I cannot tell you what a relief it is to be able to write these words - without worrying about how many marks they are going to get!
Because that is what I have been doing for the past several months.
And until next year, I am never going to have to do that again!!
So yes, two exams are over, and I can begin to breathe once more.
Don't raise you eyebrows; I actually did stop breathing from stupendous horrorification at several points during the past three weeks.
The first paper of my first exam went pretty well... except that I fell asleep during the exam. Embarassing to say the least. :( It was the first paper of the Bible Knowledge O-Level (which by the way is fantastic - I recommend) and it gives you treble the amount of time you need to do the paper. Unless, of course, you write slower than a very (very) elderly snail. Obviously, the time slot has been created for people who write slower than elderly snails.
After painfully trying to write as slow as possible, to thought-process my answers in what felt like a ratio of years, I finished the paper with fifty minutes to go. So I decided to just look and look and look again over my answers to make sure they were as correct as I knew how. The sun was shining, the room was quiet, the inviligator was preoccupied so I didn't feel self-concious, and with my hand propped under my chin, I drifted into a doze. I opened my eyes to find the inviligator staring straight at me. That's when I felt self-concious. I bit my finger and sat it out.
Prior to the second paper I suffered a horrific attack of nerves, as instead of a one hour journey it took us THREE HOURS TO GET THERE, making me ONE HOUR LATE FOR MY EXAM.. it makes me capitalize just thinking about it. A frantic phonecall revealed I would still be allowed to take it, as I was the only candidate sitting it there. I rushed into the exam room and the invigilator smiled benignly and said, 'There's no need to feel stressed...' I draw a veil.
So, on the whole, that one went pretty well.
A week later, I sat my English Language exam.
To cancel out any repeats of the previous horrendous episode, I stayed nearby at a Bed and Breakfast the night before. This disreputable place was a supposedly four star establishment.. and I must say, it was very nice and elegant.. however, we were bonged into a newly built basement room down a flight of newly installed wooden stairs.
The room had no signal, no tv, no wifi connection, and when we tried using the beautifully decorated en suite, the toilet seat slid off its hinge and catapulted its unfortunate occupant onto the floor. Not good.
This was not its only problem however. Oh no.
No, it was after a perfect cooked breakfast the next morning, when we went to the room to collect our things and hurry to the exam... and the door would not open.
The key turned in the lock, but the door refused to budge.
In general I have nothing against doors. They can be prestigious to look at, they can be interesting colours, they usually keep you safe.
But this one I hated quite frantically.
I knocked and banged and kicked.
We called the girl and she knocked and banged and kicked and also pounded.
She called a handyman.
He was unavailable.
Time was ticking... but my heart wasn't ticking. This was one of the points at which I stopped breathing: my heart had died, dropped like a stone, and drowned somewhere around my feet.
I sent up an arrow prayer and put my shoulder to the door... and, somehow... it opened!!
God is so good, that there was amazingly no traffic on the way to the exam and I made it with fifteen minutes to spare!!
For my last paper, I stayed in a B & B again, but this was a different one, just a little further down the road. The landlady was a lovely motherly woman who told us that the rush hour traffic was unbelievable and that she would serve breakfast at seven thirty to give me plenty of time.
I went to bed happy.
The next morning, we got up slightly late but in good time, and ordered breakfast. The breakfast took a quarter of an hour arriving, we dashed for the car and onto the road... and found the traffic at a standstill... with twenty minutes till the exam was due to begin.
Three minutes to go, and I got there.
So all in all, taking those two exams was a crazy, terrifying but also enjoyable and amazing experience.
I'm just wondering.... how am I going to cope, taking FIVE of them next year?!
