Post exam b(l)ooze

The compulsories are now officially over (yes, I know that I've written this before) but now they are REALLY over-that's it;

• no more board meeting sandwiches,
  
• no letters of claim,
  
• no interim applications and
  
• NO bloody property-ever, definite, absolute, underlined twice with daggers 'n' blood.

There, I've said it-all ended, finished, done and dusted (where's that thesaurus, I'm running out of synonyms)....

...that is unless I failed one.

I have an interesting record though, I have never failed an important written exam. Even if I've been complete pants at the subject I've still managed to put in a good enough performance to get through. My 'A' level mocks were an 'F' and two 'E's but come the real things I bettered the passes I needed. My 'O' level mocks were pretty abysmal too but I recorded a mass of solid 'C's or better. Similarly my degrees were barely average for coursework but my exam scores bailed me out.

This course is different however, for the first time ever I've throroughly enjoyed it and put the necessary work in (and more besides) but I still have those nagging doubts about the results. I have to say that my work load did fall dramatically in the exam week. I had great hopes that I would sit the exam in the morning then come home and hit the books and study until the usual time when I could sit back and bask in my own smugness.

But it didn't happen-at least for me, some of my friends from my now deconstructed tutor group (sob) could get back and work and not only that but 'hit the books' till the wee hours then get up and do it all again.

Just not me, a week or so back I made a gentle analogy relating exams with sex-that seems far more pertinent at the moment. After each exam I felt, well, spent I suppose. The motivation to get interested again when I got home wasn't there. (Ah, if I was 20 years younger-I could do exams and be studying within half an hour...)

Was that too much information?

It gets worse I'm afraid. The build up to the exam is getting too much for me. The whole 'arriving early at college, trying to keep cool, doing a simple test (or crossword) before the exam proper to stop myself peaking too soon' business has worn me out. Likewise the intensity of the exam itself-for between 2 to 3 1/2 hours I am in the 'zone'-there could be a fire break out or the stunning young lady in front of me could disrobe and I would be oblivious. The only thing that matters is that clock and the 30 minutes/10 minutes to go warnings.

Obviously I don't want to finish too soon...

You've got to pace yourself-but that intensity is wearing (again, I think it's an age thing-my OU exams were in one day-study/revise/exam/over but with these, they take 5 days in a row). Granted they are all open-note so there is no pressure to learn it off by heart but you must understand not only the practical application but also the background material.

Most of this is given in the exam itself (and it is not easy to read through a case history when you are under time pressure-friends of mine have lost marks this week for not reading the questions or not having analysed the case material properly) but we were lucky to have been given prereading for business and property.
The business one was a fairly simple family owned company and the property one was a leasehold in (of all places) Exeter. I have a very strange feeling that I used to walk past the very property that was being discussed when I was going for my daily exercise when I first started writing this blog...

The exams themselves;
Monday-Business, I was guessing that we would be tested on (a specific) tax, (a specific aspect of) insolvency and A N other business topic (I actually guessed partnership/EU but was wrong) as well as the 15 multiple choice questions.
I won't state what subjects were chosen but was 100% correct on my first two guesses. The other business subject was one that I had good notes on so I was pretty content with the paper.

Tuesday-Business part 2. I assumed we would have no further tax or insolvency questions and all the problems would be based on company law. Again I was spot on. We had a huge board room sandwich to digest as well as questions on ethics and meeting protocol. But again I had that smug, contented feeling that you associate with excellent sex (or so I vaguely remember)

Wednesday-litigation part 1 (Civil). This was always going to be my worst exam-I had crawled through the mock with an exact pass and even though I had dismantled my notes and rewritten them from scratch over Christmas/exam break I was not overly keen on them.
It was a toughy-no doubt about it.
In fact it was so unmemorable that I can't remember what a single question was (never a good sign-I can remember all of my last OU exam questions). I wrote plenty and didn't finish ahead of time-never a bad sign but hmm, I'm not sure

Sometimes the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. (you guys will know what I mean)

Thursday-litigation part 2 (Criminal). This was always going to be my best exam-luckily litigation is the combined civil and criminal scores-so I had a chance to make up anything I dropped yesterday.

But, it was a toughie-I have a suspicion that a few people might struggle with this one. The questions were harder than any we had experienced before (luckily at least two of them were more difficult copies of ones we had done in class).
By about this stage of the week I felt that I was just going through the motions, that exams and I no longer had the same attraction and I was doing them as a sort of duty. (some of you guys will know what I mean-it was good just not great...)

