Had my SSK12 (Intro to university course) final exam yesterday, big relief that it is all over! I enjoyed the work in this unit, even though it was a struggle sometimes with the disaster we had at work – a little bit wistful that but for this I could have got more out of it, but that’s life!
In the last few weeks I was pretty good with my reviewing, although there were so many damn readings and they each got a bit boring after a few reads! The secret to all this is not to memorise so much as engage with the material so it is meaningful, ask questions about it and create a place for it in your mind. You also make notes that are further reduced down to basic concepts with each review so they act as a memory trigger.
I was a stress monster the day before the exam. Hadn’t done much housework for a couple of weeks and my mother was coming over to pick up some soaps (I sell Mish Mash soaps). I ran around the house frantically, cursing the fact that my exam was the next day and I should have been studying. My boss MJ phoned to wish me luck and I had a vent to her. That seemed to get it out of my system and I was fine after that. The house wasn’t TOO bad, and I think Mum is used to my level of housekeeping! Also I recognised that there was very little extra USEFUL preparation I could do on the day before my exam, so I relaxed.
The attitude and advice from the SSK12 tutors was helpful as well. One piece of advice that stuck with me was “nothing is as important as your health”, in other words, don’t stress or burn yourself out. It really put things into perspective, it’s nice to be a high achiever but not at the cost of your health or relationships. They were also a very calming influence over the importance of the exam results – very difficult to fail the unit, the important thing with the exam is that you actually ATTEMPT it.
The other important piece of advice was TIME MANAGEMENT – this was really drummed into us, to ration our time for the exam so we could work on each question. It was very helpful for me during the exam, there were questions I would have liked to have spent more time on, but not at the risk of running out of time to answer the other questions.
My invigilator (exam supervisor) was Jan, the deputy principal at a local primary school. She was great! Was most apologetic when she lead me to a couple of small rooms on either side of the hallway leading to her office, the conference room she originally had in mind was in use when I arrived. The rooms looked fine to me – I would have been happy with a broom closet I think, as long as there was a place for me to sit and a table to write my exam.
The room I chose had a window facing out to one of the playgrounds, and during the kids’ recess a little girl came up to my window. I think I must have jumped out of my seat when I heard this little voice say “Hello, what’s your name?” hee hee! I had to tell the little girl that I was sorry I couldn’t chat with her, but I was very busy doing an exam at that moment. A couple of moments later I heard her from a small distance away shushing her friends “there’s a lady in there doing an exam, we’d better be quiet!”
I finished my exam with minutes to spare and Jan appeared in the doorway. Behind her I could see a little kid in the room opposite, lying with his head on the desk. I asked Jan if he was unwell, she answered in hush tones “he’s been naughty, bullying other children in the playground”. The penny dropped, I was sitting in a detention room!