Exam Writing 101

As I wrote an exam last night it got me thinking about all that I have learned from writing exams over the past 5 years of post-secondary education and 2 years of designation courses.

Disclaimer: I am not an exam writing expert, just someone who has been writing exams for what seems like half of her life.

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1. Don't study too hard

This seems opposite of what you should do right?  I mean study hard, but don't go to your exam and sit outside the room with a piece of paper trying to cram stuff into your brain, because it won't work and it will just stress you out.

2.  Don't ask people who are writing the same exam as you if they have learned this and this and this

That freaks them out and will leave them panicked.  And it's basically just rude.  And maybe I don't care if I get 11% on this exam because I have calculated it and I only need 52% to pass the course at this point.....end rant.

3.  Bring multiple pens and pencils

You don't want to be that person who runs out of ink.  And bring both, even if you think you won't need a pencil, in case you forgot that the multiple choice was using a scantron sheet or something.

4. Relax before the exam

I stop studying a few hours before my exam to just chill out.  You also don't want to be exhausted when writing.  Take a nap that day if you need it.  (Or sleep for an hour and a half yesterday if you are me).  If your exam is in the morning, study hard the night before, but go to bed at a reasonable time and get enough sleep.

5.  Eat

Nobody wants a grumbling stomach mid exam.

6. When it's over, celebrate!

Usually, when I have an exam on a Saturday, I go shopping on my way home.  Because when you are studying for an exam you never feel like you have time for that.  It's nice to do something you enjoy without feeling guilty for not studying.

7. Forget about the exam afterwards

There's nothing you can do to change the results at this point, so don't go over every answer in your head and worry about it.  Easier said than done for some people I'm sure.

 

I could keep going, but I will stop at lucky number 7.  I know that everyone has their own exam writing style and the things that work for them.  So really this is most likely irrelevant to most people, but it is what has worked for me!

A Wand for Me

I am a huge Harry Potter nerd.  I want to go to Harry Potter Land like yesterday.  It's all my brother and I talk about.  So lately we have felt like should probably have our own wands.  We need them.  Pretty sure a wand is a life necessity.  We were talking about whose wands we would want.  Ideally of course I would want the wand to choose me, but if that doesn't happen I'm sure somebody else's wand would suffice.

Harry's Wand

I guess that the obvious choice would be Harry's wand.  That right there is a nice looking wand.  But everybody probably wants Harry's wand, and I don't like to be like everybody else.

Hermione's Wand

Next up is Hermione's wand.  I'm not really a fan of the light colouring, so it's out.

Bellatrix's Wand

Bellatrix had a neat looking wand, but I feel like the curve in it would be hard to handle.  My spells might go in the wrong direction.  And she's a bad guy.





Cedric Diggory's Wand

Now Cedric Diggory's wand would be powerful.  He's a wizard and a vampire.  

Ron's Wand

Ron's wand is nice looking too.  It looks pretty sturdy and I feel like it would do its wand thing well.


Ginny's Wand

In the end though I think I would choose Ginny's wand for a few reasons.  First of all, I'm a ginger so I relate to Ginny.  Also I like the colouring and size of this wand, I feel like it would be the perfect wand for me.

What's that?  You can't actually do magic with these wands?  That's the great thing about Harry Potter, we can always pretend that it's real.  Someday one of these wands will belong to me...I just need to make the trek down to Florida. 


All wand pictures from here.

Farewell, Old Friend

My PVR just died.  I was in the middle of enjoying an episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County when it just stopped.  Then it told me that I had to reformat my PVR, which it wouldn't let me do.  So I unplugged the PVR.  Last time this happened we did that and it started working again, without us actually losing any of the 1,568,578 hours of TV that we had (I mean I had) recorded.  Now it doesn't even read that we have a PVR.

So now I'm blogging, hoping that the PVR is just angry with me and is perhaps sick of playing The Real Housewives and needs a break.  If I go back in half an hour maybe it will work...

Luckily, TV season is basically over, so I'm not losing too much.  We will lose the 6 episodes that we haven't watched of Two and a Half Men and a whole bunch of movies that I had taped from the Movie Channel.  But it could be worse.  That's what I keep telling myself.

On a happier note, last week I purchased a new camera lens.  It's a 35mm F1.8.  It's just beautiful, and she's so petite and cute.  I haven't had a lot of time to play around with it, but so far I'm pretty happy!  I had been wanting the 50mm forever, but was questioning whether I should go for the $250 version of the lens, or buy a better camera so that I could get the $150 version.  Then the other day, I just felt the urge to buy it, and the 35mm was on sale.  It's probably cheaper to spend an extra $100 on the lens as opposed to buying a new camera.  I'm really impressed with the amount of light that it lets in.  No flash required for indoor shots, it's fantastical!

A Thought

You are not behind schedule, and there is nowhere else you should be on your journey. The mind likes to continuously tell us otherwise. It likes to make comparisons to other people; it likes to convince us that we aren't ok, and our life should be fixed in some way or another - but it's not true. You have a choice. You can accept your reality or you can fight it. Either way, you are exactly where you need to be." - Byron Katie.

How often do we feel that our life isn't where it should be.  We think we should be married by a certain age, have kids by a certain age, be making a certain salary.  I've been there.  I was supposed to be married at 24, have kids at 26, 28 and 30.  OK well maybe I'm not that behind yet since I did get married at 24, but my chances of having kids by the time I'm 26 are slim!  But that's a lot of pressure to put on yourself.  You might rush through life an do things that you aren't really prepared for, just because you think that's what's expected of you.

We compare ourselves to our friends.  We think, well so-and-so is married and has a house and a real job, why don't I?  We are disappointed in ourselves when we graduate from university and don't have a job that pays $80,000 immediately.  If everything in life came easily, would that be fun?  What would we learn about ourselves then?  We wouldn't be able to see how strong we really are.

I guess it's just important to try and see the positive in life's situations.  Easier said than done, right?  Know that you will always move past any situation.  You are never in any life stage for long, situations change quickly.  So enjoy what you can out of them while you are there.