first exam is done

[baratron]

Have successfully achieved Photochemistry and Concerted Reactions. In a fine example of Why It's A Good Idea To Do Past Papers, virtually every question on the paper was either something I'd seen before, or very closely related to something I'd seen before (e.g. the reaction of singlet oxygen with cyclopenta-1,3-diene is not going to be vastly different from that of cyclohexa-1,3-diene). And the two reactions that weren't on previous papers were both straight out of the notes. So I've answered 2 2/3 of 3 questions almost perfectly, and only made up the answer to 1/3 question. Hooray.

Had a huge amount of stress getting to the exam, though. I got to Waterloo and realised I couldn't find my Travelcard which I needed to operate the barrier to get out of the station. My Travelcard lives in a wallet with my student card, which I needed to sit the exam. (I don't know what happens if you don't have your student card for some reason.) I turned out all my pockets and went through all of the compartments of my bag, and was finally going to give up and pay the £20 Penalty Fare just so I could get out to my exam - but somehow then I saw that the wallet had fallen down a gap between the side of the seat and the side of the carriage. So that was lucky. Still, I threw myself into a taxi and only got to the exam room a minute before the exam was due to start. STRESS! Saw Steve from the Disability Office though, and he was fluffy at me, which helped with the destressing.

I'm very pleased with the provision made for disabled students so far. I sat in a normal classroom with only two other students (who I didn't know), so it wasn't as stressful as being in a big room with everyone. I had a normal table for two students to myself, and an orthopaedic chair, and enough room to move around and stretch without disturbing anyone else. Also they let us go to the toilet, as long as it was at least half an hour before the exam started and not later than fifteen minutes before it ended. And I took Amber (my wolfy) and dino into the exam and no one said I couldn't, so I had them to cuddle when I was too stressed. Yay.

Comments

[mjl]

Yay :)

And wasn't that one of the hard ones? Well I hope the rest of them go as well as that one then (despite the fact that some of them are morning ones)

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Yes. That and Biological Chemistry II are the horrors (no coursework!), and it was surprisingly unhorrific.

Of course, now I'm worrying that everyone will have done fantastically, so my ~80% won't mean anything...

[ludy]

Yay! for helpful stuffys and other good things

[lovingboth]

Yay!

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Sounds to me like you rock, despite near wallet doom.

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

You made it, despite escaping wallets that were unable to thwart your backup plans. Congratulations on all counts!