Finally - It's Over!
Right! The day of the last exam (for now) had arrived, and I woke up with a headache. I put it down to exam nerves, got up, had a bringing up mucus spell (again I put it down to nerves), and wndered if I had the start of a lurgy as I did seem quite sinusy. Not good preparation for an exam!
Anyway - into college, and no-one from the group was about. Hardly surprising given the snow and travel conditions, we only met up once I got to the exam hall, with pretty much everyone there except Jason who had been driving from Crawley! I'd spent the half hour before the exam conducting a practical experiment into the effects of a lack of ADH, namely rushing to the loo every few minutes!
Right - at my desk, get my pens spread, calculator, ruler etc. ALl good :o) I was well prepared. It was funny hearing the exam regs read out, as I'd done it myself numerous times and pretty much knew the speech word for word!
Open the paper - oh good! It's on the brain! Hang on - this picture is the opposite way round to the brain in all my notes :os Don't panic! Damn! Where's the hypothalmus? I know it's in the middle somewhere, connected to the pituitary, but which one of those bits is it? Why didn't I revise this? I know the functions of it - but where exactly is it? Ah well - one mark lost maximum. Now - is it in the midbrain or hindbrain? Hmmm - looks mid, but then midbrain is MPM - oh no, that's brain stem. Hmmm - it's going to be a primitive thing isn't it, so maybe hindbrain? I changed my mind about three times, and eventually guessed between the two options. Chatting in the canteen afterwards, it seemed this question tripped up a lot of people - correct answer is forebrain! AH well - second mark lost - it's out of seventy!
Next question - eyes. Standard stuff about rods and cones, and I knew the deal about rhodopsin and how it generates an action potential really well - glad I made the effort to clear up the cis to trans thingy. Nailed it - just a bit thrown by the "How many different types of iodopsin are in the cells shown?". It's obvious isn't it - one cone, so one type of iodopsin. Seems two obvious, what have I missed? I tried to check. Yeah - if the one cone contains all three types of pigment, then how does the nerve distinguish between red, green and blue? Must be one. The concensus (and more crucially, the textbook) agreed!
Kidney question - easy peasy! Lots of stuff about percentage of sodium remaining and why oit changes (duh - reabsorbtion), and then a bit about the counter current mechanism (another well practised one) and then soemthign on percentage of sodium. Really just a matter of water levels drop (reabsorbtion - damn - should have said osmosis) at the same rate as sodium, so concentration is the same. Very little knowledge of the kidney needed - mainly just understanding that stuff is reabsorbed and understandign the difference between amount and concentration.
Now - respiration (mentally punches air) - I drilled this to death. I write "plan", and start jotting down points to mention. Then....I notice that the word is "anaerobic" rather than "aerobic" - whoops! Okay, I know this, just pick the relevant points out. Shame I forgot to cross the plan out at the end, because there's some non-anaerobic stuff in it, hope the examiner realises where the essay proper starts! Anyway - think I nailed htis one - apart from "Phosphorylation to glucose 6-phosphate" I think I mentioned every salient point, so should score well.
One more question in the core section - forget what it was about though. Not female hormones. Phew! Just as in life in general, female hormones are something I never feel I've really grasped properly. Anyway - I felt I'd answered whatever the question was well! Ah yes - it was to do with homeostasis - no problem!
Onto the option section. A quick flick - nothing on aseptic technique or preparing streak plates etc - all of which I'd asiduously revised since seeing questions on past papers - I'd initially neglected this topic! Anyway - it was stuff I knew. I hesitated briefly at the yeast fermentation (surely a bit similar to the anaerobic muscle question?), but went for the obvious answer. Several "basically say in words what the graph is saying" - easy marks for me, and a few definitions. Then one on how lousy lactose is for a carbon source for some yeasts. Nice that this came up, as I only revised it in the last few days
Paper done and dusted bar the fast two marks, so I read back, made a few minor amendments, and tried to figure out the hypothalmus thing, but got no further. Time to stop! I looked round, saw that Jason had arrive, and got (and gave) a thumbs up from/to Naeem. I thinkw e all liked the paper, although we did think it was a bit skewed and neglected completely some rather big topics. Them's the breaks though. Should be an A in the bag for this module - which was great as I felt the A2 modules might drop below this and so I'd have to get higher on the AS modules to compensate.
Went home, slept, then back into class, and realised that the practicals were a week earlier than expecetd and I needed to get some stuff together quickly! So - instead of my planned "chill out" day today, I'm back into college to start getting my list of kit and H&S thingy done.
