I think it's because work's such a big part of what I'm doing right now that everything else has taken a back seat.

What I'd like to do is:

1. Travel more and visit interesting places
   
2. Get more free time to do the things I enjoy, like digital photography
3. Have no agenda so that I don't have to get things done all the time
   
4. Chill out and not have to worry about climate change, world politics and the price of fish.
5. Not have to sit exams to show how skilled and clever I am, ever!
6. Be more in the company of genuine and caring people
   

Is that so much to ask for?

Maybe it is!! No, it's not. :)