By Giovanna D. Preda Robertti
My fatal flaw during this exam season was time management. Particularly during the maths exam, I came into the gym very anxious and it took me the better part of half an hour to calm down, just to later get lost in what I call "leisurely maths" – that is, when I do maths problems slowly for the pleasure of it, it is similar to being "in the zone" in the sense that it is really hard to control and it makes me unaware of my surroundings – and rush through half of the questions during the last 10 minutes of the test.
I did not study for any of my exams, but this was not something that particularly hurt me; I have never had the need to study for a test in my life, and while I am good at self-evaluation and picking up on my weak points, actually studying is usually a bit overkill for me, as skimming through PowerPoints or class notes helps me grasp the concepts I was not able to grasp in class. So my "studying" during this exam season was less like actual study and more like recalling class notes and pacing around my room explaining them to myself out loud until I was able to fully internalize the concepts. I probably dedicated around an hour to each subject, which is more time per-subject than the overall time I spent studying during my entire high school career.
EAP was an interesting one; most of the test was easy, but when it came to writing the essay I was not able to write down anything. What I found particularly difficult was finding something new to say about the essay topic with proper sources, when we only had access to one. I really did not realize the point of the task was to basically just summarize the article we had been given and was trying to find a way of summarizing such a complex topic with only one article at hand in 300 words. I lost 40 points on that task, but now I know I need to spend more time practicing my summary skills as this tends to be one of my weakest points, and maybe ask Kathleen what the task is asking us to do next time instead of assuming.
Overall, I underperformed in EAP and Maths, yet I am certain I am still within my requirement and will do my best to get better marks this semester – who knows, I might even try this whole "studying" thing everyone else does, although with my own twist to it.