Another day, another day without a dollar. I had an interview for a job as a Post-16 Tutor at Gosforth High School. I say "interview", there was a challenging ‘carousel’ of activities. Amongst those activities was to present a twenty minute tutorial on revision techniques, have an interview in front of existing post-16 tutors, answer the questions of a student panel, write a reference for a fictional character with some given information, and then to face a formal interview in front of a panel of four senior members of the post-16 team.
The tutorial could have gone better. I had gone into the tutorial with an idea of trying to get the students to talk as much as possible about their experiences of revision so that they can discuss together how they could improve their revision techniques. I managed to make it last the twenty minutes (further than some others had reported) but it became a little fragmented towards the end. The interview in front of the post-16 tutors and the student panel were more fun, and I felt I did well in those. I also did rather well in writing the reference, though I did not manage to finish within the twenty minutes (and I made the schoolboy error of forgetting to write my name on the paper…).
The final interview was also much more relaxed and comfortable than I had anticipated. They gave me scenarios of some things that could happen in the course of the job. I think I coped rather well.
However I did not get any of the jobs that were available. I did well to be in the shortlist of ten from the 111 that applied, but it seems in the end not having school experience was again my downfall: the other candidates apparently had been in positions of similar roles in other schools.
It’s unfortunate. They were quite clear and accepted that many of those applying want to get paid experience in a school in order to eventually become a teacher; and that any decision they would make would not be impacted by my desire to teach in the future. In my feedback I was told I would make a good teacher "without doubt", but it’s looking even further away now.
...with no replies just yet.
One could be forgiven for being nervous before an exam: going through everything in your mind ensuring you haven’t forgotten anything you need. However, when you walk into the exam room and sit down ready to start your exam, you should be given an automatic fail if you fail to notice that you are sitting at a desk with a different exam to the one you should be taking.
Thankfully she moved, or else I might have ended up taking some other exam. What the hell is "River Management" anyway? No-one stands on a riverbank with a projector discussing annual appraisals to tadpoles. River Management seems to be a misnomer anyway: I should think it would be unethical to manipulate a river. Rather, rivers are sites of conservation. I suggest its naming was more about self-indulgence rather than prescribing the content of the course.
Anyway, back to the exam. I did fine, I feel. In fact I did quite well, considering for the most part I couldn’t be bothered with revision. That is particularly the case when you have a group full of people whom you have never met that need you to be on the Internet at a certain time in order for them to see to their own ends. That is what World Of Warcraft: you pay for the compulsion to help others and accumulate that responsibility to these fellows in the game.
I have another exam next Friday — and it is going to be hard.
Lesson of the Day
If X follows a Rayleigh(θ) distribution, then Y = X² follows an Exponential distribution with parameter θ.
...with no replies just yet.
Why oh why oh why? I am terrible when it comes to revision: I always have been. Other people draw up revision timetables; they hide distracting items; they download and print off past papers… But I can’t do any of that. And that has always been the case. I guess it’s testament of the strength of my long-term memory – at least thus far. However I feel that if I applied myself before exams, I could be capable of so much more.
This is my second day of true revision… or rather just copying my notes. It’s not very active, and it’s not too enjoyable either. I should be doing practice questions, past exam papers and assignment questions. But perhaps I won’t learn. I feel that I was blasé and nonchalant during my A-Levels and this has carried on into my degree.
And as if to compound my apathy for revision, I found the word "revision" extremely hard to type quickly without making errors. Bastards!
...with no replies just yet.
Or do I?
Today I did an exam – a two-and-a-quarter hour exam in Number Theory and Cryptography. I did not prepare in the best way. However, if I had prepared earlier, I could have done much better.
The problem is, I never seem to grasp that the best way for me to revise is to practice similar questions. Rather than trying to remember every piece of material that might appear in the exam, I should learn how to answer questions. This is my quibble with exams.
I can perform under pressure. The problem is that I try to be sure that I know as much as possible in order to as much as possible. The consequence is that I end up forgetting small details which are the most important.
So, for my exam tomorrow afternoon, I have been going through the specimen paper – and it seems simple enough. But with the university deciding it would be a good idea to much everyone up, there are no past papers for this course. Indeed, there are no past papers for three of my four courses. This makes revising a bit more difficult. But no-one ever said it was easy…
I can’t wait until this time next week!
...with no replies just yet.
Well yesterday was an interesting day. Had my first revision lectures. I don’t care what other people say, they are worth it. Even material that I have covered in my revision so far would not have helped me – past papers are much better to revise from.
I had a bit of an unsettling experience between lectures though. At one point, I thought, “What am I doing here?” – which isn’t a question that was welcome in my mind a week before my first exam. I just felt that I would be of better use elsewhere. I have a calling, I just can’t hear where it’s bloody coming from!
Anyway, made some time for some shopping. Having spent over £500 for the plane tickets to Tokyo the night before, you’d think I’d be saving every remaining penny on my person. Not so. I bought some paper and a pen (for revision, of course!) and I bought Dream Theater’s Images And Words for the princely sum of £3.97. Amazing! I also bought The Big Issue. It has gone up 10p since I last bought it (yes, as bad as the railways!) to £1.50.
