The Exams Thread (Procrastination ftw!)

Jimmy Iovine

jubella wrote: »

13 and a half hours until my exam and I still don't know a thing


oops.

Still plenty of time left. One of my proudest moments in first year was learning my entire course for one Sociology module in first year in the two hours before it and still coming out with 55%.

I wouldn't recommend it the whole time though

Tesco Massacre

Good luck to everyone doing their exams!

If a question or questions come up that you weren't expecting just take a deep breath and try to compose yourself...don't start crying like my friend Danny when he saw his anthropology exam paper 3 years' ago.

scoll

funky penguin wrote: »

My advice to anyone worrying about the exams would be this:

Stop worrying. Relax. Don't drink coffee (or anything with caffeine). If you can help it, don't smoke before an exam, but that seems to be preferential more than anything.

Don't cram. You'll wreck your brain.

DON'T be that person pouring over notes 10 seconds before you enter an exam hall. Give yourself 60 mins- 30 mins breathing space before an exam starts, you'll be less stressed.

Best of luck everyone. They'll be over before you know it.`

Hahahaha what's funny is that I do the exact opposite for every single one of those things, before every single exam. Never failed one test in my life!

Ms. Koi

I have 2nd English tomorrow at 12.30 and while I still have a lot to do I'm not overly panicking. I'm studying until I'd say 12 tonight, get up at eight and study til 10, study with a friend until 12, then a nice stroll to the exam.

Being calm makes an exam so much easier, if you're all over the place, I find it makes it harder to recall information.

Hope you all get what you want from your exams and sure if not, no biggie!

PrivateEye

Take a deep breathe, put the kettle on, relax.

We'll get there yet folks. Solidarity and all that lark....

funky penguin

scoll wrote: »

Hahahaha what's funny is that I do the exact opposite for every single one of those things, before every single exam. Never failed one test in my life!

If it works it works!

Might not for everyone though, and cramming, even if it is successful for you, is in no way healthy. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Pudsy33

funky penguin wrote: »

and cramming, even if it is successful for you, is in no way healthy. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

i agree. and yet, i still end up cramming....

more importantly why am i up? :pac:

squishykins

@funkypenguin what's on my MT105 exam? Like, exactly :P

funky penguin

Lots of this:

mp3guy

funky penguin wrote: »

If it works it works!

Might not for everyone though, and cramming, even if it is successful for you, is in no way healthy. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Well. If you are cramming, chances are it's for at most 2 weeks. People do a lot less healthy things for longer than cramming. Years of binge drinking each week is probably a lot more destructive mentally and physically than two weeks of cramming?

But, I just pulled that comparison out of nowhere, totally off topic (I figure it was the next best example, given we're talking about University here). I like cramming, but some courses have so much examinable content that it's impossible to actually learn that much information and get it to stay in your brain in the first place.

Also, define "cramming", I've a feeling we don't share the same definition either.

the_observer

funky penguin wrote: »

Lots of this:

My eyes. Oh God, my eyes. What sort of awful misfortune befell that sheet?

funky penguin

mp3guy wrote: »

Well. If you are cramming, chances are it's for at most 2 weeks. People do a lot less healthy things for longer than cramming. Years of binge drinking each week is probably a lot more destructive mentally and physically than two weeks of cramming?

But, I just pulled that comparison out of nowhere, totally off topic (I figure it was the next best example, given we're talking about University here). I like cramming, but some courses have so much examinable content that it's impossible to actually learn that much information and get it to stay in your brain in the first place.

Also, define "cramming", I've a feeling we don't share the same definition either.

Staying up till all hours of the night/morning before an exam.

You're right, some courses are so big that 2 weeks could be considered cramming, but I have no experience of them so I can't comment on them.

Personally, I don't think 2 weeks is cramming if you are disciplined and smart with your studying. One hour a day over two weeks is MILES better than 14 hours in one day. Cramming can get pass marks and all that, if that's what you want. For me, all it gives you is a tired mind and body coupled with a sense of '....hmmmm......what if I studied harder?' come February.

squishykins

Hahahaha "ok, who ate the resin?" Priceless :rolleyes:

mp3guy

funky penguin wrote: »

Staying up till all hours of the night/morning before an exam.

You're right, some courses are so big that 2 weeks could be considered cramming, but I have no experience of them so I can't comment on them.