Relieved that the exams are over, still got this semi-lurgy, but I really must have a break soon! On the plus side, the genetics stuff we did last night was fascinating. CSI will make a lot more sense now :oD
Anyway - into college, and no-one from the group was about. Hardly surprising given the snow and travel conditions, we only met up once I got to the exam hall, with pretty much everyone there except Jason who had been driving from Crawley! I'd spent the half hour before the exam conducting a practical experiment into the effects of a lack of ADH, namely rushing to the loo every few minutes!
Right - at my desk, get my pens spread, calculator, ruler etc. ALl good :o) I was well prepared. It was funny hearing the exam regs read out, as I'd done it myself numerous times and pretty much knew the speech word for word!
Open the paper - oh good! It's on the brain! Hang on - this picture is the opposite way round to the brain in all my notes :os Don't panic! Damn! Where's the hypothalmus? I know it's in the middle somewhere, connected to the pituitary, but which one of those bits is it? Why didn't I revise this? I know the functions of it - but where exactly is it? Ah well - one mark lost maximum. Now - is it in the midbrain or hindbrain? Hmmm - looks mid, but then midbrain is MPM - oh no, that's brain stem. Hmmm - it's going to be a primitive thing isn't it, so maybe hindbrain? I changed my mind about three times, and eventually guessed between the two options. Chatting in the canteen afterwards, it seemed this question tripped up a lot of people - correct answer is forebrain! AH well - second mark lost - it's out of seventy!
Next question - eyes. Standard stuff about rods and cones, and I knew the deal about rhodopsin and how it generates an action potential really well - glad I made the effort to clear up the cis to trans thingy. Nailed it - just a bit thrown by the "How many different types of iodopsin are in the cells shown?". It's obvious isn't it - one cone, so one type of iodopsin. Seems two obvious, what have I missed? I tried to check. Yeah - if the one cone contains all three types of pigment, then how does the nerve distinguish between red, green and blue? Must be one. The concensus (and more crucially, the textbook) agreed!
Kidney question - easy peasy! Lots of stuff about percentage of sodium remaining and why oit changes (duh - reabsorbtion), and then a bit about the counter current mechanism (another well practised one) and then soemthign on percentage of sodium. Really just a matter of water levels drop (reabsorbtion - damn - should have said osmosis) at the same rate as sodium, so concentration is the same. Very little knowledge of the kidney needed - mainly just understanding that stuff is reabsorbed and understandign the difference between amount and concentration.
Now - respiration (mentally punches air) - I drilled this to death. I write "plan", and start jotting down points to mention. Then....I notice that the word is "anaerobic" rather than "aerobic" - whoops! Okay, I know this, just pick the relevant points out. Shame I forgot to cross the plan out at the end, because there's some non-anaerobic stuff in it, hope the examiner realises where the essay proper starts! Anyway - think I nailed htis one - apart from "Phosphorylation to glucose 6-phosphate" I think I mentioned every salient point, so should score well.
One more question in the core section - forget what it was about though. Not female hormones. Phew! Just as in life in general, female hormones are something I never feel I've really grasped properly. Anyway - I felt I'd answered whatever the question was well! Ah yes - it was to do with homeostasis - no problem!
Onto the option section. A quick flick - nothing on aseptic technique or preparing streak plates etc - all of which I'd asiduously revised since seeing questions on past papers - I'd initially neglected this topic! Anyway - it was stuff I knew. I hesitated briefly at the yeast fermentation (surely a bit similar to the anaerobic muscle question?), but went for the obvious answer. Several "basically say in words what the graph is saying" - easy marks for me, and a few definitions. Then one on how lousy lactose is for a carbon source for some yeasts. Nice that this came up, as I only revised it in the last few days
Paper done and dusted bar the fast two marks, so I read back, made a few minor amendments, and tried to figure out the hypothalmus thing, but got no further. Time to stop! I looked round, saw that Jason had arrive, and got (and gave) a thumbs up from/to Naeem. I thinkw e all liked the paper, although we did think it was a bit skewed and neglected completely some rather big topics. Them's the breaks though. Should be an A in the bag for this module - which was great as I felt the A2 modules might drop below this and so I'd have to get higher on the AS modules to compensate.
Went home, slept, then back into class, and realised that the practicals were a week earlier than expecetd and I needed to get some stuff together quickly! So - instead of my planned "chill out" day today, I'm back into college to start getting my list of kit and H&S thingy done.
Relieved that the exams are over, still got this semi-lurgy, but I really must have a break soon! On the plus side, the genetics stuff we did last night was fascinating. CSI will make a lot more sense now :oD
posted by XFR Bear @ 7:39 am
2 Comments:
what a memory for wwhat was in exam-thats usually a good sign in my book!!!!
But you didn't tell us what you had for breakfast.
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