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I'M DONNNEEEEEEEEEEE!!
Hello!!
Well the past two days have been busy busy with all the studying that I have had to do. Tuesday, I went down to the pub to have a beer with everyone since we didn't have class on Wednesday and I could study all day. On Wednesday, I woke up and basically studied all day long..boring. I had to study for my Political Economy of Britain since 1945, Dr. Holmes class. I think I already mentioned this, but it was an essay test so we had to know basically everything. I studied for quite a while and took some breaks. That night, Megan, Megan, Steph, and Liz all came over to my room and we went over all of our notes and figured out the things that we couldn't understand. It was super helpful because our notes tended to jump around a little bit. Later, Taylor and Jason came to study too. Everyone left around 12:30am and I stayed up until around 2:30am to finish some last bit studying.
I got up at 6:30am, took a shower, and started looking over my notes again. I felt pretty confident, but I was really worried I would forget some small things. Come test time, my stomach was in knots (it usually does before all tests). I knew I would be fine, but I was so worried I would get a question that I didn't know at all. The test was split up into 2 parts, one general section with 5 questions to choose from and one specific section with 5 questions to choose from. We had to do one from both section and had 45 minutes to write each essay. I chose the question "Account for the importance of the Welfare State and NHS in British political economy." for Section A: the General Topics. For Section B: Specific Topics, I chose the question, "Why did the experiment of ERM membership result in the economic crisis of 1990-92?" I am now an expert on those topics, so if you ever have any questions, please let me know. ha. ;)
Anyways, it was such a relief to be done with one final! Right afterwards, I went back to my room and took a nap and eventually went to lunch. After lunch it was study time! I was more worried about my final for Dr. Horsewood's class, International Economics. Everyone from previous years has said it is harder and the material is definitely harder and more boring. At around 2:30 we had a review session with Dr. Horsewood, but he didn't show up until 3:15pm because he got stuck in traffic. The review session was the 3rd one that we have had, so that was helpful. Later, I went to dinner and right afterwards went and got some coffee to give me a little caffine boost. That helped me stay on target and get some things done. I had to do a lot of memorization for this test and there was so much information. There was absolutely no way that I was going to remember all of it, so I took around 6 topics and learned/memorized them really well. I studied for a while and went to Sainesbury with Megan to get some caffine. When I got back, I went down to the Junior Common Room where a lot of people were studying and Dr. Horsewood came in to see if we had any questions. It was strange, but convenient for him to be there at night while we were all studying. I'm not used to seeing professors late at night while studying! I didn't stay down there long at all because everyone was talking and I needed it to be quiet to actually learn everything. I was taking each topic one by one and I got them all down pretty well. I decided to go to bed around 1:00am, which was earlier then I thought I was going to get to bed. I decided to get up around 5:50am to shower and go over my notes one last time. I went to breakfast and I got really nervous that I didn't study enough topics after talking to some people. I was so so scared that I would get to the test and only a few of my topics would be on there and I would be screwed.
When it was time to take the test, my stomach was churning again. I was ridiculously nervous that the questions would have nothing to do with what I studied. Dr. Horsewood's test was a little different than Martin Timothy Samuel's (that's what Dr. Horsewood calls him, haha). Dr. Horsewood's was set in 2 sections...Section A was a short answer (about a paragraph) and we picked 3 topics out of 6. Section B was the long essays (expected to take a half hour each) and we could choose 2 out of 10. When I turned my test over, I was happy to see that I had studied 3 of the short answers, so I was good there. I didn't even look at the long questions until I came to them because I didn't want to syke myself out. For the short answers in section A, I had to show graphs and explain the Optimal Tariff Argument, The Leontief Paradox, and Trade Diversion/Trade Creation. I had studied and knew all of those pretty well, so I was happy about that. For section B, the long answers, I chose "What impact have multinational enterprises had on global welfare?" and "'Aid is too heterogeneous to work out whether it has achieved its economic objectives. However, greater emphasis should be placed on trade and not aid.' Do you agree?" Those were two of the long question topics that I had studied, so I was very happy about that as well. After I wrote the first long essay, my hand was cramping so badly! By the time I got to the second long question, my hand was falling off and my hand writing had to be all chicken scratch. It's nice to have feeling back....4 hours later. I'll have to say that I did learn a lot ...probably more than I would have taking those classes at UNL. Don't get me wrong, it's a great school, but the professors here are just so much more interesting and make the classes fun to go to. It's hard to explain, but I learned quite a bit. Anyways, it was such a relief to have it all finished!! I was just a bit stressed out because of those, so it was so nice to know that I was all done. When I got done, I talked to everyone about the test and went back to my room to, sadly, pack. It is actually really depressing. I am excited to get back to see everyone again, but besides that, I want to stay here...forever. ;) After packing for a while, Megan, Megan, Steph and I went to the Noodle Bar, which the girls from last year mentioned was good. It was really good and we went to get Ben's Cookies for one last time. As delicious as those things are, it is a good thing I am moving away from them because after eating those, potatoes, meat, bread and butter at every meal, beer (good heavy European beer), and stress snacks for 4 weeks...let's just say, I need to go on a run. Don't judge me when I get back!!
After I ate my delicious cookies, we went to an Oxford shop to get some stuff to take back to states. I got an Oxford sweatshirt, which I am pretty excited about and a t-shirt. I took my camera with me while I was walking around and got some last minute pictures of all of the beautiful buildings and scenery that I have been surrounded by for the past 4 weeks. I need to finish packing and then tonight we all have a farewell dinner and a little play that the theater students are putting on. I'm sure we will go out for last minute drinks in Oxford before all of us leave early tomorrow! I am leaving Oxford at 5:30am...a little earlier then I have to because I am going to ride the bus with some of the other girls to Heathrow. I will only be there a little early though. Anyways, I think we might hit up a happy hour somewhere to celebrate that we are done, so I will hopefully see most of you soon!
Love,
Sarah
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