I foolishly made the mistake of forgetting to do my Statistics homework, which is due in today. My second deadly error was to wait even more and start it during the Liverpool v Arsenal match in the Carling Cup. What a match! It ended Liverpool 3-6 Arsenal. I am quite pleased about this.
To finish, I have written another song. I’m not sure about it. The choruses were an afterthought and became the central theme, so I went back and edited other bits. I’m not sure it flows now. Anyway, if you want to see, it’s at my The Songs Of Geoff Brady site, and it is called Just Three Sins.
...with 2 replies.
What a waste of a holiday. I planned to write up my lecture notes in order to cover everything I had taken down in the term. Needless to say I failed hopelessly.
I just couldn’t settle down to work, and when I did, it was often interrupted. This week we have some revision lectures, which will hopefully be of use to me – they usually are, but given that I haven’t revised much over Christmas, it will be more a case that the lecturers will go through the questions and write down everything I see.
My trip to Japan is a bit of a permanent distraction now – not that I’m complaining! But I feel guilty for several reasons.
Firstly, I’m taking out my student loan in order to go. However, this is money I will pay back – with interest – when I am earning.
Secondly, I will be going to a comparatively exotic place. This is a position most students don’t find themselves in. However, many students will have gone on holiday plenty when they were children, and this is something I haven’t experienced, so this is my justification!
Thirdly, Mum. She has hardly ever had a holiday, particularly abroad. I feel guilty bringing it up in conversation, because she won’t be going. I should take her somewhere, but she’d probably persuade me not to. Won’t know until I try, I guess.
...with no replies just yet.
What a strange day. I went in this morning to Uni to do some revision sessions. Everything seemed to be fine. After the final revision session, as we were leaving, news filtered through that a student on our course, Andy, had died yesterday of an acute asthma attack. It knocked me sideways a bit, because it was so sudden. He was probably around the university yesterday.
I didn’t really know him that well, but there were some in my small group of friends, particularly Jayne, who were quite close to him having studied similar modules in the past couple of years, and were understandably devastated. I felt rather useless so I went home. But I felt I should have said something comforting, or even sent a text message of support. I tried both, but everything that I was saying in my head sounded useless. I hope all concerned are ok, particularly his family.
After that bombshell, the rest of the day seemed rather meaningless. It may be selfish to say this now, but I become quite intimidated by the thought of a death close by. I have been rather fortunate in that deaths occur around my periphery and I have not experienced anyone close to me dying: I have never been to a funeral. That’s not to say that those that have passed away that I have known of are not important, quite the contrary in fact: I very often think about Adam and Annalee. Both Adam and Annalee died after I had stopped seeing them regularly, and so I was not really close to them at the times of their passing. Having said that, the events still shook me.
I am quite scared of death. How do you get used to someone not being around any more? And when someone dies so suddenly, how can you hope to understand it? It’s such a waste of a promising individual.
...with one reply so far.
I have an exam tomorrow morning. I hardly revised at all for it, so it’s going to be a short night sleep then think about how I’m going to survive in the morning. Oh why oh why did I let myself get into this mess?!
Perhaps this will serve me right. I haven’t found an adequate revision strategy, so I lose. Is it fair? Yes I think so. If I had done all my notes at the time (a stitch in time saves nine, after all) then I might have spent more time doing past papers, and such like.
Oh well. No time to rue my techniques now, I have the rest of my life to do that…
...with no replies just yet.
My wrist bloody hurts. I probably have repetitive strain injury (RSI) from continued writing, typing and… playing my guitar. I have an exam tomorrow afternoon (oh yes, an afternoon exam!) so I have stopped revising for the night. I am finding it difficult to revise effectively at the moment. I can’t quite put my finger on why. Noise distracts me. Silence distracts me.
Silence distracts me because my mind tries to fill in the void. So I think about my muses, my past, and my future.
Oh my future. I know everything that is going to happen up until 2nd June. Two days. After that, anything could happen. 5th-8th June should be when Anthony, Colin and Phil come up. 9th June I’m down to Sittingbourne. However, at the moment, I’m going to have try to hide somewhere in Sittingbourne overnight so that I might not be attacked by drunk/high/normal scallies. Or I could blag a place to stay. So if I send you a text tomorrow, it is because I do in fact love you very, very much!
...with 8 replies.
Aye, it’s Bank Holiday Monday – fantastic time to do some revision. However, I was taking a tea and mini muffins break and Carry On Up The Jungle was on the TV. I wonder who wrote the scripts… but the fantasy of it all is incredible – and of course it sparked a few fantasies of my own.
If whatever happened tomorrow would be completely forgotten by everyone else the next day (and thereafter), what would you do? I smile as I write this, because I have an idea of what I would do – and I would never do it otherwise! You see, the point of this question is an interesting one. Whatever you would do would be something that you would not feel guilty in yourself about doing, but you would be affected by how other people would react. I suppose to some degree this is true for my fantasy. There is another interesting point – I bet everyone would have something in mind to do on this day. The fact these would not be done is characteristic of human nature I suppose.
So I am a big hypocrite. I would tell someone to do whatever they wanted (within reason) and not let anyone stop them. But I can’t do it myself.
...with one reply so far.
WordPress
Entries
Delicious
Reddit