First paper over!

I used to like exams because they meant relatively little work (compared to writing essays).

Now I hate exams because it's too little work and too much of a disaster. (I know it's personal choice. Let me whine.)

I read 3 articles from 3 chapters about 3 different countries.

I had 10 chapters in this course. Each chapter consists of about 7 compulsory readings, including books. This means that if I had studied the whole module, I'd have 70 readings, out of which I read 3.

Of course no one studies the whole module for exams. Let's do it this way:

I have to answer 2 questions during the exam. I know that each question will mean I need to refer to 2 countries. That makes a minimum of 2 countries (because I can repeat the countries for the 2 questions) and a maximum of 4 countries.

Of the 10 chapters I have to study, 6 of them are country studies. This means that 4 of them are theoretical chapters.

I know that each question will make reference to at least one theoretical concept in any one of these 4 theoretical chapters.

Assuming I'm an average risk-taker who wants to make sure she can do at least 2 questions, I'd spot about 3 countries and half the theory chapters. That makes 5x7 = 35 readings.

I read 3 out of 35 readings. I'm taking about 11 times more risk than the average risk-taker.

This is what happened during the exam:

I referred to 4 countries altogether, dregging my memory for a handful of facts (relevant or not, I don't know) about each. Out of these 4 countries, I didn't study 1 of them at all. I didn't study 2 countries in relation to the question I was answering. Therefore, really, I could only analyse one country properly - and then, given I only read 1 article about that country, I don't think 'properly' is the appropriate term - which is equal to slightly less than half a question, which is equal to slightly less than 12.5% of my grade.

I didn't know any theory.

(oh shit, I just remembered I forgot to define my terms.)

Too little work done for exams. I hate exams. My stress threshold is too high until too late. At least the essays make me stay up all night.

I apologise to all who had to bear with my whining on MSN.

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In other news, LSB has become extraordinarily corny, possibly because of thesis fever. (those of you who know how corny he usually is should be properly shocked now.)