Best and worst exam experiences

Best. One of my courses came with a 600+ page recommended text and was usually done over a period of 5 months/ 24 class sessions averaging 3 hours each. Exams were done in June and December. The paper was part of UK recognised Accounting degree.

With 3 weeks to go, I knew practically nothing, since I slacked off studies...seriously. Call it fatigue, burnout, whatever, I just needed a break. I was planning to just put it aside and do it 6 months later. But a week later, I picked up a companion text which published past paper questions, answers and mock exams...about 120 in all. I gambled on 6 topics that I considered *hot topics* and did 3-4 questions each over the remaining 2 weeks, up to the morning of the exam where I memorised some ratio formulaes. Meaning all of my notes could fit on less than 20 double-sided notebook size pages.

I went to the exam expecting to be torn a third hole in that region where I have two...and to my surprise, 3 of my hot topics came, worth 75 marks. I squeezed out 52 marks and passed. For the remaining two questions, I just wrote a line or two of complete waffle. That's because all questions were compulsory and had to be answered, so I satisfied that requirement even if I wrote rubbish.

Worst. An exam on UK Tax - Income Tax, Corporation Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Group Tax and VAT....had to do it 3 times....with 1 of my attempts being a failure by a margin of 2 marks. My colleague did it and got 91 and came first in the country.

Needless to say, I hate Taxation, but it comes with the course and is unavoidable...

Mrs Aural Sects wrote:

I gambled on 6 topics that I considered *hot topics* and did 3-4 questions each over the remaining 2 weeks, up to the morning of the exam where I memorised some ratio formulaes. Meaning all of my notes could fit on less than 20 double-sided notebook size pages.

I went to the exam expecting to be torn a third hole in that region where I have two...and to my surprise, 3 of my hot topics came, worth 75 marks.

It was always nice when a gamble like that paid off.

Not really much of an exam person. I hate the stress, where some I've met seem to get on with it much better than me. I always did decently well in them at school, but I don't think I've ever had an exam where everything just fell into place. I got full marks in both of my AS History exams, but even there I had no idea if I would even manage a borderline A until the day the marks came out - I guess in retrospect that was the best, but I was still stressed out during the exam and after it.

The worst was undoubtedly all three of my AS Maths exams though. I never really enjoyed Maths in secondary school but managed an A at GCSE, so took it at AS because I didn't know what else I wanted. Really coasted through it, hardly paid attention in class, and didn't revise much for the exam. The technique got me an A at GCSE, but it was a big mistake at AS. It's a horrible feeling when you enter an exam and can't even understand the questions, let alone have a punt at them. I ended up retaking them, along with having my first sitting of my three A2 exams the year later though, and left two marks away from an A*. So I guess my worst was the initial AS exams, and my best experience was the A2 exams and resits, after I had begun paying attention, putting in the work, and actually started enjoying Mathematics. Mathematics exams are nice too because the mark schemes are quite binary, and some Maths lover always puts one on the internet the day after the exam so you can check. If I had had that experience a couple of years earlier, getting a firm kick in the behind and being coaxed into actually paying attention in Maths class, I do think I'd be studying Mathematics or Economics at university instead of History.

I once got a prostate examination from a lovely Japanese doctress that turned out much to the good.

Best: There was this gender history course I had skipped lectures on for most of the year and had no time to prepare for the final exam. So I just had handed in a blank copy, expecting to fail the course and have to retake it in the Summer. Only we had an earlier exam worth 20% of the total credit in January, one that I had failed as well (getting 9/20). Imagine my surprise when the results were put up and I had gotten a total grade of 18 out of 20. I never figured out what had happened, but my theory has always been that they messed up their decimals. The correct grade was probably supposed to be 1.8.

If we talk the actual experience of doing the blasted things there are two examples that spring to mind from university.

One from my second year was when we're all going at it in this gym hall, scribbling away and somebody's phone kicks off in their bag at the back. The ringtone was some rap song, all I remember is hearing "Fucking, fucker...motherfucker" or something over and over. When it went silent, some sniggered and a tutor says, "Who's phone?"

No one answered, shamed no doubt.

Worst experience was for our War at Sea malarkey in the third year. If it wasn't bad enough the bounder teaching it was useless when we got into the room we were told to be silent and the usual but he and this other lecturer were whispering loudly and on top of this the other lecturer eats this packet of crisps loudly whilst flicking the pages of his Telegraph.

Overall, the results were a middle of the road and fairly atypical of my university life.

first time I took the SAT, and I was prepared for it, had a tutor show me all the tricks and techniques to get ready for it months before the test;

taking the full sample test and scoring high, etc

when I got to the test on test day, I blanked out and scored a 570 which is BAD!

Dad almost killed me!!

Hilly wrote:

One from my second year was when we're all going at it in this gym hall, scribbling away and somebody's phone kicks off in their bag at the back. The ringtone was some rap song, all I remember is hearing "Fucking, fucker...motherfucker" or something over and over. When it went silent, some sniggered and a tutor says, "Who's phone?"

Over here, there was a deafening silence in the exam hall...until someone let out the loudest, most amplified belch I ever heard. Whole examination hall burst into laughter...including the invigilators. I saw who did it...he was one of the first to leave and most likely flunked the paper.

My alarm clock was wrong. Somehow it got set back. Not sure if I did it late at night when I was setting it or what... my exam was at 8 am. I woke up. I was surprised I was up before the alarm. That never happens. But there it is. My clock says 7:25. Turn on my cell phone. It says 8:25. I tell myself not to panic. Run over to my roommates side of the room and look at his clock. 8:25. Thrown on clothes and haul ass out the door.

The exam was being held halfway across camps. I had to run. Got there by about 8:40. Exam was over at 8:50. Finished it. A+. Like a boss.

Good work Moore! :shock:

I once sat in an exam hall for two hours, and did absolutely nothing. I read over the paper - twice - and didn't understand a word of it. When the two hours were up, I hadn't written a word.











Fortunately, I was supervising the exam, not taking it.

FieldsMan wrote:

Good work Moore! :shock:

Haha. To be fair, it was a very easy Roman history class. I had taken a bunch of them prior to this one and the material was pretty familiar. The exam itself was mostly multiple choice and I think one short answer question. So it was really easy. I like leaving that part out of the story because it's a lot more badass having me ace an exam in ten minutes without pointing out it was a blowoff class.

Best - English Language 'O' Level (in which I really wasn't sure how I'd done) - A grade,

Worst - English Literature 'O' Level (in which I thought I'd done pretty well) - E grade.

Had an exam about Law in History and thought I had really nailed it. Afterwards I compared notes with my fellow students and got very worried. Really dragged my heels when they released the grades, everybody already knew and I acted really surprised and told them I would go and watch later when the tutor told them that I should not worry so much since I was the only one who had scored a 10 (comparable to a A). It did feel very good.

Another time I could not find the venue where the exams where untill 29 minutes into the exam, and had 90 minutes left to get it done. Time flew by while I concentrated on the questions I knew beyond a doubt and ignored the rest. Passed the test barely, but did.

Had my first uni exams today. Six hours of hardcore essay writing and my hand is utterly done in. Got another three hours to do tomorrow too. Don't think my hand has ever experienced pain like this before. One of my fingers looked very badly bruised when I glanced it during the exam, but you have to fight through that.

Was fun having invigilators dressed in suits and gowns though. Classed the place up.