So I’ve finished the first of my four finals, and I have to say, my first final at the University of Edinburgh was…ROUGH. As I explained in my last blog, my international law final exam was worth 70% of my course mark and was testing me over an entire year’s worth of material. I was given 6 essay questions and needed to answer 4 of them in 3 hours. It was brutal!
I was so stressed Sunday night that I only was able to sleep a few hours—trying to keep UN resolutions, Internal Court of Justice cases and Internal Law Commission Articles in my head wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve had to do in my academic career. I’ve never had to take a test like this before, and by the end of it, I was so worn out that I came home and actually slept for 16 and a half hours straight.
Taking the exam itself seemed like something out of a movie. My exam was held in McEwan Hall, which looks like this:
I was so distracted by how pretty the building was, that I probably spent the first ten minutes of my exam staring at the columns, the paintings, and the ceilings. McEwan Hall is where the graduation services are held--it seats 2000 people, quite a different set-up than Reed Arena, that sits 12,500 people for our commencement ceremonies at Texas A&M University. As far as the actual test taking process went, it was much like any other final, except that there were at least 300, maybe 400 students taking a test at once. Half the room was taking the International Law exam, and the other half was taking (I think) a chemistry exam of some sort. I filled up around fifteen page, maybe even twenty, of that blue book, and I have to tell you, I’m pretty thrilled to be done with the whole thing.
Now just three more to go. I don’t have any tests the rest of this week, just one next Friday (May 8), then one May 15 and one on May 16—then I am done with my undergraduate career! It seems like it’s gone by so quickly. Just need to study two more history classes and one more business class, and I get a three month break before postgraduate work. Phew. Luckily, my other three finals won’t be quite as intense. My two history finals are only worth 50% of my grade, and my business final is two, not three, hours long.
The tricky part will be figuring out how to get all of this credit to apply back to A&M in time to graduate this summer without missing any of the necessary deadlines. Although all my courses will be done as of May 16, I won’t be able to graduate until August because of the time it takes to transfer credit back to A&M. It’s kind of sad that I’m missing graduating with all of my friends, but I honestly am more worried about getting through the end of the semester than worrying about graduation at this point. Finals have never been more stressful, only because I’ve never been this close to being done!
So for all you class of 2009 seniors back home getting ready for your last round of finals, I feel your pain, and wish you the best of luck!
