Sunday, March 09, 2008

Wrinkled Plans

This weekend, I discovered that there is a snag in my exam schedule: two of my four examiners will be out of town during the week we'd booked for my oral exam, and for half the week after that. (Did I mention that two of my examiners are married to each other?)

My written exam schedule is supposed to go like this:
Tuesday, March 25th
Thursday, March 27th
Monday, March 31st

And then we'd have the oral exam during the following week, tentatively on April 8th. But my profs are gone from the 7th to the 16th, and the longest I can wait between my last written exam and the oral exam is two weeks (which would be April 14th).

So. I guess I have two options: see if we can book the oral exam for the same week as the last written exam, or move my written exams a week or two later. (I'm pretty sure that my profs don't have to be in town for when I'm writing the exams.)

I confess that I had a panicked call to my friend Andrea (who is doing her exams at the same time, but with different profs), so that I could freak out about both of these options. (I feel nervous about having fewer days to prepare for the oral exam, but I'm also nervous about leaving the exams until later and not being done immediately.) But I think I've made my peace with the situation now. I'm continuing my intensive reviewing as if I am starting my written exams in a little more than two weeks. And, if I do my oral exam at the end of the week when I finish my written exam, it means that everything will be fresher in my head. And, if I have to postpone my exams for a week or two, it's not the end of the world. So I get a couple more weeks to prepare for exams that have been haunting me for the past year.

(To be honest, I think I'm starting to root for the "postpone the exams by maybe a week" option. I've been in contact with some of my profs, and it's sounding like at least one of them would prefer that we wait until later -- in fact, he's proposed that we hold off on booking our review meeting until we've ironed out the exam date situation.)

On the up side, I think I'm handling this well; perhaps my coping skills have improved.

3 comments:

The History Enthusiast said...

Uuughh. I know from experience that there is nothing worse than having problems come out of the woodwork just before exams.

Hang in there, and just go with the flow!

Teacher Lady said...

Well, I think it is unlikely they will make you do it sooner. It was their mistake, not yours so I'm sure it will work out in your favour.

Kate said...

There are always wrinkles. Just remember that these things don't really matter in the long run -- you're prepared already, even if you don't know it, and you'll be fine. And the orals, which are better done sooner rather than later in my experience, will also be fine. And then they'll be over! That's the important part! Over! :)