what the fuck am i getting myself into with this grad school stuff

if I stay up all night, any tips for keeping focused in exam?

Wait, it's an EXAM? God, I thought you were burning up doing an essay or something. I can't do exams on no sleep.

Have heard that a small amount of sugar helps the memory, though. No idea if it's an old wives tale, but seeing as I usually need a can of pop before I do exams it can't hurt.

good luck usa

dude - if you're taking an exam, get as much sleep as possible - i almost had to take an english comp/writing class when i started grad school, because i'd had only 4 hours of sleep when i sat for the placement exam.

2.5hrs sleep

o_________________________O

u sleep?

gl dude.

Absolute best of luck. Kill those questions.

yeah get in there with a 'ws this paper' mentality.

I HOPE YOU DID YOUR EXAM IN ALL CAPS

Wait, it's an EXAM? God, I thought you were burning up doing an essay or something. I can't do exams on no sleep.

― emil.y, Wednesday, 1 September 2010 04:30 (7 hours ago)

srsly! hope lj does well but it all sounds a bit hectic (i did some of my gcses on 3/4 hrs sleep, never again)

struggle to think of an exam from age of 15 where i slept normally the night before.

struggle to think of a day in general from the age of 15 where i slept normally the night before tbf

you just gotta crush like three red bulls and you're through imo

lol yeah I always go to bed at like 8 PM the night before and always end up sleeping only 3-4 hours cause of the anxiety. sucks xp

stayed up all night before leaving cert english to learn austin clarke's ouevre on a hot tip. SMASHED IT OUTTA THA PARK. it was about a cow iirc.

90 mins' sleep, have consumed 1 large mochaccino and now wish 4 the sweet release of death

but it is over

please friendly marker heed the fact I mentioned loads of apposite cases and give me 50 out of 100

you don't want your students to fail your prestigious course

oh no you don't, no siree

Congratulations--can't wait to know how well you did.

btw if I fail I am suggest-banning 'markers' as representative of his hideous kind

and because he's the new one it's fun to bully

how'd you feel you did?

marginally enough iirc - but although i was better prepared the exam was way tougher this time around

glad to hear it. best of luck.

when d'you hear?

GET IN GET IN GET IN

van der vaart is a qualified MA

GET IN

end of month btw

cool

For darraghmac:

When the black herds of the rain were grazing,
In the gap of the pure cold wind
And the watery hazes of the hazel
Brought her into my mind,
I thought of the last honey by the water
That no hive can find.

Brightness was drenching through the branches
When she wandered again,
Turning sliver out of dark grasses
Where the skylark had lain,
And her voice coming softly over the meadow
Was the mist becoming rain.

I remember this being "definitely on the Leaving Cert" EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Eventually it did come up, I don't think I answered on it.

yeah it's about a cow. i didn't fancy the others that year so a kid from up the road that went to another school reckoned we should pool the different poets we'd covered and insisted i go over that one in partic. worked out well, i didn't drop a mark on paper 1.

tryint to recall now if poetry was paper 1 or not but anyways, ladies and gentlemen, that was austin clarke, with a poem about a cow.

I can't actually remember what poetry came up my year, I don't think I did that question (or did I?). Would have been Paper 2 anyway.

yeah paper 1 was composition now i think back.

dropped marks on paper 2, sorry austin ;_;

quality time management skills, me, time to work through the night trying to hammer my dissertation into something passable.

that frenzy, that's how shit gets done in the real world. embrace it.

I need to learn to work more at night. I'm old and sleepy

fuck the real world my man, with a philosophy masters my world is the dole queue.

You're in good company - I'm getting a Visual Arts MFA. I'll make something useless and you can think about it. We'll make a fortune

done. After 1.5 hours of sleep I've been rolling on adrenaline all day, and now that I have no use for it I feel like having a fight. Cahmereyou.

Okay, so. Pretty much decided to get a Film MFA, time to figure out how to do that.

I've enrolled as a non-matriculated student here in SLC, going to take a grad class or two. The plan, outside of school, is to move to SF in May 2012.

My undergrad GPA is pretty terrible (2.5), partially for stupid reasons that weren't really my fault, partially because I hadn't quite figured out how to do college until pretty late in the game, so I've got that to overcome.

I want the MFA before I turn 30. I'm 24 now, turn 25 at the end of the year. Seems like I've got a big ol' ball of stuff I need to put into motion, not sure what to do first. Any general or specific tips?

Hm, I don't really know about the American system, sorry to be of no help. What does that GPA translate to in UK degree terms? A third? A 2:2? If you're applying as a mature student they might be a bit more lenient with you if you can prove you are now motivated enough to exceed your previous standards.

Anyway, I am just checking in to state that I am now officially a PhD student. All enrolled and everything. And I kept seeing Fay Weldon wandering the halls today.

It's 2.5 on a 4.0 scale, 2 being a C, 3 being a B, etc. if that helps translate at all.

me too! exciiiiting.

i wandered by the library to get my card on the system and ended up having this two hour chat with the librarian where she demonstrated about ten different databases and then talked me through my research plan to see what kind of materials i'd be using and what she should try and order in. and then after i got home i found like three emails from her w/ links to stuff i might need! and books i might want to actually buy! It is a different world. I am feeling about 90% less 'what the fuck am i getting myself into with this etc' than i was yesterday.

uh, xpost

2.5 is somewhere in the Desmond range, I think my Desmond converted to something like that and I got into CMU based on good meeting with the program director, work experience and a kick ass personal statement.

nick, why do you want to do an mfa in film?

btw it's been two years (?!?!?!) so i'm goin in on this again.

think if i mention this in the library thread people will hit me with a bunch of depressing likelyhood-of-finding-employment statistics, but i'm readying applications to start at MLIS in 2011. re-reading old ILX personal statement threads, dreading receiving and reviewing transcripts, tracking down friendly professors, etc. kinda pessimistic about the competition for places this year though.