It’s curious to know that this is probably the final time that I’ll be faced with the annual January exam spell, during which time spent watching way too much television over Christmas is regretted, coursework results are anxiously anticipated, and the number of slides to memorise seems insurmountable in the amount of time left. But, as James has written before me, everyone in and around campus understands that this is crunch time and is going through the same thing, be you a Fresher to a Fourth Year, so after lots of practice with January exams beforehand, you find that we all have our own way of knuckling down and making it happen!
This time around I’m quite lucky in that the modules I selected for semester one of the Masters year have been mostly assessed through coursework assignments carried out before the Christmas holidays, meaning I’ve only the one exam to take on (and in a topic I quite enjoy!). In fact, at the time of writing, I’ve somehow already finished for the semester, which is an odd feeling!
It’s a vast contrast to my previous years here in which the mathematical, scientific and practical nature of the Software Engineering degree subject matter has involved four or five exams about this time, although this naturally meant I had less by way of coursework beforehand! I guess it demonstrates the way that, across the duration of a University degree programme, you’re slowly but surely eased into the more professional practice of independent working and assessment, preparing yourself for the working world, with your marks gradually coming to rely more and more on your self-motivation and drive - a different sort of challenge altogether, particularly when there’s so much washing-up to be done…!
So although the past seven days have been spent making my way through numerous slideshows, textbooks, online resources and hastily scrawled lecture notes (complete with the occasional doodle here and there!), I’m very much looking forward to being able to relax slightly over the next fortnight or so while the semester winds down.
I will, of course, be chipping away at the remaining workload of the Group Design Project (the deadline for which, as I wrote about last time, continues to draw nearer and nearer!), but thankfully it’ll be without much by way of other distractions – as pretty much everyone else I know will be contending with exams themselves!
It’s therefore one of the best periods of the year for crossing things off ‘To-Do’ lists, a chance which I’m keen to take advantage of as my list has only seemed to grow for me since the start of the year!
As well as working on the project, I’m hoping to further the work I’ve done with regards to careers planning, taking advantage of the time off to get my C.V. in check and updated with the plentiful events of the past year. In doing so, I hope to draw some of the skills from the many theatrical productions and other commitments, both academic and extra-curricular, that I’ve had the fortune to be involved with, which should hopefully give me a competitive edge in future applications.
I’m also hoping to use this time to get a bit of reading done, in keeping with my personal target of reading five books for pleasure (rather than for coursework!) by the end of the year, as well as practising my design skills, planning for a potential future production or two, and, of course, catching up on all that missed television over the past seven days. This includes our appearance as ‘Gone Rogue Productions’, performing a quite unique version of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which was shown as part of BBC Two’s Great British Railway Journeys last week and is still available on iPlayer)!
We took a ‘selfie’ of every audience member playing Miss Prism that we had throughout the run – and this day’s was particularly special!
Having Michael Portillo and the BBC crew come to the (slightly different!) show last August was a truly unforgettable experience!
So after having my head down in the books this week, I’m looking forward to what promises to be a fantastic, enjoyable and hopefully productive fortnight ahead. After all, after just making what I’d like to claim, quite optimistically, as a BBC TV acting debut (albeit a thirty-second venture!), 2015 has already got off to an incredible start in Southampton, and I can’t wait to see what comes next!
And to anyone reading this still with exams to go, good luck – they’ll be over soon... and sorry!
Robin
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