Personally, I don't think 2 weeks is cramming if you are disciplined and smart with your studying. One hour a day over two weeks is MILES better than 14 hours in one day. Cramming can get pass marks and all that, if that's what you want. For me, all it gives you is a tired mind and body coupled with a sense of '....hmmmm......what if I studied harder?' come February.

Hmm. Well then I don't cram :P I always get a good nights sleep and I usually finish study before 7pm each day.

I find the main issue to be the fact that you could learn something two weeks before an exam easily, but by the time it rolls around you'll have forgotten that part. So it keeps accumulating until the night before the exam when you pretty much have to go over everything. Speaking from experience it takes a lot of grinding over material to get to the stage where you can quiz yourself on the entire contents of a module within an acceptable amount of time the day before an exam.

funky penguin

I find that the day before my exam is my 'grinding' day (hehe), ie the one where I go back over the notes of the previous days/weeks giving that resfresher, that moment of 'ah yeah, I remember now'. It's never really stressful though, it's more of a casual flicking through the notes, recalling the main arguements/points of interest. Again....personal!

I do think that this is a personal thing for everyone though, and depends entirely on an individuals capacity for remembering, as well as the subject. I studied Music and half the modules were theory based, where I literally did no studying because the basic rules of classical harmony were beaten into us from day one along with copious amounts of assignments. This tended to free up a good bit of study space for the more essay based modules. Honestly, I sometimes think I got off lightly with this exam lark!

squishykins

I don't study. I sit looking at my books going "oh ****, oh ****, oh ****!!"

I can never get past that =/

BuroniKiisu

My PS302 notes are very ambitious about how much I can write in an exam, but I'm find it hard to find anything that I can cut without my description / argument becoming flawed.

Edit: Not a cry for help. I just needed to winge a bit. :P

A Changer

About 95% of my study material is found on Moodle, but somehow, tabs keep opening around it and other websites load up with fascinating articles that take a half hour to read!

If I make it through these exams, I'll have to get stuff printed off from now on, because this doesn't work. I never thought I'd miss the teetering piles of books and notes from the Leaving Cert days, but I'm feeling nostalgic for them now! :pac:

Seren_

mp3guy wrote: »

Well. If you are cramming, chances are it's for at most 2 weeks hours.

FYP :pac:

That English exam actually didn't go too badly \o/

A question: How many pages does everyone tend to write in an exam? (I'm talking about essay based exam questions here). My average is usually about 2 and a half pages, and maybe 3 at a push. On the other hand, some of my friends can write like 8-10 pages of an answer Is 3 pages far too little to write?

XxMCRxBabyxX

Your Text Here wrote: »

FYP :pac:

That English exam actually didn't go too badly \o/

A question: How many pages does everyone tend to write in an exam? (I'm talking about essay based exam questions here). My average is usually about 2 and a half pages, and maybe 3 at a push. On the other hand, some of my friends can write like 8-10 pages of an answer Is 3 pages far too little to write?

I'm awful at writing essays in exams!

2 - 3 pages would probably be my average alright!
I stick with the quality not quantity theory (not that my quality is much better! :P)

BuroniKiisu

I usually aim for 3 or 3 1/2 pages, although my handwriting is a bit large.

Definitely quality over quantity (least I hope so anyway!).

Liber8or

Your Text Here wrote: »

FYP :pac:

That English exam actually didn't go too badly \o/

A question: How many pages does everyone tend to write in an exam? (I'm talking about essay based exam questions here). My average is usually about 2 and a half pages, and maybe 3 at a push. On the other hand, some of my friends can write like 8-10 pages of an answer Is 3 pages far too little to write?

EN351? Yeah, wasn't too bad. Personally I wrote 5 and a half pages. Having said that, I would have about 6-9 words per line on a page. Some people write too much, then it becomes waffle (e.g today for me ). I should be ok though, I saw some sort of an argument amidst that mess I vomited on to paper.

My only complaint would be the English department not releasing the Essay results for EN351 before the exam, then we would have known what we were up against!

XxMCRxBabyxX

Liber8or wrote: »

EN351? Yeah, wasn't too bad. Personally I wrote 5 and a half pages. Having said that, I would have about 6-9 words per line on a page. Some people write too much, then it becomes waffle (e.g today for me ). I should be ok though, I saw some sort of an argument amidst that mess I vomited on to paper.

My only complaint would be the English department not releasing the Essay results for EN351 before the exam, then we would have known what we were up against!

