h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The week after next (next week is half term, thankfully) I will have a day with four - yes, four - exams in a row (two physics, then two German). There is no break between the first and second or between the third and fourth. Between the second and third they keep you in a particular room where you can't talk to anyone and potentially reveal what questions have been asked and how you answered them. This is silly, since there's the same danger in letting them go home and tell their friends outside the college. It also means you can't go to the refectory and get a coffee, which is extremely cruel. Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do about it. A Coke bottle in your packed lunch (which you will need even if you don't normally have one) would probably be an acceptable but inferior solution.

I think four exams on the same day is the maximum possible at AS level. I don't know about degrees and I don't remember about GCSEs.

Loads of people are complaining about having 'two exams in a row', but it's not really that bad. It's just the way it appears on the timetable, really it's just one exam split into two papers...

I remember in GCSE we didn't the German written paper straight after the reading paper.

The longest exam I've had was 5 hours - (Media, GCSE). Lucky we got a lunchbreak in the middle and no restrictions (it was a seen paper anyway).

Art students are forever moaning about long exams... but they can talk and listen to music, doesn't seem very stressful to me!

Ha! 20 hours for Art A-level.

It can be worse - in three way clash situations, some pupils at our school have had to go home with teachers and stay overnight so as to remain under supervision.

Well that all depends on the teacher doesn't it? Could be a laugh, could be a nightmare...

the most exams we get a day for gcse is three, but that's only with two of them being language reading/writing. in fact, i had my spanish reading and writing today which means i've completely finished my spanish gcse!!! yay!!
and my longest exam was ceramics (3D art) - 10 hours, with breaks and stuff, spread over two days.
call me crazy, but i'm actually enjoying my gcses, they're great fun
^. .^
= ' =

I quite enjoyed my GCSEs. The swanning into school, having lunch when you feel like it, having an exam, swanning out again...

i love that!!! and i've only had two days of it so far!!
i actually quite enjoy some of the exams themselves though...
^. .^
= ' =

Yeah well, so you should! They are suppossed to be a challange after all. I like writing essays (I have a technique where the essay develops as it is written, so I never know what the conclusion is going to be until the end!)

i spose i do that too. i would never have thought of it a technique though
also, i hate essay writing subjects. hmm.
^. .^
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When I had a big gap between two exams I just languished in the common room reading 'The Fifth Elephant' by Terry Pratchett. A great way of killing time, and good stress relief (rather, you can forget the stress, but it won't disappear). Other books could be just as good, but comedy is particularly effective.

For the essays, I gave it a bit of thought, but generally made it up as I wrote. I generally had a conclusion in mind, but sometimes it changed.

I'm currently not taking any essay-writing subjects (except German, which doesn't count), which I now regret, because I like them. I much prefer writing essays as coursework than in exams - I've no doubt they're much better, given so much more time for planning and proof-reading. I'm considering a Philosophy AS next year.

I fondly remember my GCSE Ceramics exam... that was fun. Two whole days of making a horrendous mess, and all in the name of qualifications!

This morning I had the terminal exam for the Functional Programming module I've been taking this semester. That was okay actually - at University, or at least at Nottingham, you can leave the room if you finish during the time between one hour after the start and quarter of an hour before the end. That's cool

We had the two-papers-in-a-row thing for International Baccalaureate, but that was normally like History 1 (Documents Paper) and History 2 (Essay Paper 1) which only added up to 2.5 hours each. None of my uni exams are more than two hours IB timetabling was pretty intense though - they do each subject all at once, although never in one day, so you'd perhaps have one or two Chemistry papers in the afternoon, then the last paper the morning of the next day. That can be pretty bad, but timetabling IB exams is a total nightmare so it's the best solution they have, and it does help compartmentalise things.

But on the whole, Uni exams are better... although for the IB the regs state that you have to be provided with water during the exam, should you wish it. Which is great in four hour English exams (thankfully I did Standard English so I only had a 3 hour exam...)

you did gcse ceramics too? lush!
(what did you get?)
^. .^
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The wackiest thing I did was GCSE Media...

For the technology I did 'Resistant Materials' (what a strange name that is!), and did miserably, managing somehow to get an 'E'...

I did "Electronic Products" for technology. Got an A*, but it was really very trivial. Just do lots of paperwork.

For Ceramics I got a B, despite not being much of an arty-type person. I even managed a C in Drama - surely final proof that GCSEs are too easy.

hehe! well done.
i agree that gcses are too easy. no doubt a-levels will be solid after this.
^. .^
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I got an A* in Physics. That proves they're too easy.

That said - I walked into my A-level English mocks having done no revision and still got 85%. It all depends...

Yup, it all depends.

I didn't do A Levels, but I can't imagine they're any harder than the IB exams. At least you don't take six A Levels - or do you now? I never bothered to find out about the new system...

Got my last exam tomorrow! Woohoo!!!

Easiest module as well Don't you just love degrees?

I'm doing five A-levels - but that's only because I'm stupid and did an extra one in my spare time. Oh, and one of them's General Studies, so that hardly counts.