Sounding like a broken record, but I’m getting really stressed about exams this year. More so than any year previously. Stuff just doesn’t seem to be sticking in my head no matter how hard I try and make it do so, and there seems to be far too much to cover before they all kick off.
I’m not even sure why I’m doing them. What use are essays? It’s an exercise in how much you can remember. Apparently it’s to assess how we take in information from lecturers and papers, analyse it, and make coherent arguments out of it. But then, isn’t that the point of something like a literature review, where you can actually go and look things up and have time to put together a sensible argument? At no point in life are you ever going to have to put together a one hour essay discussing the evolution of the Himalaya or the method of producing orbitally tuned timescales without any kind of source mateiral to go on.
At least the practicals make more sense. You actually use your brain on new material, and have to thing. It actually assesses your abilities, not how much you can remember. But unfortunately they don’t count for as much as the essays.
Still almost over. Scarily soon they’ll have started, but at least then they’ll be over in a flash. Like a blood test, the waiting is the worst part.
May 23, 2008 at 17:36
Good luck!
May 29, 2008 at 21:02
The stress amplifies if you have any form of Autism, because it most cases it is a massive change from what you are used to. Which leads to a lot of stress in a person with Autism.
That reminds me, write up “Practical Panicking” – a post I have planned about my recent chemistry practical exam that just went totally tits up…
May 29, 2008 at 21:33
[...] been reading blogs again, as you do. As usual, it was Nickopotablog, and he was talking about exams and how stressful they are. That reminded me to write this, [...]