Friday-property (as a treat the college have saved the longest exam to the end). This had been my best exam in the mock and with hindsight I may have done less work on this than I ought to. I guess that I lulled myself into a state of complacency. This exam was hard-very hard. The multiple choice questions were (at best) a pure guess. The questions concerning a buyer of business property were a struggle but luckily the lease questions were straightforward.

I left the exam feeling that I had let myself down.

Looking back with a critical eye I would estimate the marks to be;
business 70%
litigation 60%
property 50%
Which is not bad, all passes but I was hoping for better. I really wanted to shove it in the faces of the tutors that my fail in advocacy was a big thing after all (yes, I'm still bitter about it!) but not on these scores.

Pity.

Post exams-Our class was meant to get together and celebrate but I was on such a anticlimax from property that I could not raise myself. On Friday, I crashed at about 8:30 and about 9:30 on Saturday. I'm a bit more with it today-I have been playing my radio and screaming along with my favourite tracks.


I have had a tiny drinkee,


...or two


What now? Well, class doesn't begin for another week but I have another assignment to do for about 11 days from now and of course I have my reading for my electives to start-(as one door closes so another slams in your face-sorry, I mean 'opens')

If anything vaguely interesting happens (and the odds are against it) then I'll keep you informed.

It's always darkest before the dawn...

Well, actually it's not, is it?

Try a moonless night at midnight and compare the two. No contest.

Hmm, inane wittering. Heart pounding and clammy palms. Either I'm in love or my exams are close. Hang on, I'll check my calender....




....kin Hellfire, I'm in an exam tomorrow!!!


And the words 'so what?' are coming to mind. I have reached that saturation spot when all I want to do is to see the end of them. I am as close to satisfied with my notes as I can be. (And I have promised not to fire up the laptop for 'one last tweak'). I have put the time in and now I have achieved some geeky, inner peace.

A sort of nerd-vana.

It has been a dull, dull week interrupted only by a few emails from class mates and a trip to 'the smoke'. Last week, I posted a general 'heads up' to my workshop chums that I had notes covering all of the compulsories and if they were short of anything they only had to ask. Well, since then I have had a little interest and true to my word have forwarded what people wanted. I also took the opportunity to include a link to this website (you drink with the devil-you gotta pay...)

There is a slightly cynical part of me that wants to pass on my candidate number and some money for photocopying onto 2 of these people (you know who you are!) and stay at home for 3 of the approaching exams but only because between them they have all my notes for;
property
tax
insolvency
litigation (civil)
litigation (criminal)
Which only leaves company and partnership for me to sit...

Anyhow **cough** Thursday. The day of my next CPS assessment. I had the great joy of travelling up to 'that Lunnon' by train and even better a chance to go by underground. I have no idea why but I'm a bit of a tube anorak-I love 'em! The pity was that Waterloo to Goodge Street is only 6 stops and no changes (in fact I spent longer walking around the stations than on the tube)

Shame!!

I got to the CofL Bloomsbury very early and had close to an hour to kill so I decided to have a poke about (I had to persuade the porter that I was Guildford student-luckily he could see by my sneering, patronising manner that I was). I went up to the library and logged onto the CofL website to check my emails.

Guildford students, please note-Bloomsbury is even slower than the antiquated old cack we have to use. Honestly, it takes about 10 minutes after logging on to be able to do anything.

By the time I had done this (after having put a freshly ironed shirt on-with a pressed tie staying in my bag) it was time to go. I say my tie was in my bag-the reason being was that I had no idea how formal this was going to be. The vast majority of applicants had turned up in their best togs but I had guessed that it would be a waste of good fabric. True enough, it turned out to be unnecessary and we were herded into the very same room that I sat in the last time I went to Bloomsbury.
Just about 2 years ago with the OU-where I had happy memories of holding hands with my former girlfriend and had nearly dropped off with the dullness of it all-the lecture, not the girlfriend!

No chance of dropping off today-there was a tension in the air that you could inhale, well smell certainly.
Our assessment would be in 2 parts.
Some (more) psychometric tests and a case study (ruddy hell-is that a test on law? Whatever next?). There were about 40 of us in the room about 20/20 male to female. I wasn't the oldest but I was probably the ugliest. Damn, curse my faulty genes...

