I’m totally amazed by the fact that I’m sitting on my bed write now typing on a (OMG moment #1) laptop that’s (#2) Macbook with (#3) wireless Internet. My parents have been putting off getting me a laptop for university, so my aunt and uncle went ahead to get me a Macbook. I’ve been a PC person since the 1990s, so it’s taking me a while to get used to Macs and laptops in general. Needless to say, they’re a breath of fresh air!

This week I’ve learned so much about taking exams. I finished IB English HL Paper 1, History SL  P1P2, Math HL P1P2, Chemistry SL P1P2, and just got home from Paper 3. That’s eight bloody papers in one week, what a headache! Anyway, I’ve compiled a list of things one should and should not do during/before exams (from experience haha). 

Rule #1 - Do not be late for an exam (stating the obvious). I was a few minutes behind schedule for the chemistry paper today because I was OUTSIDE the gym/exam room memorizing last minute equations, along with half a dozen other people. Our IB Coordinator came out and went, “WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING?! GET IN HERE!” (in a posh British accent of course, being British and all that). We went inside and it was slightly unnerving having 90 pairs of eyes on us. This wasn’t so bad as a paper yesterday, where this guy showed up two minutes late. IB rule dictates that if a student is more than fifteen minutes late for an exam, he/she does not get the Diploma and has to wait till November to take the exam again. Yikes!

Rule #2 - Mutilating gummy bears is a great stress reliever in the middle of the exam. For some reason our school is being very generous by allowing us to bring “unwrapped, non-sticky, non-crunchy candy” to the exam. The Coordinator said it was in case we needed a “sugar boost” (hmm… he must’ve had experience with kids crashing from too many allnighters). I’ve gone through half a box of sour gummy bears already, they’re great!

Rule #3 - Guard your food from sneaky invigilators at all times, otherwise you’ll notice your English teacher loitering around your desk and just as you hit a panic moment about probability density functions there will be a great probability that your gummy bears are slowly disappearing. (I kid)

Rule #4 - Thou shalt always look at the backside of the last page. One of my friends walked out of the chem paper today going “OMFG I FLIPPED OVER THE LAST PAGE AT THE LAST TWO MINUTES AND THERE WAS A WHOLE PAGE OF QUESTIONS =OO” Haha we’re horrible test-takers, can’t you tell? 

Rule #5 - For God’s sakes don’t GRUNT LOUDLY, BURP REPETITIVELY, and SHAKE THE TABLE INCESSANTLY unless you want the wrath of the person on the other side of the divider. If I don’t get a 7 for chemistry I’m blaming the annoying idiot sitting beside me who kept tapping his foot and producing foreign noises from his body parts -.-

Rule #49385798 (for the entire list, buy my book when I’m wealthy and famous as the result of an enriching International Baccalaureate education) - do NOT under any circumstance knock over your open water bottle over your recently-finished, pristinely-written-with-black-ink history essay and SMUDGE half the words. Thank god I had an instinct to bring kleenex and paper towels and had them in the corner of my desk. I managed to dry my essay (on Stalin’s industrialization) before everything turned into a black blob (much like Stalin’s mustache). I don’t think my friends will ever stop laughing at me for that incident.

I will now be catching up on all the sleep I missed this week.

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