Exams....Harry Potter style

Hello all,

Things are winding down as you know, and I have achieved the goal I set out to do: GET THROUGH A SEMESTER OF UK HIGHER EDUCATION ALIVE! Yes, I survived. However, being thrust into an entirely knew learning system, writing system, and exam system was needless to say a bit harrying. I won't lie, my face did NOT look good for a while during revision and exams. (don't worry mom, it looks great now :) ) I must tell you though, these exams are very intense. My first exam was for my Drama reading and performance class. It was held in the Sports Hall because it was a large class. I live literally a two minute walk from the Sports centre. I was good though, I said I would leave with 20 minutes to spare.....get there early and all that Jazz. Well, apparently I didn't get the memo about getting to exams in the Sports Hall 30 minutes early, so while I wasn't the only one walking in there quarter to two, I was taken aback at how full the hall already was with students, and they were already making announcements and such. I hurriedly put my bag at the back (the exams were all very AP style) grabbed my pens and ID card, and turned to face the hall. Ok, our class was not the only one there......there were actually three. So.....where is my exam? I thankfully found someone I knew going down one extremely long row of desks, and followed them. Phew! Ok, there is an empty desk with an exam with my module number on it. I quickly sat down before anyone could take it. Then I looked at the exam.....oh right, these kinds of exams come with pre-exam stuff. Little papers to fill out and numbers to right in and all that jazz. I quickly filled it out with two minutes to spare. The man on the microphone said 'Begin', and the enormous hall was suddenly silent except for the opening of exam booklets. I looked at the first question......then I looked at it again.....and again. I literally had to look at it three times before I understood what he wanted me to say! Golly, starting off well aren't we? After that rough start things went a bit more smoothly. Then a man came up to my desk and I almost jumped....oh right, collecting the slips and checking IDs.....good grief! So you know in Harry Potter 5 when they are taking their exams in the Great Hall....yeah that's pretty much what this was like. Old people watching you from the front, a clock on the wall (maybe not as big or cool as the one in HP, but still), hundreds of kids leaning over exams. I half expected fireworks to go off! Or something akin to that to happen.
After that first exam experience, the others went more smoothly. My second was smaller and NOT in the Sports hall. It was also Shakespeare so it was the one I knew the most about. The third was back in the Sports hall. Divinity......oh dear.....you see the thing is, they don't believe in study guides over here and all exams are cumulative.....like I said, completely different education system. I felt so unprepared going into my final exam, and felt horrible for it. Then I turned it over and realized that I'd actually studied all the right things! Who knew.....;) By the time there were five minutes left, I was ready and done. I read over my essays one last time, and closed the book. I was done!!!!!!!!
So while I don't think I did marvelously well on my exams, I believe I passed them all! (of course, we'll find out soon enough!) Thank you to all who were praying for me. It helped!

Cheers!