Friday, May 06, 2005

University - exams and revision

Let me get this straight first of all - I don't hate doing exams. I quite like writing, I don't mind actually having to write for 2 hours, and if I know what I'm talking about (in my exam I mean), then having to write a persuasive argument is a challenge I quite enjoy.

There is the argument, of course, that an exam doesn't show anything other than that person having an ability to remember significant bits of information. But at University level, it isn't how much you know so much as what you can do with it, as the lecturers like to drive home. The thing is, though, knowing anything-

We're University students: between, mostly, 19 and 25, in places like Bournemouth, Warwick, Cardiff, Manchester et al. Can we be expected to sit down and read and make notes, furiously, when we're at this age, in these sort of vibrant places, surrounded by thousands of young, intelligent, beautiful people, all of us thinking we'd rather be doing something else - at the pub, beach, football, sleeping?
I'm trying to revise, ha, and managed to do three consecutive afternoons worth earlier this week, but failed today - Bournemouth beach in the sunshine as a default choice of somewhere to go; who wouldn't?! And that's the trouble - sit down in your room and pour through pages and pages of text or hastily scribbled notes which look vaguely like real words, or....well, do anything else? (Like watching the election on TV until 2am).

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