Three Exams Done & One Postponed to August
I have never had to do a retake exam at university before. I have always managed to finish my exams on time with the exception of the last two courses of my bachelor that I got dispensation to take the following year. However, this semester I choose to submit a blank for one out of my four exams. It was utterly terrifying and I felt extremely guilty initially but deep down, I knew that it was the right decision for me to make, even if I felt like I was cheating the system. Many people postpone exams simply because they do not feel like doing them at the scheduled time and I hated using the system that so many misuse.
Granted, I am still taking advantage of it to a degree. I had to write ten pages for the exam I postponed and I might have been able to squeeze out the pages and still pass but it would have been a bad experience. I would have been stressing myself out and I could not get a good grip on how to tackle the case we had been given. I learned that many of my fellow students felt the same way when they turned for me to advice on how to write the exam, as they had seen my participation in class. It's almost ironic that I gave advice and then ended up submitting a blank and waiting to take the exam in August. I believe we are getting a new case and hopefully some more helpful questions.
The exam format for the course has not been ideal. They expanded from five pages the year previously and the so-called "exam questions" were not questions at all but rather a rephrased and slightly different version of our course objectives. Regardless, I hope the case and questions for the retake will make more sense because I actually like the theoretical elements from Knowledge Management and I would like to properly try to apply them to a case that I understand.
As I said, I felt a lot of guilt for submitting a blank but as soon as the decision was made, I also felt a large amount of relief. I had handed in our ten pages for Negotiations two weeks prior and had an oral exam in Culture and Identities just the week before and I had the oral defence of the Project coming up the following week. It was planned somewhat nicely but while trapped in the exam period, it did feel quite overwhelming and I even dropped my hours at my flexible student job to focus on studying.
Now that all the other results have rolled in, it feels even weirder knowing that I have not properly finished the semester and looking back it's so tempting to wish that I had just pushed through and delivered something, even if it would not been good. If I had done that, then I would have a two and a half month break without studying. Now I have to hand in an exam in mid-August, which I have never tried doing before. But at the same time, it might make it easier to ease back into the studies for the (cue *gasp*) final year of my Master. I can't believe time has passed this quickly.
I am extremely proud of myself this semester and I can say that without feeling like I am tooting my own horn. I have put in a tonne of work, I have read all the texts during the course of the semester and I have worked hard with my exams. Exam period is always a little weird for me and I don't think that I will ever be able to shake the feeling that there's something more that you can do than what you're doing but I think I did a very good job.
For the Negotiations exam, we had a whole week from the point we were handed the case until we had to submit ten pages. I worked a lot on it over the first 48 hours, writing almost all of it during that period and then gradually added a bit and editing back and forth for the remaining time. I am very happy with what I wrote and I got a 10 for my effort. I have to admit it stung a little bit, since I felt like it might have been able to get the highest mark but at the same time I know how difficult it is to get a 12 on purely written papers.
Culture and Identities had an oral exam and I was feeling very calm despite knowing the fact that I would have to walk into the room and that I could potentially be asked to any concept from the whole syllabus. However, since we had such a nice professor (the assistant professor mentioned in this post), I felt at ease and it probably helped a whole lot that I found this course so interesting. With all the prep and the causals conversations with my professor, it felt all so familiar to just walk in and talk to him. I talked fast and pulled in examples naturally and easily and I was out of the room in just around ten minutes, instead of the usual 15-17 minutes. At the feedback, both the censor and my professor praised my knowledge on the topics and how well I was able to talk about them and I walked out with a 12. It would be considered an easy exam as around half the students got a 12 as well. Frankly, I hardly had to do any studying in the days coming up on the exam because of all the studying I had done while classes were running. I think this might have been my favourite course that I have ever had and I am sad to see it go.
I was more nervous for the oral defence of our group Project because all four of us would have to go in together and I had never tried doing that before. However, I liked our supervisor and my group mates and once we got started it flowed pretty easily. I'm always taken aback when I work with people in a group, especially if it's for the first time, as they always assume I will do excellently. They are never worried about my work effort or my abilities, even if I know that I do still slack off on occasion and sometimes I doubt what I am saying. We had a few things lacking with our data (which was one-sided), which we had handled well by taking such a critical stance to it and we all did a great oral defence of the whole thing and walked out with all 10s. I had been worried on-and-off during the writing process, like I usually do, so it was a huge relief to walk out the room with such a nice mark.
