Chlosuniblog Exam stress, surprises and a bit of down time
Firstly, oh my goodness it has been ages since I have posted an actual blog! I have kept my linked Instagram (@a_little_insight) updated with images and little bits and pieces to show what I have been doing but, there’s something lovely about sitting down and actually writing for an audience again.
Mind the space between my blogs
My aim of this blog is simply to give my take on uni life and as you can see by the amount of space between blogs – it can all get a little hectic. Sometimes you have free time, sometimes you don’t. This platform is simply something I love to fit in and hopefully give a little insight to uni life – hoping that this may help future students!
As I’m writing this, sat on the train with a little space of free time, I realise how much I have missed writing everything down.
I feel like my blog took a massive lull in exam season, but I’m happy to say I will be working to getting them out more frequently as I am now exam free! Woo!
Exam season – yay or nay?
The one thing about exam season is that everyone is stressing. I spent many hours in the library finishing coursework and editing my writing. The more everyone else got stressed the atmosphere felt quite tense, especially when my flatmates were awaiting their exams and I felt it too. You just have to try and get away from the stress somehow, like going outside or just even listening to some music. Anything apart from dwelling on my grades 24/7 was how I coped.
Not my usual style…
Creative and Professional Writing only has one exam, which means everything else is deadline set briefs – of which thank god I completed them all.
The thing is, sometimes when I was set a task, at points I just wanted to completely change my choice of style and just my pieces overall. Maybe, because there was so much freedom on what I could explore my mind just became a bit indecisive as I tried to reach the higher band of marks.
When you read your own work over and over again for a matter of months whilst trying to spot errors and improve, it can be exhausting. Luckily, I have some great friends on my course who assure me that they were going through the exact same thing. Sometimes your eyes can skim over so many mistakes without you realising it – even really simple errors, because your eyes are just not fresh to the documents.
Funnily enough, it was surprising. I have always been an exam crammer. That’s just the way I worked. Coursework , although it felt more relaxed made me quite complacent of time… let’s just say a couple were very tight for my deadlines (we are only human, right?).
But I surprised myself – I thought my script was very poor, I had hardly any experience in that field, yet I worked on 3 set pieces plus a reflection of the course. The first piece was a comedy sitcom, another an action approached storyline and the last – I honestly don’t know what genre it was to be honest. I just tried to put as much detail in the dialogue and delivery. I wanted it to be put across clearly because I felt I was so average at this one module that I just thought , if I pass that’s great if I don’t I will know where I can go for pointers.
Little bit of faith
But this is the shocking part – I got a 64. A 64!! That is a 2.1, 6 marks off a 1stand in one of the highest bands in my class, despite being so unconfident in my set of skills. It just went to show if you do work hard at something, it does pay off. I was dreading the result feedback but was absolutely astonished to find my feedback “A solid portfolio of work in a commendably wide range of genres and performance / filming styles. Overall, a clear attempt – generally successful – to use a wide range of essential skills and techniques in diverse creative situations”.