We were congratulated on coming so far, there had been 3,000 applicants originally. These had been whittled down to 600 (us and other groups meeting on the same week to do similar tests). These assessments would further chip the number down to 200 who would be interviewed-for about 25 positions.
Ye gods, I don't make it easy for myself...

The psycho tests each take exactly 4 minutes (there were 8 of them). You are given a basic one or two line intro and have to (as quickly as possible) expand the topic or spew out solutions to a problem or find problems with a statement of affairs.
You are marked on the amount you come up with, their quality and their originality.

I won't repeat any of the questions here (just in case) but the general idea is,

'you work for a marketing company-you have an account to sell a new cola beveridge that has less sugar'. How would you promote it?
And then you have 4 minutes and up to 30 lines to fill.

Ooooooookaaaaaay. Hmm, how did I do? Weeeell, I did between 12 and 20 for all of them. The only other person whose work I could see was doing considerably less-she was managing about 6-8. (but then hers could have been corkers and mine could have been simplistic and easily predictable-who knows?)

The case study consisted of passing advice onto a police officer about an incident that had occurred. We were given the law and the possible sentence and had 30 minutes to write our advice. My study (there was more than 1) was to do with a common 'domestic' situation that had lots of opportunity to go wrong. I recommended caution and further investigation since it appeared that both parties had contributed (but only one had been injured). I tried to follow a rehabilitatory approach rather than a punitive one (even mentioning that prison space was limited). I did about 3 sides (and my arm ached-I get writer's cramp too easy)

The woman whose work I could see (only the length, not the content) had shot off like a train but she peaked at 3 pages too-so maybe par there.

We have been told that the results will be circulated 'sometime' in March for an interview 'sometime' in late March or April. I hope that they use a different tortoise this time, my nerves couldn't stand it if they used Timmy again.

I did manage a first though-on the way out I thanked the invigilators and asked if I could do it again because it had been fun. This surprised the poor dears, they were far more used to students leaving on the edge of hysteria.

This was only half true though-I had no real desire to sit it again but it had been fun. I do like things like that-I can get pleasure from crosswords and sudoku and this seemed a similar thing-an intellectual pursuit rather than anything important.

I am hoping to treat these exams the same way-as a challenge to my notes and my IQ. I just have to hope that the chemical processes that govern my body can be persuaded too....

Anyone got any paint they want watching dry?

I used to enjoy revision, no honestly, I did. It was the culmination of a year's study and would finish in that glorious climax known as the exam. After which I would collapse spent and enjoy that post toil glow of satisfaction.

But this, this is not fun. I'm not even sure whether I've actually done anything this week. I've sat at my work station, I've typed, read and printed. I've hole punched and put those little adhesive hole reinforcers on my work...but have I actually done any revision?

Not really, I'm happy with what I have done but it feels a bit, well pointless I suppose. There's no denying that time flies while I'm fiddling with my files (and not when I'm fiddling with my flies) and sure enough the exams will be on me with the speed of a very swift thing.

I'm on course to hit the exams at optimum thrust, I got a bit behind with a bad Wednesday but have caught up today.

Tomorrow I have insolvency to bag, Company to finish Tuesday, Crime on Weds and then for Thursday a real treat-the CPS have finally got back in touch (I'm not saying it had anything to do with what I wrote here last week but (*'taps nose'*) there is power in the written word).

After a bit of nagging I received my letter from them on Wednesday, it had been sent from Liverpool 1 week before. What happened? Did the Royal Mail tortoise have knee problems? Granted, they don't like the cold and this weeks snow would cause them serious damage with their short legs 'n' that, but a week! (And it was sent first class too-goodness knows how long I would have had to wait if they had sent it second...)

Anyhow, I've got to go up to 'that London' for an....assessment. Not even a swoddin interview! As a warm up for five days of exams the following week (totalling over 12 hours) I have a little practice doing a;

• 'Proactive thinking written test' (I kid you not, those are the words on the sheet) and a
  
• 'Case study written test'.
  

I have been sent an example of the PTWT (my acronym, not theirs)

"You are the Marketing Manager of an organisation that is planning to open up a new health club and gym on a green field site on the outskirts of town.
List as many ways as you can to publicise this new venture to attract new members to get the gym off to a good start:"
There are then 20 lines to write in-you have 4 minutes to write your rubbish.

