Examining hope

It’s that time of year once again. The last term and the last stretch of College until exams are over (hopefully you won’t be returning in summer for resits). You can almost sense the high tension and stress in the air. It’s a familiar feeling and reminds you that the culmination of months (and in some people’s case years) of work is just around the corner. Much like Phil Collins once said, you can feel it coming in the air tonight – which, incidentally, I’ve only just realised actually sounds pretty rude when you think about it.

So, standard advice about not stressing too much and blah blah blah. It really does apply though. It’s better to actually do three hours of focussed work and then an hour of chilling out as opposed to five hours of not really concentrating. If you’re not a final year then spare a thought for them. In your fourth year you may have had seven and over years of exams in summer. By then you definitely get exam fatigue, and really have to motivate yourself to remember that it’s just one last push. Unless you do a law conversion course, or are going into a job where you have to do training and pass exams. Sorry, that’s probably not helping the whole “one last time” approach very much.

During the next few weeks you may start to think that exams and work are the only thing there is to life. At a place like Imperial it’s really easy to get into the mindset that it is the most important aspect of your existence. All of the work and your grades do matter a lot, but remember that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Just keep a positive mental image of what it’ll be like when you finish. It can be anything: sunbathing on a beach/watching endless TV/reading a good book/in Belushi’s calling the toilet attendant “mate” and inexplicably giving him £2 coins for no reason – as long as it’s something that makes you smile it’s what you should remember you will be able to do in a few month’s time. If that still doesn’t help then remember this: it is just an exam. Nobody will die if you fail it (erm, except maybe for medics? But, you will have loads of on the job training I’m sure/hope). Even if you do, there’s always a way out. Retakes, resitting a year, going to a different university to start fresh, there’s a range of options. So, parting words from the strange Agony Uncle persona I appear to have adopted: work hard for this short period of time, and it’ll all be over soon. Then you can forget differential equations exist.

Much like Phil Collins, you can feel it coming in the air tonight – which, incidentally, I’ve only just realised actually sounds pretty rude when you think about it

Halls

College and the Union ping ponged responses to each other. This is a step forward. Now there is a much more open dialogue. Before it was all things that nobody was able to tell anyone about. The fact that the Management Board have responded to students is definitely moving in the right direction. However, we must be careful. The words must turn into actions and firm guarentees. Also, we must make sure we don’t all just get bored, forget about it, and let things quietly slip by without the student voice being heard.

Garden Hall and Evelyn Gardens are still under threat, as is Pembridge. They really are a great asset and make being a fresher at Imperial an amazing year. In terms of student experience (the latest catchphrase that basically means how good your time is here) having such great, cheap, close accommodation was a real boost. We must hope that there will be some good news on this front at some point, and also continue to lobby for their survival. They are really worth it for Imperial. In terms of Acton, there must now be a positive dialogue. We have to see what we can do to make it the best it can be, if it must be. It’s definitely good that there is a working group and students are involved.