I am not sure how I managed to land such high marks in the same semester. I do know that I paid extreme attention this year and I am actually glad to have that reflected in my marks. But even if my marks had been somewhat bad or lacking, it would still not take away from all the things I have learnt this semester. I have gotten a much more in-depth understanding of culture from an anthropological view to oppose the business school way I was initially taught to see it and I know I will keep this with me for my future education. I have learnt how negotiations work and all the things you should consider and I have had my hand at trying it myself numerous times, often with favourable results. I have come to realise how essential it is for an organisation to manage their knowledge and that the employees are their most valuable asset. I have been reminded how it is to work on an academic project, building it up from the initial spark of interest to formulating research questions, gathering data, picking theories and working out how it all fits together, which is excellent practice for the thesis looming around the corner.
This semester it properly dawned on me how lucky I am to be allowed to take an education and learn interesting "stuff" from knowledgeable people. The timing of this revelation might have something to do with the fact that time is running out faster than I want to acknowledge. This appreciation pushed me to get very involved with things this semester, even if I did not finish all of my exams on time. I still get a small twinge of guilt when I think about how I submitted the blank but I can't do anything about it now, so instead I will look forward to August and hope for a better case and questions and a more quiet and calm mind when I have to write. Even with the postponed exam, I am still happy with my effort and involvement this semester.
I was so active this semester and I loved it. It's a completely turn-around from the person I was just a handful of years ago. I have talked with a professor from each course this year and they have all told me how much they appreciated my involvement. I brought something to the classroom with my insights. It has been a tough but rewarding year so far and university has taken up so many of my hours but I can't say I regret diving in and applying myself. I have leant so much. I have improved. I feel more confident in my abilities and in myself. I feel slightly more at ease about the future, even if I still can't figure out how I want it to look like. But that's okay. Now I have a semester of electives and then I will have to write my thesis. I know time will pass quickly but I also refuse to focus too much on the far-out future because I want to embrace the last year I have at university. It's nice here and I grow more comfortable with each year that passes.
Granted, I am still taking advantage of it to a degree. I had to write ten pages for the exam I postponed and I might have been able to squeeze out the pages and still pass but it would have been a bad experience. I would have been stressing myself out and I could not get a good grip on how to tackle the case we had been given. I learned that many of my fellow students felt the same way when they turned for me to advice on how to write the exam, as they had seen my participation in class. It's almost ironic that I gave advice and then ended up submitting a blank and waiting to take the exam in August. I believe we are getting a new case and hopefully some more helpful questions.
The exam format for the course has not been ideal. They expanded from five pages the year previously and the so-called "exam questions" were not questions at all but rather a rephrased and slightly different version of our course objectives. Regardless, I hope the case and questions for the retake will make more sense because I actually like the theoretical elements from Knowledge Management and I would like to properly try to apply them to a case that I understand.
As I said, I felt a lot of guilt for submitting a blank but as soon as the decision was made, I also felt a large amount of relief. I had handed in our ten pages for Negotiations two weeks prior and had an oral exam in Culture and Identities just the week before and I had the oral defence of the Project coming up the following week. It was planned somewhat nicely but while trapped in the exam period, it did feel quite overwhelming and I even dropped my hours at my flexible student job to focus on studying.
Now that all the other results have rolled in, it feels even weirder knowing that I have not properly finished the semester and looking back it's so tempting to wish that I had just pushed through and delivered something, even if it would not been good. If I had done that, then I would have a two and a half month break without studying. Now I have to hand in an exam in mid-August, which I have never tried doing before. But at the same time, it might make it easier to ease back into the studies for the (cue *gasp*) final year of my Master. I can't believe time has passed this quickly.
