Ahhhhh The Relief!!

What Do You Mean That's Only Half!!

Evening Biplings,

Well I hope everyone has de-stressed somewhat after our exams and then realised that the exams & associated projects while important only concern themselves with the 3 subjects that make up HALF the course marks! Genius! Ah no matter we get marks now for sabotaging 'working with' host companies! Or for the innovators among us, you get to do a project of your own!!

But going back to the exams for a minute, I found the whole experience of getting back in an exam hall quite stressful, not least the damn invigilators hovering past your desk every 30 seconds. Now there are those among us that do have a shifty look about them but really cheating! I not unlike many of you, I presume, felt that Christmas became an almost unnecessary distraction 'en route' to the exams and what little spare time I had away from family and friends was taken up with studying or the thoughts of studying. I can guarantee that I am far from what one could call a 'swot' but being that bit older and some would say wiser than when last sitting down with pen and paper for an exam, I felt that my faculties would not handle a dozen cans of Coke and no sleep before an exam, so a bit of study was warranted.

Study!! a sudden and very stark realisation dawned that over the past 13 or so weeks I had not taken in one iota of information with any relevance, I new how to fold a T-Shirt (thanks Frank, if I am stuck in central China and need a few dollars a month!!) and also that I must disappoint somebody about something first, but after that it was all rather blurry! With that said I thought to myself surely the course notes I took and the slides on Moodle would be of some help!! Yeah right, I realised that I should be going to school with my kids to learn to write again for one, because my notes looked like they were written by an illiterate Panda and the slides made everything more vague, with pictures from films and diagram after diagram after diagram. At my wits end I decided to follow the topics and read a few chapters of the books. Four f**king books in which a single chapter is longer than your average Mills & Boon, I was at breaking point! If that wasn't enough every smart arse without a clue was posting on Facebook "Useful" titbits to help during the study! The more I read there, the more I felt like I hadn't even been on the same f**king course! But c'est la vie and I found a way through, Waffle!

"You are never alone in anything you do, unless you Think you are alone!"

We all got through the exams together and with the support of all our classmates, be it useful or not! But I can safely say now that they are over , was there anything really to be stressed about? Was it not down to each one of us and our own insecurities or fear about the exam more than the event itself! But seriously I am sure we all did well in at least 2 of the exams and in the marketing exam well we shall see. What do you mean marketing wasn't one of our course subjects!!! But hey that's a battle for another day!

Now we move ever closer to the end of the course and good old De Vito I mean Brendan takes us under his wing and guides us through helping somebody else make more money for free! Getting years of top class experience for a nod and a wink, we are all past being apprentices and to say this is a learning experience, I would debate that with anyone! But I am sure we will all put our best feet forward and muddle through! If some of you out there some of the theoretical content was sketchy during the year, the "Practical Project" is going to rub you up the wrong way altogether, some the host companies don't even know what they want from it, so if they don't know it's gonna even be hard to disappoint them!!

Now we are freed from the classroom I will try to get back here a bit more often and share with you my musings of the project experience and feel free to share yours, comment here or via twitter, the Blipping Students current followers are active and very engaging, a nod to @dvbsh, @ajocca (Poirot), @ofitzmaurice , @roismhuire, @andrewkinsella and of course @geraldinelavin. If i have left anybody out, thats probably because your not important!

Good Night

The Blipping Student
@dcublip3

TOP EXAM TIPS

It's all Kicking Off in the Morning!

How to get past the exams

Evening All,

I presume most, if not all, of you are knee deep in pools of your own sweat surrounded by piles of notes and trying to take in the last few molecules of information before your tiny little pixie heads explode!! Never fear the Blipping Student is here with some words of (somebody else's) wisdom!

How to get through the exam pressure in simple steps;

1. GET A GOOD NIGHTS SLEEP, TONIGHT!
1. Make sure you get to be early and get some decent sleep tonight. This may sound ridiculous if you are the type of person who crams, or obvious if you are a swot! Do not underestimate the importance of a fresh head in the morning. Plus studying while tired is not effective enough to warrant the risk of falling asleep half way through!!! Easier said than done!
2. COME PREPARED!
1. Know where you are going and how you will get there!
2. Spare pens and pencils, spare anything you will need rulers for diagrams etc
3. Exam Number & Student Card
3. EASY ON THE CAFFEINE & USE THE LOO!
1. Don't drink too much coffee tonight or in the morning! It does not help, it may cause a trough in your attention through the exam or have got you through studying but only to leave you drained for the event!
2. No Laughing, try and void your bladder of excess prior to starting the exam, to avoid losing or interrupting your train of thought during it! It is extremely distracting for you trying to hold it or leave midway through answer and for everyone else being disturbed by you getting up to leave!
4. BE ON TIME, NOT IN TIME!
1. Make sure you allow plenty of time to get to the exam centre, Mahony Hall
2. Allow for the worst traffic, road conditions, lights etc
3. There is nothing more stressful than being late of rushing to get there on time only to spend the first 10 minutes of your precious exam time trying to calm down from the stress induced panic of getting there!
5. BEFORE YOU WRITE - RELAX!
1. STOP LAUGHING!! I'm serious if anything this is probably the best piece of advice I could give anyone doing an exam. Stop, Breath and Relax.
2. Rushing won't increase your marks or your ability to do well, it will mean you will forget or overlook something, FACT!
6. READ THE QUESTIONS - FIRST SEEK TO UNDERSTAND!
1. Over and over again we 'Vomit' all the information on a topic into the first question, only to discover parts 2 & 3 cover the same information we put into part 1, we repeat ourselves or end up writing a load of waffle to fill up the next three pages with the info we wrote on the first part.
2. Then to makes matters worse, after showing our tombs of knowledge on the subject didn't actually answer the questions asked!
3. Save time and hassle and only answer that which you are being asked, seems easy, but its not!
7. GIVE EXAMPLES
1. During all your questions try to give as many examples as possible, it demonstrates your applied knowledge of a topic.
2. Theory is great but you will not remember verbatim everything in the books or notes, so be prepared with examples to show you understand the principles of the theory and how to apply it! (and that goes for life aswell as exams, you need to be able to apply what we've learned not repeat it)
8. KEEP IT SIMPLE - STUPID!
1. Don't get carried away with big sentences and difficult to interpret fancy language, it shows you understand the English language but wont necessarily get you marks.
2. Write what you know and how you know and leave the prose to Shakespeare, its about getting across your level of awareness and understanding
3. Straighforward, clear and concise answers (not too concise) will be easier to understand and mark than lines and lines of waffle and irrelevant ramblings, speaking from bitter experience!
4. Show your work, if needed! Pre-Structure your answers on rough paper if required, it will show your thought process and organisation skills and also some information you may eventually leave out of your answer
9. FINALLY - REVIEW
1. Schedule some time at the end if possible to read your answers and compare to the questions, spelling, small errors or touch ups may be needed to make the best of the answers and easier for the examiner to read! 
2. The harder it is for the examiner to understand or comprehend or read the tougher the mark you will get, its frustrating enough to mark almost 90 papers but to have to struggle to read what may be valid info will not help you become predisposed to the examiner!

Remember, they are only exams, its not the end of the world. Stress, worry or anxiety will not get you marks. Go in tomorrow and write what you know, have seen and learned over the past 13 weeks of the course and you will be fine. 

Whats the worst that could happen!! You have got this far, a piece of paper will not make or break you now!

Best of Luck,

The Blipping Student