Us 2nd year law students were promised the results of three of our assignments would be out before the exams. Still waiting!
Would make life a lot easier if I had an idea of how I did

Duddy

Seren_

Liber8or wrote: »

EN351? Yeah, wasn't too bad. Personally I wrote 5 and a half pages. Having said that, I would have about 6-9 words per line on a page. Some people write too much, then it becomes waffle (e.g today for me ). I should be ok though, I saw some sort of an argument amidst that mess I vomited on to paper.

My only complaint would be the English department not releasing the Essay results for EN351 before the exam, then we would have known what we were up against!

Yep, EN351. Which question did you do? I did the second Adorno one; it was a nice question I thought.

The English department never were too great on getting essays back quickly. I can't really complain about not getting mine back though, seeing as I only handed it in last week

And that must be so annoying MCR Baby! (I've given up on the xs :P). Do you think the lecturers would tell you the marks if you emailed them? Also, I hope you're feeling better now!

Jimmy Iovine

Your Text Here wrote: »

A question: How many pages does everyone tend to write in an exam? (I'm talking about essay based exam questions here). My average is usually about 2 and a half pages, and maybe 3 at a push. On the other hand, some of my friends can write like 8-10 pages of an answer Is 3 pages far too little to write?

I'd take no notice of them people that write that much in an exam. I had a Sociology exam on Friday there and I only wrote 3 pages. I had to restructure my answer cause I hadn't covered the question at all really. There were people that wrote 5 pages or more but I can't see the point. At the end of the day the examiner has 250 scripts to correct and if he sees 5-6 pages then he's more than likely going to be pissed off unless it's of a 1.1 standard.

I think the people that write that much are those that write every single thing that they know on a topic or theorist. "Karl Marx was born in Germany in 185?. He had 7 brothers and liked to read a lot when he was young...." Totally pointless and adds nothing to your answer.

I said this the other day and I believe it. It takes much more skill to think about an answer and condense it into 2 and a half to 3 pages in an exam than writing 5 pages of which 2 are more than likely waffle. Same goes for essays, with people going 500 words over the limit. The limit is there to test how well you can put the relevant information into your words not write as much as you can on everything.

XxMCRxBabyxX

Your Text Here wrote: »

Yep, EN351. Which question did you do? I did the second Adorno one; it was a nice question I thought.

The English department never were too great on getting essays back quickly. I can't really complain about not getting mine back though, seeing as I only handed it in last week

And that must be so annoying MCR Baby! (I've given up on the xs :P). Do you think the lecturers would tell you the marks if you emailed them? Also, I hope you're feeling better now!

Problem is that it wasn't a lecturer who marked our essays but a woman they bring in just for assignments!

Yup finally better! Thank god! Hopefully I won't get worse again!
Now to finish this essay and get studying!

lsuzanne1987

Hey, can anyone tell me what time in the morning the reading room is open from?

Cheers

Michellenman

I've been in there from about 5am onwards at times. You'll most likely be the first there and have to turn the lights on yourself. They also clean up from the previous day the next morning so they'll come hoover around you at about half six or so... They're as quiet as they can be though and will do their best not to disturb you too much. They don't lock the reading room itself as far as I know, so once the arts block is open, you can access it.

Do they come in and ask you to leave at night? I've never been there after 11pm and no one has ever asked me to leave.

Seren_

Jimmy Iovine wrote: »

I'd take no notice of them people that write that much in an exam. I had a Sociology exam on Friday there and I only wrote 3 pages. I had to restructure my answer cause I hadn't covered the question at all really. There were people that wrote 5 pages or more but I can't see the point. At the end of the day the examiner has 250 scripts to correct and if he sees 5-6 pages then he's more than likely going to be pissed off unless it's of a 1.1 standard.

I think the people that write that much are those that write every single thing that they know on a topic or theorist. "Karl Marx was born in Germany in 185?. He had 7 brothers and liked to read a lot when he was young...." Totally pointless and adds nothing to your answer.

I said this the other day and I believe it. It takes much more skill to think about an answer and condense it into 2 and a half to 3 pages in an exam than writing 5 pages of which 2 are more than likely waffle. Same goes for essays, with people going 500 words over the limit. The limit is there to test how well you can put the relevant information into your words not write as much as you can on everything.

Thanks, that makes me feel a little better! And if you had a sociology exam on Friday, I take it you're in 3rd year? Hai classmate!

lsuzanne1987 wrote: »

Hey, can anyone tell me what time in the morning the reading room is open from?

Cheers

Michellenman knows all :P

Maybe ring Security and ask just to make sure? Their number is 01 7083929.