The journey to my exam location was in three stages - train to London bridge, underground to Canning Town, then another underground to Cyprus, where my exam was held at the Docklands campus of the University of East London (although my studies are through USQ). It was the first time I have ever travelled alone on public transport (here or anywhere), so I was more worried about losing my way than I was about the actual exam!!
All in all, the trip to my exam was quite smooth and relatively uneventful. At one stage we stopped in a tunnel because there was an abandoned backpack at the next station, but it must have been ok because we soon continued on our way.
The exam itself, which started at 9:15am, went very well. This is very lucky considering I looked at 6 of the 12 course modules FOR THE FIRST TIME in the last fortnight, and the majority of those only in the last few days. Oh, and those 6 modules made up more than 80 of the 100 marks on the exam, which accounts for 70% of my overall course grade... Thank goodness for a very clear exam outline provided by the lecturer ("Question 1 will cover X from Module Y and will be worth 15 marks" etc), which I would have been lost without!
When I left the uni on the train, a very large, very ominous-looking plume of dark grey smoke could be seen billowing up from a few miles away and slowly drifting across the sky. People on the train were actually talking about it - which shows how serious this was, as talking on trains is highly unfashionable here (as is smiling, being caught looking at someone, etc).
It turns out that the fire was in a unused warehouse near the 2012 London Olympics construction site. Apparently there were tyres in there, which helps explain the colour of the smoke! This was announced on one of my later trains, as the smoke could still be seen from all over London, but I couldn't really hear the announcement so I didn't know what it was until I got home and looked it up. Thankfully no one was injured, but I imagine the firefighters (75 of them!) are still at work even as I write this. Apparently the fire brigade was called at 12:06pm - only a few minutes before I left the uni and saw the smoke! Click here for a BBC article about the fire. Below are a couple of photos I took from the train window...
Anyway, due to unrelated train delays and shopping/squirrel sidetracks on my walk from the train station to home, I didn't get home until 3:30pm, four hours after my exam finished!
Quite an eventful day, all things considered! Ben's first exam was on Thursday last week, and the most interesting thing that happened to him was that he missed his stop on the trip home because he was so diligently studying for his next exam, which is on Thursday this week! (I only had one exam so right now I am enjoying the sensations of great relief and freedom!) Wish him luck - and better train-location-awareness! :)
Bye for now!
7 comments:
Suspicious backpack, billowing plume of smoke - it's all happening in London!!!!! Glad you eventually made it to your exam room and it went well.
you should so be a journalist! :) Good luck to Ben...
Hmm, I don't think heading AWAY from the fire (rather than running towards it with notepad at the ready) was really very journalist-like!?
Glad your exam went well. What subject was it??
ACC5202 Accounting. Did you do it?
Corporations Law over summer semester next (well, "winter semester" here!). :)
No, I did not have to do that course, I think it is Post-grad only. All the best for Corporations Law, it may be a bit like Revenue Law & Practice, which was a tough subject but very interesting.
Well done Anna. Made it to your exam on time. We knew you could do it if you really wanted to. Keep it up.
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