I had a really good supervision this evening with Carrie, on the Classical Questions paper, which I think is the most feared exam by all 1A classicists - 4 essays in 3 hours. Even Carrie admits that’s pretty stupid, but she says she had thirty set texts in her first year here and we only have eleven (?) so we can’t feel too sorry for ourselves. But anyway, I came out feeling a lot more secure about that exam and kindof inspired generally because of some very interesting things she said.
She gave us lots of good advice, namely
- cross out all the questions you won’t do so you can see your choices better
- trim the focus, because 40 minutes is no time at all
- be interesting, because the same questions are always popular
She also gave us an interesting bit of advice that Mary Beard gave her when she was studying under her at Newnham: don’t think of them as tests, think of them as chances to show off. Easy to say when you’ve probably not taken an exam in decades, but I can take her point.
So I guess that all sums up as: be amazing and fearless.
I think I can do the second, at least, because I know this mark doesn’t really matter. Unless I bomb six consecutive exams, I’ll get a 2:1 or a 2:2, though I know I’m capable of better than that. Roughly ten people each year get 1sts, so that’s a lovely thing to aim for but y’know, not a big cause of worry. Yeah, it’ll be okay.
Back to Homer now…