Great, my future may depend on what some psychologist has decided (for this week) what criteria are relevant for a job that they will never do.

The trip will take me two hours (minimum) each way. The test itself will take 2 more hours and is slap bang in the middle of the day. Oh well, must put a positive face on it!

1. I can do a bit of criminal law study (useless for the course but fun)
2. It gets me out of the house and these 4 walls
3. I get to travel on the tube (strikes permitting)
   

I do lose a days revision-but that may be for the best. Too much of a good thing 'n' that **cough**

The other main news of this week was that I had my second oral assessment. I would like to think that I passed this one but I'm not holding my hopes too high.

The idea is that you interview a real person who has rehearsed a script and is immersed in their part (the College likes to hire 'resting' theatricals) and you have to ask the right questions to 'open them up' so that you can get the full story and then advise them on the law.

To help you, you are allowed to take in a 'checklist' of the marking criteria which forms a nice little list of things that you are meant to say and in what order to say them.
The area of law that you are advising on is quite slim (partnership law) and you may take in one other sheet with the relevant law on it.
Our tutor identified that there are 4 things that you can be tested on and we were advised to prepare sheets for all of them and take in the most appropriate.

Easy huh?

Unfortunately, no

When I got given my sheet telling me (in 1 line) what my client was calling about, it was on a subject that I did not have a sheet on (I had prepared 7 to cover all the bases). So I took what I believed was the most appropriate and scribbled stuff from the second (and third) most appropriate on the back.

I then went up to the room and had a brief chat to the tutor who would be examining me. The good news is that unlike my advocacy tutor this one didn't look like I had shoved a fresh doggy doo under her nose. She was friendly and kind-she realised that I was nervous and let me go at my own speed.

I opened the office door and welcomed in 'Nellie' (our luvvie) who was a really friendly, bright and attentive lady in the twilight of her working career. Well, as expected I gabbled, jabbered, got flustered and flubbed the most important parts of the law.

I didn't dry up completely but did have a second of two of goldfish impersonation. The sheet that I had brought in had been no use whatsoever and I mostly had to wing it. Fortunately, there are some questions that can be applied to all partnership interviews. I spoke, I advised and we talked about her next step. Before long the interview came to an end.

I saw Nellie to the door and started to collect my things.

The good news was that the tutor was friendly, chatty and happy to look me in the eye. I won't read anything into that but it made me feel better than at the end of advocacy. I believe that I said all the relevant things in the relevant places (but then I thought that in advocacy) so it comes down to;
a) how quickly did I speak?
b) how much drivel flowed out of my gob?

I slipped away and caught up with Nellie, I said 'thanks' to her (she had played her part superbly) and light heartedly apologised for charging her for half an hour of my time (at £100/hour) when I only took 15 minutes. She smiled and told me that I was about average for time but couldn't say any more...

Oh well, as I've said before, once you've failed one you don't give a toss anymore....

Silver linings 'n' that

End of an era?

Well, that's that then. Compulsaries are now over-I have a shade over two weeks and then I have 5 exams in 5 days to show that I used the first half of the course constructively.

In truth, the last week was a bit anticlimatic-there was one little bit of fun though. Each of the tutors, at the end of their course has to distribute assessment forms to the students so that we can grade;

• Ourselves on how we feel we handled the course,
• The tutor (under various criteria) as to how they taught the course

and 3 whole lines to write comments on how to improve the 'experience'.

Going by my past record, this is rather like giving an arsonist a box of matches and the keys to the paraffin shed...

Property came and went-the last session was about the 1954 Landlord and Tenant Act and how a business tenant can effectively get a perpetual lease by slipshod drafting (that reminds me, I erased my drafting exercise by accident today-oops).
Now I know that I studied this (badly) for my undergraduacy-I just wish that I had paid more attention then. Most of the law that I studied (and occasionally learnt) has been of little use here-it would have been nice if the OU had flagged up the bits that would occur in the CofL LPC. (come on boys, work with me here-you're effectively on the same team!)

During the class, a flyer was circulated from a different tutor about a free representation unit that would supply training if you were willing to act as an advocate for someone with benefits or employment problems. I stared at this for a few seconds before deciding that it would probably be a good thing for me to get involved because;

1. it would be a positive CV thing what with me not having a training contract (and don't ask about the CPS-it seems like they've fallen off the planet. They're not even replying to my emails now...)
2. It does happen to cover 2 out of my three chosen electives
   

The only drag? The tutor doing the circulating is not one of my faves (a lovely bloke-although I feel his wife should cut down on his e-numbers) and he will be taking the course himself to 'keep his hand in' should he do any private practice again.

