I Forgot About the 'Study' Part of 'Study Abroad'

I returned from Rome with twelve days until my first final exam.  My next exam wasn't until May 4th, and my last one was on May 14th.  I had plenty of time to study for them, and plenty of time to focus on each one.  This time gap was both a blessing and my downfall.  While I had plenty of time to study, I also had plenty of time to procrastinate and think 'there's always tomorrow,' until eventually I had no tomorrows left before the exam.  I studied much more for my exams here than I would have for my exams at home - mostly because for all of my classes, my exams counted for forty percent or more of my entire grade.  At home, I had tests, quizzes, homework, and participation to buffer my grade.  Here, all I had was my essay and my exam.

All of my exams were essay exams, and all of them had three questions for me to answer.  That meant a total of nine essays for my finals.  This terrified me.  Despite how accustomed I was to writing essays for my final exams (being an English major), this was different.  Each essay counted for more than any essay exam I'd written at home in my overall grade.  Many of my fellow American friends were unconcerned - they just had to pass their exams for a pass/fail grade.  My letter grades actually count, and so I was completely and utterly terrified of these exams.  If I failed any of my exams, I would be asked to return in August to re-sit them - and who can afford a second plane trip to Scotland just to sit an exam?  I definitely can't, and I wasn't planning on coming back to take an exam.

So I sat myself down to study.  I attempted to study at the library three times before I gave up that location.  Everybody was studying there, and the mass amount of people was distracting me.  I would have had to get up at 7 AM every morning to get the library just as it opened to get a good spot, and I wasn't that dedicated.  So I locked myself into my room for hours at a time, trying to focus.  My first exam was Celtic Civilization, a largely history based class.  My brain was not wired to memorize historical facts, so this was the most difficult of my exams.  Add in my lack of any previous knowledge of Celtic history, and I felt entirely overwhelmed by the material.  But I kept on it, and eventually I began to feel better.  Nerves still gripped uncomfortably at my heart, but I was determined to do well on these exams.

April 29th arrived, and I found myself at the exam hall - this one was in the front foyer of one of the academic buildings on George Square campus.  They had pushed all the furniture to the side and lined desks and chairs all along the room.  We were told to put our bags at the side of the hall, and to have only our student ID, pens, and a bottle of water at our desk.  I had flashbacks to my AP exams in high school.  Not since then had I been asked to leave my bag at the edge of the room, such a show of mistrust.  I understood completely - there were at least three different exams taking place at the same time in this room, which meant far too many people likely to cheat given the opportunity.  But I still felt intimidated.  It was far different from what I'd become accustomed to at UMW.

The exam was two hours, and I used almost every minute.  By the time it was over, I felt a weight lift off my chest - one down, two to go.  And this one hadn't been as painful as I'd thought it would be.  I felt confident that I'd done well.  And with the first one done, I was far less nervous about the second.  They were not as horrible and terrifying as I'd thought before.

I studied for my Visualising Scotland exam much the same way I'd studied for my Celtic Civilization course - copying my notes, over and over again.  The act of reading the words, hearing them in my head, and writing them down helped immensely in my studies.  May 4th came and went, and with it my second exam.  A different building, but the same layout - a huge room filled with rows and rows of desks and chairs, three different class's exams taking place at the same time.  This had been two hours long, with three essays to write, and easier than my first exam.  I breezed through it and joined my friends afterwards for a celebratory lunch at the student center - two down, one to go (for me - many of my friends had just begun their exams by the time I finished on May 14th).

Next was Scottish Literature - my strength, being an English major.  I'd read the books, I understood the themes - now I just had to do a little extra reading for the exam.  And I was immensely grateful for that extra reading come exam day - I used one of the books I'd read extensively on my exam.  This one was three hours long, with three essays to write, and I finished with half an hour to spare.  This extra time was spent looking over my essays, adding in bits I'd missed or felt needed to be said.  I'd promised myself when I started studying in April that I would not leave an exam early, no matter how quickly I finished writing.  Maybe I would remember something important about one of my answers as I left the exam hall, and then I would be kicking myself even after my grades came in.  So I sat until the examiner called time for the end of the exam, had all our booklets collected, and released us from the hall.

This experience definitely made me appreciate my classes at UMW.  The stress levels are definitely lower back home, so I'm not terribly concerned about being overworked my senior year of college.  If I can handle this semester, I think I can handle two more at UMW.

I was finished - no more exams, no more classes, no more educational responsibilities until my summer class began at UMW.  I was free to do whatever I wanted until May 31st, the day I'd fly home.  And I had plenty to keep me busy.