This past week has felt both like our stress-levels have been pushed upwards, but also like we are winding down a little too….it’s been an interesting balance.
This week was our last week of teaching before our Complexities exam in January. I won’t beat around the bush, this module is HUGE. There is so much to learn, we have had fairly minimal actual teaching time on it (we have only had 6 weeks in uni since we started 2nd year, and that’s including welcome week and has also included almost the entirety of another module too!) and it’s also, as far as I’m aware, the last sit-down exam that we have on the course (all the rest is essays, dissertations, placement and practical exams) – so there’s a lot of pressure!
So over this last week we have been trying to mop up all the final bits that we were unsure of, and going over some of the bits we didn’t quite understand the first time.
We also had a lecture on Smoking Cessation for our Public Health module and we received feedback on the posters I mentioned that we were working on a couple of weeks back.
On Thursday of last week, we had a mock for this massive Complexities exam. I had kind braced myself for a compete failure in this respect, purely because we have only just finished learning the material, so I haven’t been able to revise it yet…so I decided that the mock would be based on what I have already managed to take in and it would probably give me a bit more of an idea (and a kick up the arse!) of what I need to work on before the real thing.
I have to say, it’s quite a tricky exam, purely because it is essay based, so you write long answers to the questions and hope you are answering with the points they were after, but if you start concentrating on an aspect that they weren’t aiming at, you can end up writing a good couple of pages that might only have a couple of marks on, which is a little daunting.
Very excitingly however, I did actually pass the mock…albeit by the skin of my teeth – so at least I know that I do know something that might help in the actual exam! The mock has given me a much clearer idea of what I need to learn and how it will be used in the exam too so although it’s made the rapidly approaching exam date seem a bit more real, it’s also made it feel a little more achievable which is good.
The day of the mock was also our last day in uni before Christmas, so we all finished for the day with wishes of “Merry Christmas” and “Have a great break” which is always a nice way to end an exam day!
We are now off for a week of study time (perfect for just after the mock to really get a head start on revision) and then we are heading back out onto placement for two weeks before finishing for Christmas – this year really has flown by!
To read last week’s Midwife Mondays post, click here:
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