One to ponder on, I feel

Anyhow, back to the class-I have really enjoyed property (way more than I ever expected to, what with my loathing of land law). The tutor kept it friendly and easy going all year and I don't think that I got stressed out over a single workshop.

But even then, I awarded only (out of 5) two 4s and three 3s. I did take time to write how good the course had been and credited the tutor but I don't throw high marks away willy-nilly you know!

The last insolvency came and went. This course has also been a little gem. I think that every person (and definitely every woman) was charmed by our tutor, in that kindly 'twinkley eyed' favourite-uncle way of his. He took time to explain all the difficult portions carefully and made sure that we compiled checklists of all the areas that are likely to crop up in an exam. (Of course, if entirely different subjects arise then we will probably curse him forever...)

The marks from the blogger panel were one 5, three 4s and a 3. (yes, I know that's a bit tight considering I like the lessons but bear with me)

My working Wednesday came and went, for some reason I decided not to do my consolidation from the first two days (and save it all for the weekend) and concentrate on criminal litigation. Well, alright-if you must know I actually had a very light day because I wanted to play with my toys before I went into the 'tank'. Alright? Happy now?

**cough** sorry about that-I get a bit (more) defensive close to revision period...

I wanted to get the prep right for Thursday class for two reason
The first half of the lesson would be spent discussing mitigation-that is when your client is found to be guilty and you are trying to sweet-talk the judge into granting a lesser sentence in light of;

• your client's good character, OR
• the low value of the goods taken. OR
• the fact that the razor wasn't really, really sharp etc.
  

OR if you can get away with it, all three

I had spent a good while preparing a 'your worships, the man before you etc' What happens? The tutor takes us step-by-step throughout the whole thing. I might as well not wasted my time yesterday and spent longer playing with my toys since I ended up screwing my work up and throwing it in the bin.
Not because it was incorrect, no sir. Simply because it was not what we are expected to do in an exam situation. Whereas I was brown nosing to the best of my ability (and I am very able in the cheek kissing department) what was wanted was a........
*
*
*
*
Yep, you guessed it-a checklist. The CofL seems to have a lot in common with Sesame Street-there is, if not a 'word of the day'-there is certainly a 'word of the month'.

So far, we've had 'conduct', 'insurance', 'indemnity' and now 'checklist'. I have a suspicion that if you sat any one of the compulsory exams and just wrote those 4 words for every answer you would get pretty close to a pass mark...

So we (like good little lambs) wrote out our checklists ready to reproduce them in the exam (the chance of some form of mitigation is pretty high). Rest assured world, hundreds of dangerous psychos will be doing community service near you soon, released on the public by the class of 2007 slavishly following their checklists. But don't fret, you can always spot the psychos, they're the ones who volunteer for the pruning duty and bladed tools...

I think I'm digressing again. Sorry.

The second half of the workshop was a mock trial. Long term readers will remember how much I loved the civil lit one (and especially my awesome cross examination-advocacy was so easy then with a script in front of me). This time I was part of the prosecution side although I decided to be a witness this time and be the lovable, genial copper.

For my prep I copied out the facts into a notebook I bought for the purposes and 'amended' the language somewhat to make it more 'copperish'. (you know the sort of thing, 'walking' becomes ''proceeding') I also desperately wanted to find a policemans helmet in a fancy dress shop that is on the way to school. Well, I found one-a bloody WPC's hat! Bugger! I was tempted to buy it and camp it up-but thought 'no, I'm a grown up now, an elder statesman-I must show dignity and gravitas at all times' (yeah, right)

So, imagine my dismay when the suspect, a Mr Smith is being played by a woman! Oh, that's ruined my role-playing experience for sure. (although I did get a twinge when this young lady referred to being happily married to their beautiful wife).

I'm not saying what twinged, mind.

The trial itself was very one-sided. My character despite being lovable and genial, was also a dubious copper of the old school and didn't do things by the book-so my evidence would get tossed out faster than one of Brittany's husbands. The guy playing the other witness did his best to even up the account by 'over-egging' his part so much as to make the defendant look guilty of not only the crime charged but also the assassination of JFK and the theft of the Elgin Marbles.

