The mystery of exams

We are experiencing something of an Irish heatwave at the moment. Temperatures are a very pleasant 25° C or so for this past week and that is pretty unusual nowadays in Ireland.

American visitors to Ireland are often forwarned by friends and relatives who have been to Ireland that they should bring some sweaters. Well they'll be sweating this week alright because you will have a hard time finding a place with air conditioning in most parts of the country and that makes it feel really hot.

Anyway, Wednesday afternoon was no exception as I arrived to take my part 2 exams. I thought there would be just 4 people taking the exams but there was a whole room full of people. It was hot, really hot, and the windows and doors had been thrown open to let a little air in.

The exam was not too bad at all, and I was able to answer all the questions to a good extent. I managed my time meticulously, that was crucial for the part 1 exams last year so my trusty little clock was plonked on the desk in front of me.

The three hours sailed by. I was struck by a feeling of timelessness about 30 minutes from the end of the exam. The "Flow" state was happening alright as I was thrashing through the questions and writing like crazy. The last paper was made up of about 8 or so small parts, each divided into 6 or 9 minutes or thereabouts it seemed. It was tough trying to answer this paper with so little time to devote to a question part.

Anyway, at 5:15pm the invigilator, what a great word that is, stood up and politely said "ok, you can stop writing now." Last week I was reading a piece on the build-up to the World Cup (the world's second largest sports event after the Olympic Games) about a player in the Italian team who is suffering from a niggling injury. The player, Gianluca Zambrotta, in response to a question from a journalist about whether he was worried that he might not make the tournament said "I am tranquil". That word, tranquil, really stayed with me and that was my stated aim. Well one of them. I wanted to feel tranquil at the end of the exam.

The second aim was to really give it my best shot. In my usual fashion I read and read and then read some more. Put it this way I sure do know a lot about Burberry, the UK "luxury" fashion brand and Aldi, the german retail discounter. I had done the work and was ready to get in there and get it down on paper. Aim number 2 was supplied courtesy of Al in San Diego who provided me with the mantra "kick it's ass".

I can safely say that when 5:15 arrived I had duly kicked it's ass (the exam paper that is) and was definitely tranquil.

There were a few little "paper-autopsies" going on around the room, you know the kind of thing..."so what did you write for question 2... yeah me too.. I just bullsh*tted an answer to that one too..." so I decided to get out of there before someone came up with something smart that I didn't write.

So that's year 2 finished and onto year 3 in a week or two. I took the rest of Wednesday (between 5:15 and 5:30) and the rest of the week off as vacation and I'm currently at home with the sun beating down. Hence the earlier blog time of posting.

Results will be out in about 8 weeks and by then I'll have forgotten most of the feelings I had on the day about how I did or the worth of what I wrote.

Life is good.