May the odds be ever in your favour

Have you seen The Hunger Games? If not, go see it. Apart from Harry Potter it's the only sci-fi movie I've actually truly enjoyed. Anyway, if you have seen it you probably remember the line "May the odds be ever in your favour". When all the people are lined up and the crazy lady who turns out to be less crazy than expected reads out the rules and procedures, and everyone's faces are twitching in nervousness. That's the feeling I get before an exam.

Oh yes indeed! 

Envisage a huge room filled with chairs and desks, where the tension is so present you can almost touch it. Now, vision that same room with students at the desks, hands on top, being quiet and concentrating on holding all the knowledge inside the brain for just a couple of more minutes before the exam starts. It's like you go into a state of mind so consuming that your mind can't process any new information. I've experienced several times not being able to remember what I wrote because I just emptied my brain. There's simply nothing left in my brain after an exam. 

When we're sitting like this waiting for the exam to begin and a recorded female voice is being played, I get the feeling of being in a communist state mixed with the scene from The Hunger Games. Don't ask me why, but it's probably because of all the pictures spread via media of vast numbers of people being lined up in North Korea. And when the head of the invigilators starts speaking saying we have 2 hours to complete the exam I imagine him finishing with " and may the odds be ever in your favour"

After completing a total of 4 exams during my first year at Brookes I've realised that exams in Norway and in the UK are absolutely not the same. In Norway you have a right to resit the exam if you failed it on your first attempt. Failed if the second time you say? Don't worry, you can resit the same exam 4 times before having to do the module all over again. At Brookes you're only allowed to resit if you get between 30-39%, and no matter how good a grade you get it will be capped at 40%. I don't know if every UK university does it, but many universities will write a number in the margin on your record of results, indicating the number of times you have completed or should I say attempted to complete a module. In Norway no one will ever know if you have done a resit, let alone how many. If you resit the same exam 4 times and get 4 different grades, the highest grade achieved is the one being shown on your record of results. Unfair? Pretty much, yeah! 

When writing this, this is my view

I'm currently working at the Norwegian State Housing Bank but because of the nice weather I decided to spend the evening with my family at our cabin. I love being here. Just chilling and eating fruit and berries. And play (read: cuddle until he's flat as a pancake) with our new puppy. He's too adorable! 

In a couple of days I'm off to Greece and then to Sweden visiting my boyfriend's family. Pretty sure July is going to be a good one, and I hope yours will be too!