Putting things in perspective

I quite often find that the more other people panic about things, or get flustered or cross, or suffer from road rage, the calmer I feel.   I would have thought that heightened emotions would be catching, but with me it's the opposite.

I think the same is happening about the exam. Although I have been revising, I am not panicking. One of the girls in my group said that when she took an exam on another course this year, she tried to learn absolutely everything, got totally stressed and was in tears on exam day.  Her telling us that story reinforced for me the realisation that although I want to do well, it's not a life and death situation, and it's not worth getting that worked up about. Also, stress is not conducive to learning. So, the more friends on the course tell me they are worried about the exam, the less worried I seem to get.  Also, from my experience of assignments, the ones I think aren't that good and 'that'll do', get the best marks!

Today I sat myself half a mock exam first thing. I decided to try two essays from one of the past papers we have, 45 minutes per question. I did have a bit of a blank to start with but overall it was better than I thought. It pointed out to me a couple of weak points to work on too.

Logan

I was done at 10am, so I walked down (via the shop for biscuits) to see our good friends who are just starting up a cherry orchard down the road. After a coffee break and a play with their dog, I offered to help them put some netting up over the cherry trees, the kind of job where an extra pair of hands always comes in handy.

I really enjoyed it, and while we were doing it I thought 'you know what, I really don't care a bit about the exam right now - what will be will be'.   I didn't get home until 3pm, and it was 5 hours well spent.

I will do some more revising now, but I feel as though everything is in perspective.