Again one more time.

 

I survived the stress of Monday’s essay.  I re-read the paper on Tuesday and immediately sent an email to my lecturer apologising for the quality of the document.  It should pass, but I was expecting better of myself.

 

Wednesday was a 3 hour exam on general, organic and biological chemistry.  Being a physics major and therefore a reasonably competent mathematician, I wasn’t freaking out too much about this one.  And 1 hour and 20 minutes after hearing uttered the fateful word “begin”, I walked away with a grin. 

 

I bumped into the chemistry lecturer on the way back to the car park.  The conversation went like this: “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be in the middle of my exam at the moment?” 

“No, 400 students are in the middle of it.  I’m finished.” 

“Come with me.”

 

So we walked back to the auditorium.  He went inside and returned a couple of minutes later with my paper.  He then read through the entire document in front of me with a frown.  “86 out of 90 on the multiple choice, and I’d say about 78 out of 90 for the long answer stuff.”  I dutifully acknowledged my errors by telling him which questions were wrong, thus identifying 17 of the 19 marks I missed. 

 

It’s still 4 weeks until the semester results are published but from that interaction I know that chemistry will be graded a high distinction.  That’s a relief, because the other 3 subjects will all be passes or credits at best.  Before it’s all officially over I’ve got another 2000 words due tomorrow and a practical laboratory exam for Cell Biology on Tuesday.  So it’s another all-nighter to try and find 2000 semi-coherent words and then the weekend nose-in-books before the holiday begins. 

 

I’m going to write this semester off as a learning experience (double meanings abound).  To help avoid the same last minute messes and stresses, I’ve written myself some notes about the nasty emotions I’ve felt when anxiety has been at its peak.  Hopefully reading these a couple of weeks before things fall due will inspire me to act early to avoid the same stresses being repeated.

 

On a lighter note…

 

If you’re driving to work and you see this in the sky, turn around and go home.