I am extremely proud of myself this semester and I can say that without feeling like I am tooting my own horn. I have put in a tonne of work, I have read all the texts during the course of the semester and I have worked hard with my exams. Exam period is always a little weird for me and I don't think that I will ever be able to shake the feeling that there's something more that you can do than what you're doing but I think I did a very good job.
For the Negotiations exam, we had a whole week from the point we were handed the case until we had to submit ten pages. I worked a lot on it over the first 48 hours, writing almost all of it during that period and then gradually added a bit and editing back and forth for the remaining time. I am very happy with what I wrote and I got a 10 for my effort. I have to admit it stung a little bit, since I felt like it might have been able to get the highest mark but at the same time I know how difficult it is to get a 12 on purely written papers.
Culture and Identities had an oral exam and I was feeling very calm despite knowing the fact that I would have to walk into the room and that I could potentially be asked to any concept from the whole syllabus. However, since we had such a nice professor (the assistant professor mentioned in this post), I felt at ease and it probably helped a whole lot that I found this course so interesting. With all the prep and the causals conversations with my professor, it felt all so familiar to just walk in and talk to him. I talked fast and pulled in examples naturally and easily and I was out of the room in just around ten minutes, instead of the usual 15-17 minutes. At the feedback, both the censor and my professor praised my knowledge on the topics and how well I was able to talk about them and I walked out with a 12. It would be considered an easy exam as around half the students got a 12 as well. Frankly, I hardly had to do any studying in the days coming up on the exam because of all the studying I had done while classes were running. I think this might have been my favourite course that I have ever had and I am sad to see it go.
I was more nervous for the oral defence of our group Project because all four of us would have to go in together and I had never tried doing that before. However, I liked our supervisor and my group mates and once we got started it flowed pretty easily. I'm always taken aback when I work with people in a group, especially if it's for the first time, as they always assume I will do excellently. They are never worried about my work effort or my abilities, even if I know that I do still slack off on occasion and sometimes I doubt what I am saying. We had a few things lacking with our data (which was one-sided), which we had handled well by taking such a critical stance to it and we all did a great oral defence of the whole thing and walked out with all 10s. I had been worried on-and-off during the writing process, like I usually do, so it was a huge relief to walk out the room with such a nice mark.
I am not sure how I managed to land such high marks in the same semester. I do know that I paid extreme attention this year and I am actually glad to have that reflected in my marks. But even if my marks had been somewhat bad or lacking, it would still not take away from all the things I have learnt this semester. I have gotten a much more in-depth understanding of culture from an anthropological view to oppose the business school way I was initially taught to see it and I know I will keep this with me for my future education. I have learnt how negotiations work and all the things you should consider and I have had my hand at trying it myself numerous times, often with favourable results. I have come to realise how essential it is for an organisation to manage their knowledge and that the employees are their most valuable asset. I have been reminded how it is to work on an academic project, building it up from the initial spark of interest to formulating research questions, gathering data, picking theories and working out how it all fits together, which is excellent practice for the thesis looming around the corner.
This semester it properly dawned on me how lucky I am to be allowed to take an education and learn interesting "stuff" from knowledgeable people. The timing of this revelation might have something to do with the fact that time is running out faster than I want to acknowledge. This appreciation pushed me to get very involved with things this semester, even if I did not finish all of my exams on time. I still get a small twinge of guilt when I think about how I submitted the blank but I can't do anything about it now, so instead I will look forward to August and hope for a better case and questions and a more quiet and calm mind when I have to write. Even with the postponed exam, I am still happy with my effort and involvement this semester.
I was so active this semester and I loved it. It's a completely turn-around from the person I was just a handful of years ago. I have talked with a professor from each course this year and they have all told me how much they appreciated my involvement. I brought something to the classroom with my insights. It has been a tough but rewarding year so far and university has taken up so many of my hours but I can't say I regret diving in and applying myself. I have leant so much. I have improved. I feel more confident in my abilities and in myself. I feel slightly more at ease about the future, even if I still can't figure out how I want it to look like. But that's okay. Now I have a semester of electives and then I will have to write my thesis. I know time will pass quickly but I also refuse to focus too much on the far-out future because I want to embrace the last year I have at university. It's nice here and I grow more comfortable with each year that passes.
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