Hello again. Just checked my last blog and can’t believe my last update was back in March. It has certainly been a busy few months, hence the lack of blog activity. Our last lectures finished at the end of March and it was sad that they had ended. I really enjoyed Ethics and Corporate identity, and have learned so much over the past two terms. The end of the course also meant it was time for exams!
During the Easter vacation I usually spend my break on holiday overseas, but this year it was time to dive into the books and revise for my exams. Of course I did take a few days rest to enjoy the Easter week-end. Easter is a religious festival, celebrated by Christians that often includes stories for children about spring with rabbits and eggs. The Easter bunny has since become a symbol like Father Christmas bringing colourfully painted eggs to children’s houses on Easter Sunday. Nowadays Easter has become quite a commercialised spring holiday, with families buying each other chocolate shaped eggs and eating traditional hot cross buns! For children there are often Easter egg hunts, which this year my mum organised for my niece. It was very cute seeing her run around the garden with her colourful little basket trying to find all the chocolate eggs. I of course also indulged in some chocolate Easter eggs …I needed the sugar for my revision…well that’s my excuse!
I can’t say I particularly enjoyed the month or so I spent revising for my exams, it was hard work and difficult at times to stay focussed and motivated. We did organise some revision study groups with our classmates, which helped and provided some much needed company, as it can get a bit lonely studying by yourself all the time. I only had three exams but it was still a lot of ground we had to cover. Before we broke up for Easter we did have a number of revision classes, which were very helpful and provided us with the key areas that the exam questions would be based on. This was really useful in giving us direction for our study. For the module on Strategic Management we were also given a case study prior to the exam to study and provide a SWOT and PESTLE analysis.
I have to say I was very glad that I didn’t go away on holiday for Easter, as for those students who did decide to go home or visit places in Europe, not all of them made it back for their exams, due to flight disruptions caused by the volcanic ash. It certainly was an interesting and exciting period leading up to the exams with both the volcano activity and here in the UK we had a general election. For the first time ever the three main parties, Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats held live TV debates on their various policies, it was very interesting to see how they dealt with questions put to them by the audience. However as much interest as these debates caused we ended up with no clear majority and for the first since 1945, we now have a coalition party in power comprising of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. It has reminded me a lot of our lectures on Corporate Identity and company mergers, as both these parties have very different ideals so it has been difficult for the public to know how to identify with this coalition, but I think interesting times are ahead for the UK.
As for the exams I really hope I have passed. I worked so hard, in fact maybe a little too hard if that is possible! By the time I got to the exams I was so exhausted and nervous I made the mistake of misreading a number of questions…so fingers crossed I won’t be doing re-sits in September. The exam papers actually weren’t too bad. I think it was just my nerves that were the problem, after having not taken any exams for over ten years…hmm now showing my age! There were workshops held at Brunel during the exam period to help with exam stress and exam preparation, but for me having a nice cold beer after each of the three hour exams was the best form of stress relief!
