The Tripos Exam Stress Thread - Current Cambridge Students Only

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Arrrghh! Horrid feedback! Don't worry too much, it seems to me that orals are a bit flukey (which can be good or bad, but it means there's no use worrying!). I recommend getting slightly angry, although you need a topic you can be angry about, I was really lucky to get the Far Right while my friend got GM food...

Arrrghh! Horrid feedback! Don't worry too much, it seems to me that orals are a bit flukey (which can be good or bad, but it means there's no use worrying!). I recommend getting slightly angry, although you need a topic you can be angry about, I was really lucky to get the Far Right while my friend got GM food...

3rd year engineer here, exams start tomorrow

I guess we get the stress out of the way early on!

I keep on telling me that, but I still wish I that I could skip the next two and a half weeks. Ah well. I've actually worked for these exams as well, I really want that 2:2

Goodness me, really wishing I had made more of an effort (read: actually done some work) over Michaelmas and Lent for my Europe paper. I've just been organising my notes, and I only have two topics that I would be able to actually write an exam essay on - and even they need some work. I think I'm in this position because I really hated the stream of the paper I chose in Michaelmas, so only ended up doing two essays for it and with no pre-reading for them, so they only ended up being 2.ii standard. In Lent, I did more reading, but coursework ended up taking over my life, and so ended up only doing two essays again. Also, having just looked at a past paper, the questions I can answer are part of an EITHER/OR question, ie: Q3: EITHER Question brimstone can answer OR question brimstone can answer. Oh goodness

Please someone reassure me that I'll be okay?! I'm counting myself lucky as I only have three papers this year to sit exams for - one is an unseen which will need prepping for only a day or two before the actual exam. For my S.E Asian paper I have a fair bit of notes and that's eight days after my second exam, so I'll have time then to prep for that

Thanks guys.



Thanks Melzor. I'm really worried that I'll get something really obscure and so I'm currently trying to stuff as much French current affairs into my brain as possible. Just got my French friend to teach me all about why everyone hates Sarko.

Totally understand on the "damn you past self, why didn't you take notes properly?!" thing. This time last year I was looking back at all my notes thinking "Well this drawing of a cat and hilarious scribble is all very well, but could you not have tried a BIT harder..."

Totally understand on the "damn you past self, why didn't you take notes properly?!" thing. This time last year I was looking back at all my notes thinking "Well this drawing of a cat and hilarious scribble is all very well, but could you not have tried a BIT harder..."

Same here! I'm sitting in my gown doing tort revision since it's the only way I'll feel sufficiently studious to get it done.

This came to mind:

This is my favourite work-related comic. I'm ordering a print of it to have framed and hang in my room next year

Over the past two years, I've only ever had exams in the Corn Exchange or a church near the Grafton Centre. This year, I've got two in the Guildhall and one in Senate House - but I've never been inside either of these. Does anyone know whereabouts we go for exams in either?

As an aside, I had always thought that the one time I would go in Senate House would be to graduate. Ah well, at least if I fail all my exams, I'll have seen it once

Well, why do you think you won't get a 2.2? you may actually surprise yourself and come out with 2.1 ( or a cheeky 1st).

Don't worry too much about it. Feedback should be taken with a pinch of salt. Last year, I had very encouraging feedback from supervisors such as:

"Your structure and analysis is bizarre and flawed. Your choice of caselaw is odd. Good luck in your exam next week"

"You're enthusiastic but you haven't grasped the basic concepts of tort"

And my personal favourite started with: "OK, you're not going to fail. BUT..."

And I did fine on all 3 of those subjects in the end.

Mocks are designed to go badly - you always do better in the real thing

Heh. You may not be familiar with just how badly this year has gone. To put things in context, I didn't do any work at all last term for one of my modules, did half an examples paper for another and one and a half for a third... Michaelmas was slightly better. It was a disaster and I was predicted thirds and fails... I'm aiming for a 2:2. I genuinely think that a 2:1 is superlatively high this year, but I'll be happy with a 2:2. I won't have any regrets, because I've worked really very hard over the last month or so, even if I've proved that you can't learn an entire year from scratch in a month...