Revision vs Procrastination

Revision is by far the worst thing about exam period.

I don’t actually mind the exams themselves because once I’m in there, it’s a case of writing what I do know and hoping for the best. I’m usually pretty good at convincing myself that there’s nothing wrong with exams and that they are easy – a complete and utter lie, to be honest. They’re not easy because they’re not supposed to be easy. I have a complicated history with exams. I don’t believe they’re necessary or even helpful in gauging how much somebody has picked up. Nobody does their best work under timed conditions and when else in life are you going to have to do something similar? However, I do like doing them once I start. It’s just like writing an essay. Yes, that does mean I am usually left to complete my essays and coursework in about a two hour period.

The worst thing is revision. I never know quite what to study in preparation and I’m one of those people who, if I revise too much, end up completely brain dead in the exam hall with no idea whatsoever where I’m supposed to go from there. I’ve just had an exam yesterday. When did I start revising? Well, I had revision scheduled for Friday afternoon, Sunday and Monday. I actually started revising on Monday. I do not recommend this at all. Once I got into the exam it took me a while to hit my stride but most of me wished I’d had a little bit longer to go over my notes. Hopefully I’ll be able to schedule some revision in for my exam tomorrow and the one from Friday. Who knows. I’ve never been very good at balancing revision and exams.

Oh well. Whatever will be, will be, I guess. I’m going to try and do my best but with the knowledge that I can’t take resists due to conflicts with my clearing work, I’m going to have to try my hardest to get a good grade and not fail.

Of course, the whole point of my failure to revise comes from my love of procrastination. I think we’ve all been there at some point. Some of the ways I distract myself: Google becomes my best friend. I once used Google maps to determine how I was supposed to go from Russia to Japan and ended up with a ridiculous answer:

Yes, these are things I do. I also talk to my phone a lot. Now, something you should know about me is that my nickname with my friends is Siri. It has been this way for years and when the iPhone 4s was released, I was amused to learn that they had named their AI interface after me. It was hilarious to my friends and continued to be for me as well because the name I programmed into the phone was Siri. So this is the sort of thing that happens when I talk to Siri:

That probably didn’t amuse you but it did me, so.

The other thing I do to distract myself from exams is to indulge in a little retail therapy. Not just any retail therapy but SHOES. I have a thing about custom shoes at the moment. I’m a big fan of Chuck Taylors because they are amazing shoes and so comfortable. I walked into Office in London and, if you read the previous entries, you would know I have a thing about comics. WELL. When I walked into Office, these stood out at me:

I have batman themed chucks! They were the greatest purchase of the year (so far). That does include my iPad but only because the shoes are new – I’m sure given time, I’ll purchase something just as awesome. For now...

If only they had magical properties... maybe I’ll wear them into the exam and they’ll bring me luck via happiness....

Of UFOs and Unbirthday Presents!

UFOs! They are everywhere. Unless, of course, they are actually blimps but you spend half your Wednesday night convinced it’s a UFO and then your supervisor kindly informs you that you are wrong. Seriously. Last Wednesday it was my first attempt at manning the chat here at the Enquiry Unit. There were two of us working that night alongside my supervisor S. N and I were sharing stories and we were wrapped up in her photos of which she had two – UFOs! They were legitimate UFO photos and we were convinced there was evidence right in front of us of an alien invasion! We were doomed! Either because they would fly back and attack us or merely because they would find us far too boring and we would never leave this planet. Either way, we were so excited about this UFO sighting until S peered over N’s shoulder and calmly stated, “That’s a blimp.”

(Thank you to N for use of her wonderful pictures!)

We were devastated. Our dreams of selling the photos and getting rich from all the UFO hysteria that would come from this were dashed without mercy. Thankfully we could laugh about it. It was kind of hilarious. I still maintain we knew all along and just got swept up in the moment of having a potential UFO sighting. Say what you like. We knew.

We did.

Swiftly moving on from UFOs lest I cry horribly for the next half an hour and never watch another UFO movie ever again; Unbirthday presents!

(picture courtesy of my copy of Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland)

You may remember from a previous blog that the best friend and I constantly engage in “competitions” to outdo each other re: holidays and birthdays. That doesn’t start and end with merely birthdays. We also have a tendency to celebrate ‘unbirthdays’ made famous by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Instead of gifting each other Easter eggs? We find something else to gift instead. If one of us passed an exam or did exceptionally well in our University work, we buy each other presents! For her “YOU PASSED YEAR TWO YAY” present last year, I bought her a Louis Vuitton bag. This is how much I love my best friend.

If it wasn’t obvious from previous entries, I am the biggest geek on the planet. My geek out currently has been comics, revived from my excitement over the Avengers Assemble movie and the new Spider-man reboot. (Spider-man is my favourite comic ever in the world, seriously). For my “You got two firsts for your essays!” reward, the best friend bought me some comics that I have a little bit of a love for right now.

(Teen Titans and Superboy in case anyone is interested. You’re probably not but I don’t care. I will love and read them anyway.)

(Scanned this picture from my own copy of Teen Titans, which is all DC’s!)

So I now need to come up with something cool to gift her for completing her third year. She’s just written her dissertation. She does Philosophy which I am absolutely not interested in whatsoever but as part of my best friend duties, I promised to look over and read it for her.

It was so hard to do when a) I understood nothing, b) I dislike Philosophy and c) there were much more interesting things I would rather be doing. I powered through regardless and I was actually so impressed and proud. I now just have to imagine writing my own one of those (ha!) which seems like a much too daunting task right now!

This has been a short entry this week but I promise to bring you a new blog soon!

Happy unbirthdays to all of you (and watch out for those UFOs!)