Waitng game

Copy from my old blog.

The wait for exam results is horrible. 2 weeks left and it feels like forever. I have a feeling I am resitting one of them which is disappointing really considering I new the subject. I just forget it in the exam and then remembered it when I came out. Simple things threw me in that exam like not realising that s+1 was the same as 1+s. I mean hoe silly is that. The lecturer is going to think I am a complete idiot. I feel so stupid. But I was talking to a tutor about it and he suggested it was dyslexia related something to do with a processing disorder thing. I wasn't sure what he was on about but basically he said it is common to not see the link between things that you do now and that your memory could figure it out in 1 minute time or an hour time or never. Just my luck it waited till I got out of the exam. If I resit I hope the same doesn't happen again. In the other exams I think I did pretty bad on one and ok on another and pretty well on another one. Basically the marks will not reflect what I now and will not reflect the effort I put in. Story of my life. On the good side I found out unofficially that my dissertation mark was good don't no exactly what it is yet though.

I found out 2 weeks later that I had past my exams with a first.

Made my day

A friend was waiting to go do her viva presentation and found this outside the room. It is a poster I made for a presentation I did in December. She found it hanging on the wall of fame outside the room. Look it even had its own display cabinet so nobody will be drawing beards and specs on my poster. That made my day because things like this don't happen to me.

Don't now what to do

It feels really funny I have now finished my degree well apart from waiting for results and then possibly resits. It feels funny to have some spare time. I just don't now what to do with it. I was having some vivaldi therapy you can't beat the classics aaaahhhh. So I had my viva presentation earlier today and it went really well. This was the final piece of work for my dissertation module. I wish every subject had a presentation at the end instead of am exam because I would get great marks for the end of year tests. Oh well maybe one day alternative exam methods will come in and we might get to choose how we sit the exams. For me oral exams would be great. Ok so back to my presentation. I was told it was exactly what a professional engineer would give. Good slides. Well balanced content. Nothing mising. Spot on timing. Good technical detail. It was great to hear the feedback straight away. I thought we might not get any. Ok I will leave on a good note.

Nearly done

I had my last exam yesterday and I think it went ok. I will not exactly be a fantastic mark and definitely not the mark I deserve but I think it will pass. I had a reader who was good at reading and who asked if his reading speed was ok. I did ask him to speed up because its hard work remembering what has been said when the pace of the reading is so slow. I thought it wasn't going to get off to a great start because the guy didn't seem to be listening to me when I was showing him what to read and nor read but I think I got my point over eventually. I was a bit intimidated though that he wanted to sit right next to me. I don't no if its a dyslexia thing or if its just me but the thought of having somebody watch me as I rite nearly makes me have a panic attack - well not quite but it does make me go all sweaty and panic a bit. I told him I wouldn't need him for a while and he could just go and sit over on the other side of the room until I cold him. I think he thought I was a bit to direct but it had to be done. Anyway that is the last of the exams until the resits of which I think I will be sitting one of them. I also have a presentation to on Friday about my final year project. It will not be much fun but it beats exams. I usually do ok with presentations because I memorise it completely and don't need to rely on prompt cards - well there is no point since I could never read them fast enough. The result is usually a presentation which looks a bit more professional. I had a funny thing happen today at uni. Ok it wasn't funny ha ha but it left me feeling a bit blah. One of the administrators at uni was on about supervising the special needs exams like mine - I don't no why but that phrase special needs just kind of hit a nerve and make me feel odd. I don't no what better phrase there wood be but that just felt odd.This picture below was posted on another website but I thought it was worthy of a mention here I thought it was funny but maybe you wood have to be me to find it funny.

Horrible exam

Not much to say todays exam was a disaster. I forgot the things I new and the questions made no sense. Even with the reader I couldn't figure out what I was being asked. Its worrying though because this is a subject I am good at. If I can do so badly with a subject I am good at then just how bad can I do with a subject I am not good at. On Monday I have a exam for a subject I am not good at. Needless to say I am very worried.

2 down

I had my second exam today a maths based subject and alot harder than I had expected. Ok so here is how it went.I got to the exam room a few minutes early again so that I could familiarise myself with the reader and invigilator. The invigilator I thought was going to be really stuffy and intimidating but he came over and shook my hand and introduced himself and seemed really nice. The reader was also really friendly and I could tell she had alot of experience. I used an exam paper that I had been using for revision to point out what I would and wouldn't need her to read. I asked her to read all the wordy bits and to just not bother with the mathematical symbols and formulas if I couldn't manage even them there would be no hope for me passing the exam! We agreed that she would read through the entire section A of the paper and that I would choose the first question and then take it from there. So with the invigilator sat directly in front and watching my every move and with the reader sat right behind burning holes into the back of my head we started the exam 5 minutes early.About an hour into the exam one of the disability administrators came in to see that everything was going ok and had the nerve to ask me if I was having fun. Oh yes this is what I do for fun. There wasn't actually to much for the reader to read from the exam paper with it being quite a maths based module. At the end of the exam I asked her to read the question again and then my answer to it so I could see if I answered the right thing. I did spot a couple of mistakes where my answer didn't seem to say what I thought it had and I had enough time to correct those mistakes before my extra time ran out.So far the reader system seems to be working really well for me. It isn't as intimidating as I thought actually it has been LESS intimidating than being in a big exam hall. Another bonus is that I don't get distracted by everything else going on in the exam room. I wish I had used a reader in my previous years exams now. I have another exam on Wednesday nest week wish me luck.

First exam done

I had my first exam with my new system this morning. I feel like it went ok which makes me wonder if I missed something. I felt really nervous as I went in the exam room. Not because I felt unprepared or anything because I did loads of work for the exam but more because it did feel instantly intimidating as soon as I walked in there. The invigilator had all her stuff out on the desk next to my place setting and the reader had all his out on the other side next to me - so that would be it. 4 hours spent sandwiched between 2 people. I don't think so! The invigilator introduced herself and thankfully asked me where I would like to sit so I explained that I didn't mind really but would find it a bit intimidating if she was actually SHARING my desk. In the end she opted to sit behind me which was quite a nice arrangement as it reduced the intimidation a bit. I turned up to the exam a bit early so that I could talk to the reader and find out how they normally operate this being my first time to use a reader and was told that it was his first time as well. I felt a bit worried then that he might not be so good but he was actually very good for a first timer. He ended up sitting behind me with the invigilator and I just called him over when I needed him. It was quite a wordy exam so he came in handy. I knew I would never last the 3hour 45 minute exam without a loo break though so at half time I asked to go it was a welcome 2 minute break where I could stretch my legs a bit at least. I wasn't so keen that she came into the loos with me. I hate that peeing in public thing but I understand why she needed to do it. I think the same woman is doing one of my exams next week as well it would be good if I could have the same reader since I now got used to him but he says he isn't doing any more of mine. About 3 hours into the exam I noticed a mistake on the exam paper and then got really confused trying to figure out what to do. The invigilator ended up timing out the exam so she could go and find my tutor to ask him what I should do. All in all I think the system worked pretty well - and the reader definitely helped me to answer the question right.