Monday, May 12
FUCK
I wanted to write that title because it just sums up the day I've had so far. Everything that could go wrong has. It started last night with an overwhelming attack of insomnia. I seem to be averaging one completely sleepless night per month at the moment, and this one was the night before my first exam. Not good. I thought I'd get an early night in, what with having to get up at 8am, which is about 3 hours earlier than I've got used to. Could I get to sleep? Could I hell. I was tossing and turning for ages, and I reckon that it was gone 3am before I got to sleep. I was knackered when I got up.
I almost forgot, my crap 24 hours began just before that. I'd been revising Contract Law for the past couple of days, and thought I'd finished everything by about 9pm last night. Ohhhhhh, no. Not a chance. Turns out I'd missed an entire term's work. We get given the lecture handouts each term for each subject, so I've got 2 for each of the 4 subjects that I study. But contract had to be different and have 3 handouts. I'd completely forgotten about the 3rd one, so I had to cram that entire term's work into 1 hour of revision before I went to bed. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.
Got to the exam this morning, not a problem. Except that when I'm at all nervous, I have to go to the loo constantly. That's the only way that I show nervousness, so it isn't overly apparent that I get nervous about anything. Anyway, got into the exam room, found my table, no worries. Then the fun started.
The handouts I mentioned above are essentially just lists of case names in broad topic areas, without a hint of what each case was about, or the principle it defined. Contract Law is so completely case-based that the list is over 100 cases. Through revising, you know the general principles of most cases, and a basic understanding of the facts of the most important ones, but it is nigh-on impossible to remember the case names themselves. They are always really obscure names, Hong Kong Fir Shipping Co v Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha being a prime example. Attached to the Contract Law exam paper is this list of case names, just so you can reference to them in your answers.
Let me rephrase that: Supposedly attached to the Contract Law exam paper is the list of case names.
I was in a room with 60 other students, and we had 2 (!) copies of the handout between us. It was quite comical when they explained this before the exam started, and told everyone to put their hand up when they needed to look at the list. Instantly, every single hand in the room shot up. There was a stunned silence for a couple of seconds, then a whole lot of angry voices. Eventually, the academic who set the exam had to come into the room. He got a mouthful of abuse from everybody, but stood his ground. We could sit the exam in these conditions, or we could leave. So, we started the exam. About an hour into it (being a 3 hour exam), he came back in with a bundle of hastily photocopied case lists, which were distributed amongst us. One each, thank God. We even got an extra half-hour of time for our troubles. So it wasn't all bad.
The exam itself was a pleasant surprise. 3 hours (3 and a half it eventually turned out) may sound like a lot of time to answer just 3 questions, but it flies by. The first problem question was easy to answer once you got into it. The second problem question involved a bit more planning, and was difficult to start off with. Once I got flowing in the writing the answer, I kept getting moments of inspiration and was able to write reams on the subject. The problematic question was the essay one which I answered. The other problem questions looked too difficult. The essay question didn't give you a whole lot of room to maneouvre, but I managed to bring in some other material and extend my answer to a reasonable length.
But no more Contract Law, ever! Unless I've screwed up this exam completely and need to resit this summer. If it wasn't for that possibility, however slight, I would probably be burning all of my textbooks right now. Oh well, on with some European Law revision...
Tupac & Dr Dre - California Love
Future Breeze - Another Day
Blur - Out Of Time
Limp Bizkit - Rearranged
