paper exams ·
15 August 05

I admit I am slightly bitter but I feel…a bit Zen about the whole thing. I know 3 of the people that passed only did so because they checked out the answer sheet and went let’s remember the answers. They were all insistent that they hoped to get questions from the answer sheet, which they did to their amusement. One guy finished the exam in 40 minutes. You get 2 hours to do it.

The remaining squeezed by the pass mark, but did so by actually working out the questions rather than knowing the answers. Ask the ones that passed with high marks a question which wasn’t in the test, say one you’ve devised but is related and they will not know the answer. Even if you ask them to explain why they chose a specific answer to a question, they will fail to explain the logic or the reasoning – simply that it is the answer, and that’s as far as they know.

Still, they took the intiative and remembered and did it, and passed and I didn’t. I failed by 1 mark, one question that buggered me up. Even though I can safely say there were many questions that I found horrible due to their formatting or the constant disconnections that resulted during the exam due to there being too many users online.

But as I say, I am trying to be cool about it. Monday is another day and I was told that if I get a high mark/pass on Monday they’ll consider letting me do the finals based on record – which to date is flawless both in the pre-mocks and in terms of attendence and quality of work. Oh come on, I need to slap myself on the back for something!

So basically I have to revise, and revise and revise – writing this blog entry, for example is wasting time though I am not in the right frame of mind to revise immedately. Too much noise, too many people awake, the best time would probably be at night where I feel most comfortable. There’s 600 questions to read through and understand, and hope that I understand them well enough before the weekend to get a high mark on the exam.

Ask the ones that passed with high marks a question which wasn’t in the test, say one you’ve devised but is related and they will not know the answer

Interestingly, due Friday’s screw ups with the difficulty with which it took to understand some questions, they’re going to be changing a fair number to more updated questions, some of which we haven’t actually convered in great detail so it’s a case of making a guesstimate on what the correct answer is. Some of the questions end up being two-thirds of a page long with a diagram and question you have no inkling of understanding. I don’t want to be a “paper MCP” – someone who only passes the exams knowing the answers, but not understanding the reasons why. I was close, I wasn’t far so I have every chance, in fact I have every confidence that I will pass. It’s just that quiet little voice that says, “You never know” that it could go either way.

Admittedly there is a chance that I get all the hard questions, my chances are about as equal as anyone else I guess. I’ve gone through all the questions before, and you really need to get the formula down. Things like understanding that NT under Windows 2000 requires an NT policy to be applied in order to restrict features such as the desktop properties. Or that you can’t use MS Chap v2 with Windows 95 or 98 out of the box, only MS Chap. Just little bits that I need to keep in mind. It’s the questions on subnetting that really through me off, and I still couldn’t comprehensively give you a CIDR breakdown of a subnet. If someone said provide the 16bit subnet mask, i would have to think hard. Of course I know it’s 255.255.0.0 but that’s only because I know it. But ask me to work out a subnet using CIDR and I will really struggle.

I need to smash the scores tomorrow, and I am feeling confident but nervous of Monday’s test. I can go through any question and chances are I will know the answer 8/10 times but there’s always that fuckin niggle and I can’t do anything about it!

I thought about I did on previous exams, and the shocking reality is that I’ve always been a predicted student with high grades only to underachieve. Everyone puts pressure on me, which is annoying. The last thing I need it stress, something that really affect me on Friday because of the one asshole giving me lip and my asthma kicking in.

This has to be a pass or I’m lumbered. I will pass and then I can start drinking again as I miss it. A lot.