Dear World: Exams
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Dear World.
This is the period where almost everyone in education has some sort of examination, whether that's GSCEs, A Levels, coursework or written examinations in university.
Me? I have none. I should have had one exam about the technologies behind various file formats and compression methods, but the lecturers threw that idea out of the window since they thought it wouldn't be practical in a real life situation. Or something like that. I don't know.
So, while almost everyone on my friends list on Facebook has to either prepare for a handful of exams or finish a project before a due date, I'm sitting in my room, just waiting for something to happen.
So that's the situation. Everyone else is busy with educational based work, while I sit in my room re-watching videos on YouTube.
I know this is probably not a popular opinion, but if I could swap with any of my friends and sit their exams for them, I would.
I think I am the only one of my peers who actually misses sitting exams. I actually liked school when I was younger, mainly because it was a routine. The only thing I disliked was the behaviour of some of the other people in certain classes. For me, you attend school and university to learn, not to sit in a room for an hour talking to your friends about how someone somewhere in the world did something that is worthy of discussion.
But, along with the Chemistry and Physics lessons, the examination period was one of my favourite times in school. Not really the whole procedure of sitting down and trying to remember the many properties of Benzene or the various laws and constants, but the actual exams themselves.
We had our exams in the school's sports hall, and I knew everyone saw the doors to the sports hall as something different.
Some saw it as the gates Lucifer himself placed there, as punishment for their sins during the year, while others probably just saw it as the doors to failure. Doors that will slam in their face as they try to walk into their career of choice.
Me? I saw them as doors of peace, tranquility, and thought. The times sitting there, in that room, were honestly some of the best times in my life. And if I could go in there again, I would.
It was like a small haven for me, that sports hall. The days of examination, no matter what the subject was, I almost always walked in and out of that room with a smile on my face. Maybe not on the outside all the time, but inside.
Even my most hated subjects like Welsh, Religious and Biology in GCSE, I was smiling. I literally danced through my English Literature exam. I was even told by one of the overseers to stop because I was distracting others.
Now, I say this, and you might be thinking "God, you're rather egotistical, aren't you?" First of all, I'm only human. And secondly, I didn't say that I smiled through the examination days with the confidence that I'll get straight A grades.
I knew, and still know, that I'm rather average when it comes to my knowledge that those blasted people in WJEC requested from me. I know, deep down in my heart, that the markers at such a well respected organisation cried tears of distress when they opened my paper and noticed that I didn't correctly state the reasons for the existence of anti-matter. Oh, how many sleepless nights did they have from that. In all honesty, my confidence going in and out of each exam was really low. I know I didn't have the knowledge to be in the top ten percent of Wales in a certain subject.
Maybe it was just knowing that, in the time allotted for the exams, there'd be peace. It would be some messed up tranquil moment where the only thing that mattered for the next hour or two would be this paper that was filled with questions and conundrums that I had to complete.
And now, two years into my university degree, I will honestly say that I would love an exam in something. Again, I'm not saying that I'd pass it with flying colours. I just miss those days.
Maybe it was because almost every exam that I sat, I finished with at least twenty minutes left to go, which gave me time to just think about anything I wanted. Sometimes I used to just sing songs to myself (quietly, of course), while other times I may have just contemplated on life and its mysteries. Well, with the occasional flip through all my work to make sure I haven't missed a question or someting.
I don't know, my fellow world. It does seem that I'm the only one in this mindset. Well, that's what I guess when I see people nervously reading over their notes or talking to themselves. Maybe one day, I'll have to sit another exam. If my thoughts of examinations change, I'm sure to enlighten you with another boring trip down memory lane.
I thank ye, world.
More Dear World (and much, much more) from CrazyDistortion
Image - jackhynes
5 Comments – Post a comment
CLICdan
Commented 12 months ago - 21st May 2012 - 22:06pm
Aww man, I wish I had your ability to finish exams with time left over. The two things I always hated about exams were:
1) Time running out before I'd finished
2) Major hand cramp from writing so much
I found a special rubber-coated pen in Staples which cost about a tenner but was totally worth it and became my coveted "squishy exam pen" to ease the hand cramp, but never found a solution to being a slow thinker and writer.
My fondest exam memory was in my GCSE I.T. exam. The 'time's up' bell rang when I was only half-way through my paper, and in a fit of exasperated rage I threw my pen across the sports hall and sat grumpily in my chair waiting for the moderator to collect my paper. After about 5 minutes of nobody collecting my paper I looked around and realised the bell had been for *another exam* at the back of the hall, and we still had an hour left!!
I think the moral of that story is: wear a watch, and bring at least two pens.
BethanTheBarmy
Commented 12 months ago - 22nd May 2012 - 00:32am
Through GCSE, exams never even phased me. If you know your stuff, then I agree that it's nice to just sit and work. Much better than being in a classroom full of distraction, anyway.
Even now that my exams are harder than the giant covalent structure which is diamond, it's not the exams themselves that I dislike. It's doing nothing BUT exam prep for months prior. It just gets so depressing.
And it's a massive pain when you consider that my brain only chooses to be creative and inspired during the moments where I have to think logically and laterally. I find myself awake at night thinking about video ideas when I should be thinking about multiplying the integration of the exponential by the reciprocal of the differential.
... And that's not even the hardest part. *le sigh*
Ihavethecyrusvirusx
Commented 12 months ago - 22nd May 2012 - 16:10pm
I'm not even worried about my exams. I know what it is I need to know... okay, maths, I'm slightly worried, but if I don't pass, then I don't pass. Not the best attitude, but I only need 5 Cs to get into college and I have 2 already. My Media, English & RE will make up for it.
I don't mind revision, either. It's just getting myself to do it. I'm like "Ugh, I'm going to be bored..." and all that but once I start I'm like "S'not bad..." But it's really irritating when I start revising and my brain's like "Don't forget you have to do this later, did you send that email? The dog wants to go out into the garden" and all that.
I agree with @DanCLIC about the pen thing, though. My hands cramp and it's so irritating. But I always finish in plenty of time and I get bored. I try not to fall asleep and usually count the tiles of the ceiling. Dan... wasn't you told to bring 2 pens? I was told to bring a handful. Which reminds me... I need to find my clear pencil case. Tuesday is my first exam.
Good luck to everyone who is sitting exams and @CrazyDistortion, I hope you find something entertaining to do. If you want to sit my papers, be my guest. I hate sitting in the hall, it irritates me.
ToWriteLoveOnHerArms
Commented 12 months ago - 22nd May 2012 - 16:15pm
I broke my hand Saturday and I have about 12 exams! AND it's my writing hand. FAIL. My mother has to speak to my school about what I can do since I cant write. The school know I can't write with my left hand as when I sprained my wrist last year, I tried writing and they told me off for doodling over my work.
Revision is a cow. I hate it. The exam itself isn't that bad, it's the build up.
blogger13
Commented 10 months ago - 27th June 2012 - 11:40am
I know how you feel! Taking art and photo as an A-level means that I only had three exams this year and one was a re-sit!
The thought of sitting around my house with nothing to do is horrible and its something I try not to do. During exams with me finished and all my other friends still waiting to sit 3 or 4 each it was horrible. With nobody to talk to as they were all studying, I turned into a person who would be watching Jeramy Kyle and then getting my day at 12 o'clock!
Sitting exams is a worrying time for most people my age, but Id rather be sitting exams than finding out if Gavin is really the father of the child or has Katie been cheating on her boyfriend!