Maybe I Should Take Up Yoga

Do you hear the sounds of teeth gnashing? That’s me, preparing for exams. I seriously hate my life for the two weeks of exams every semester. How on earth am I supposed to prepare for this crap?? How? Tell me! How??

One small (but very heavy) stone was lifted from my shoulders, though. I got Professor Marian’s exam moved so that I no longer have two exams on the same day with no break in between. And the bonus is that the make-up exam will be held in the second half of the second week, which spreads the burden out a little more evenly for me, thank God.

I am, however, seriously freaked out about Professor Marian’s exam. She put last year’s exam on reserve and it was the epitome of NOT HELPFUL. In fact, it should be framed and hung in some sort of hall of fame for Unhelpful Study Aids. The exam was one question (to be written about for a three hour exam!) and was about five lines long. It basically said “What is the difference between civil law systems and common law systems?”. It made me want to hunt her down and punch her face in.

I am vacillating between extreme panic and extreme apathy with Comrade Verne’s exam (and someday, when the pain of being a student in one of his classes for two very long semesters worth of propaganda and self-aggrandization has faded, I will blog about him). I got a decent/ pretty good grade in his class last year, but I also had a very large amount of supplemental study material available to me, which does not exist for the subject I am about to be tested on.

Professor Feedback’s material is fairly straightforward and I’m only a little worried about the fact that it has to be memorized. I’ll be spending 1-2 hours every day the next four days just reading and rereading the list of rules and applications. And I will promply forget all but the most basic concepts within 12 hours of finishing the exam, just like I did after the class he taught last year.

Professor MacPherson’s exam is not high on my list of priorities. I believe I already mentioned the fact that he announced that he’s an easy grader and probably won’t give many grades below a B. I’ve got a decent study aid to work from and he’s a notoriously lazy exam writer, so it should work out OK. I’ll gladly take a B.

Then we have the one exam about which I am nervous. I’ve not written about the professor except in passing yet. I like her a lot and I’ll take another course with her next semester. But damn, she’s tough. And she’s a notoriously difficult exam writer. It’s a take home exam for which I have basically two days. I’ll pick it up on Friday at 5 pm and must return it Monday by 9 am. And I hear tell that you will need every single minute of the time allotted. It’s very complicated material in some ways (lots of grey areas) and she’s a stickler for the details. But I think I’ll be OK with it. I think a B is a realistic expectation for this class, maybe even a B+ if I do well.

And of course, Swedish, but I don’t get credit for it, so it doesn’t matter (except for my pride) what grade I get. Plus I am far and away the best student in the course (and modest, too!), so whatever, right?