E = Exams

As Christmas approaches that dreaded E word keeps cropping up in the majority of conversations – exams. They have a dramatic effect on people, even when they are only mocks in Reporting, Law, and Public Affairs.

In the build up you get the time-honoured enquiry of “How much revision have you done?” just to reassure themselves that they are working harder than you. Only you know if you feel strong in that subject or not.

Exams affect the way we behave as the pressure begins to mount. People decide to stay at home and not do anything but revision until after the exams. It is good to have other activities to take your mind off them, be it England’s successful battle to save the first Ashes test in Brisbane or see what some Z-List celeb is doing on some jungle set Down Under.

You take the exam and then afterwards you will be asked the classic question, “How did it go?” about 15-20 times. To which I’ll probably reply “Could have been better, could have been worse!” Come to think of it, that might be because I’m absolutely rubbish at calling how an exam went.

Every year at school we were told to make sure you know when your exams are, telling stories of people who thought their exam was in the afternoon when it was in the morning, thereby making a mug of themselves.

I will admit to making a similar mistake before my last A-Level exam. Luckily, for me, it was the other way round. I didn’t want to go home to return a couple of hours later and as it was an English exam not much revision could be done while waiting for 2pm to come round. So during the five hour wait for it to start I managed to “persuade” Ladbrokes to sponsor the post-exam celebrations. Thank you to them. Any chance of a repeat in a couple of weeks?

Tom Moore