At the end the tutor asked us of what we thought the verdict would be. Everyone was agreed that the defendant was 'not guilty' (in truth the CPS should never have let it come to trial-the case was far too weak) but only I noticed that no one in the defence 'team' had been allocated to do the 'plea in mitigation' if one was needed-which was a sure sign that the defence couldn't lose...

Oh, BTW-Thursday came and went.

And now, I'm sure that you're dying to know the marks for criminal litigation. The reason that I took a year off and came here-all that stuff.

Not so great, I'm afraid. The tutor herself did her best but it was a difficult job. The reading alone for the 5 workshops came to just under 500 A4 pages. During the workshops we covered maybe 50 or so of those. The other 450 could come up as an exam question-we are none the wiser. She scored mostly 3s with a 4. I did write a bitter little piece complaining of the sheer amount of prep and how the pacing of the course seemed all wrong. Pity, but hopefully the advanced crim course will be better (although we only have about 250 pages of the same book left to read..)

Running hot on the heels of the workshop came the last of our large consolidation sessions-also for criminal. The tutor who had taken me for my advocacy assessment was timetabled to take us and I had been preparing to shout the word 'bitch' ventriloquists style at her-but she didn't show and we had the guy who took me for my ill-fated experience on the PLS route (not a good omen).

It was OK, but nothing spectacular. Again, we went over a series of exam-type questions with the usual lecture on timing. Some good points came out so it wasn't a complete waste but in common with the majority of these I had a distinct feeling of 'a chance missed'

So, Friday. Last day of the compulsaries. My last ever business class. Well, keeping up the theme-Friday came and went.

More? Ok, it was another revision class, Something at the back of my head is screaming 'why not use the two superfluous business law classes to put the extra criminal into?'

I really must take some more medication

This time we looked at a corporation tax question, a conduct (yaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwnnn) question and a comparison between partnerships, limited liability partnerships and companies for someone who was looking to expand their sole trader business. It was all very sweet, and (for once) quite easy going but necessary? Not really.

Now we come to a problem. I had been prepared to 'put the boot in' on this particular tutor. His teaching style, his running around the room so that our heads swivelled back and forth and we ended up playing some weird game of tutor tennis. His rapid 'machine gun' style of speech, his appalling handwriting and his regular keeping us in over time were all things that I wanted to note.

But, I found out this week that he is 99% likely to be one of my tutors for the electives. Ah, rapid change of plan then. (god, I'm so hypocritical). I was relatively severe, I did mention that we had too many presentations and that I was less than keen on questions directed at specific students but it was a bit wishy-washy.

Sorry

The urge for self-preservation was too strong. I think I scored him two 4s and two 3s and a 2 (for pacing)

And now I should explain why I marked as I have. The tutors don't get to see us putting the marks down (although any fool should be able to tie handwriting to a person-I, in particular have a very distinctive style), so we have a chance to be totally honest.

I have taken the opportunity to look at a few of my fellow students grades. Almost to a one they have recorded five 5s for each tutor.
With respect, what is the point of that? We have had no perfect lessons, nor perfect tutors. Nobody has come to class with perfect preparation (one of the criteria) so why award the perfect mark?
What is the tutor going to learn from that?
What is the College going to learn?
If the College believes from this that everything is perfect, it will make no changes.

FACT.

Which means that next years intake will struggle where we struggled-they will have to put up with the uneven pacing and workload, the variation in tutoring between good and appalling.

Democracy isn't perfect but it's the only chance of changing things for the better

(climbs down from soapbox)

Sorry about that, I get a bit carried away. One of the reason why I'm so hard on the tutors is that I've been fortunate to have had some truly wonderful lecturers and tutors in my life. Real '5s' if you like. Probably the best of these was the Professor of Education at Exeter University, the late Ted Wragg. Now there was a man who could hold a class of 100 spellbound for hours. A great teacher is a very special person-learn all you can from them.

The last thing I did on Friday was put my toys in my locker at College. This way the worst distractions in my life are out of reach and I can enter the 'tank' and get my revision done. So here I float in my 'deprivation tank'-bored out of my flaming mind!

I'm sitting my interviewing assessment this Tuesday-so I'll write a short piece sometime this week to say how it went. Other than that I won't write until the 25th of February after all the compulsary exams are finished.

And I'm released from solitary...