Exams: the bane of my life
Friday, May 26th, 2006- Reading Poetry
- 2 hours long, 2 questions. One was analysing an unseen poem which I prefer since it involves less memorising of poetry like the second question. I felt like I did a good job with this one, even if I made a slightly over the top connection between a line reading “like a star”, which ended up with me making references to astronomy and the nature of space and light years. Without going into too much detail, it did have some relevance to the poem, I promise. The other question was a choice of about 8 which were broad questions about the nature of poetry. I picked one that began with an Emily Dickinson quote (”Tell all the truth, but tell it slant”) which asked about the use of imagery and sound in poems. The stuff I’d learnt seemed vaguely applicable and I was fairly pleased with it.
- Exploring Medieval Literature
- 2 hours long, 2 questions. Not looking forward to this one as the first question was on the medieval religious lyrics and plays we crammed in right at the end of term, which I wasn’t very confident with. I chose to do an analysis of an unseen lyric for the first question, rather than try to write about them from memory, which was a good decision since I really didn’t know much about them. My second question was about the theme of dreams and visions in medieval literature, which I think I did justice to, ending with a sweeping statement about modern society’s lack of faith and cynicism.
- Introduction to Programming - Exam Paper
- This was my elective module in computer programming, and was very simple. It was open notes, so we were allowed to take in our lecture notes and slides. I took printouts of the slides we’d had in the lectures and referred to them about twice, leaving the exam half an hour before the end. I was confident with the paper and found it straightforward and interesting.
Still to come:
- Introduction to Programming - Lab Exam
- This one involves writing a program from scratch rather than commenting on a pre-written one like in the above lab exam. It’s 4 hours long which is good in the sense that I’ll get plenty of time, but bad in the sense that the mock exam took me 1 hour and that was sitting in my room playing music, not in a silent computer lab. I won’t be able to leave early so it’ll be a boring day, but my 12PM on May 31st I’ll be officially finished with the first year of university. It’s gone so fast.
Not much else to say really. We went to look around the house we’ll be moving into in July. It was smaller and (if I’m honest) less nice than we remembered, but I think we’ll make up for that ourselves just by having fun. I’ve been enjoying living in the current flat less and less as the year’s progressed just due to the lack of social atmosphere. I get on with everyone, but we don’t spend time together and there are little annoyances (noise, mess) that don’t make it always fun, so living in my own house with my friends and a communal atmosphere (like, having a TV and couches we can sit on together, or eating meals together) will be really fun. I can’t wait. We also drew lots for the different rooms and I got the one I wanted. It’s on the top floor of the house and has a skylight, and a cool little wardrobe that’s pretty big, not that I need it. I’m looking forward to moving in there and getting everything set up like a real home.
My plans for the summer are like this, very roughly:
- Next Thursday: back to Nottingham for a month to see family and friends.
- At some point in June, have a few band practices, maybe play a few gigs, and definitely finish the recording of our new EP so I can get closure.
- Apparently camping at some point with Joe and Rich if it works out.
- Holiday to Spain with my Dad and sisters, if it’s still going on, in August.
- Move into our house around July 1st and spend the rest of summer getting a job and working off my substantial debt/s.
Speaking of jobs, I finally had an interview (ie, more than just a flat-out rejection or lack of response) with the BPP Law School in Leeds for a job in their library. It sounded ideal; 5-8pm, monday to friday, £7.50 an hour. I’d be making over £100 a week and even though the position was temporary, I’d be able to work off half of my overdraft. I didn’t get the job, but the feedback they gave me suggested they liked my answers. The person who got the job has a degree in Library Studies, so I guess I couldn’t compete on that level. Ah well, hopefully somewhere will decide I’m hireable. Incidentally, they’re opening a Wagamama (best Japanese noodle bar on Earth. Or at least, the UK) in Leeds so I’ve emailed them and asked about work, since I have a good 8 months experience in a similar environment at the Chinese restaurant I worked at.
Last night a group of us went out and went to a fairly cheap and cheerful Chinese buffet restaurant then went on to go bowling. At the restaurant we probably annoyed people by being loud and stupid, culminating in Hayley smuggling a prawn into Lee’s melon and ice cream at my sneaky suggestion. Lee responded by putting the soggy prawn all over her cake, and feeling guilty for being responsible, I helped Lee by adding soy sauce in large quantities to Hayley’s cake and ice cream. The waitress looked less than impressed with our bizarre leftovers.
After the food we went on to the bowling place, where last time I came last in a disastrous match that saw me barely score 50. This time I did much better and came second in two games and a close 4th (out of, er, 4) in the third game. Hayley used to be in a bowling team so she came close to 150 each game, so I was quite pleased for vaguely keeping up. Justice was done with Lee playing as badly as I’d done the previous time, coming last in two of the games. Ahhh, karma.