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Tripos Exam Stress Thread (Cambridge students only)

What it says on the tin :p:

All posts about revision, exam stress, deadlines, etc in here please.
Just a reminder to avoid comments which suggest how much work you're doing for revision: in past years this has seriously stressed other members out, so keep things discreet :cool:

Non-Cambridge students will be flogged, negged and possibly warned for posting in here. Stressed finalists are no joke :hmmm:

Reply 1

nirvathema

Sorry to suddenly jump in here, but if there are any 2nd/3rd year historians around.........could you give me some advice for HAP Prelims? Or how did you revise for it? I have no idea how to study for this and have very very limited time to allocate to HAP at this rate :frown:

Was going to pick topics to revise like gender but there is no way in HELL that I could learn enough historiography shiz in time for the exam.

should have probably made an effort to go to the lectures...

Reply 2

scarlet ibis

nirvathema

Sorry to suddenly jump in here, but if there are any 2nd/3rd year historians around.........could you give me some advice for HAP Prelims? Or how did you revise for it? I have no idea how to study for this and have very very limited time to allocate to HAP at this rate :frown:

Was going to pick topics to revise like gender but there is no way in HELL that I could learn enough historiography shiz in time for the exam.

should have probably made an effort to go to the lectures...

Quoting to get the attention of the Historians on this thread!

Chess Piece Face

FadeToBlackout

Reply 3

Chess Piece Face

nirvathema

Sorry to suddenly jump in here, but if there are any 2nd/3rd year historians around.........could you give me some advice for HAP Prelims? Or how did you revise for it? I have no idea how to study for this and have very very limited time to allocate to HAP at this rate :frown:

Was going to pick topics to revise like gender but there is no way in HELL that I could learn enough historiography shiz in time for the exam.

should have probably made an effort to go to the lectures...

I revised for HAP in a unique way. In the run-up to my Cambridge interviews, I had created a little notebook in which I wrote down ideas from several historiography books and articles that I had read; I added to this notebook throughout the year and used it again for my AEA, and then a year later for my Prelims. Obviously this can't really be imitated, but hopefully some of what I say will be useful...

A lot of people didn't revise for the HAP prelim at all. A lot of the questions, especially the empirical ones, can be waffled or answered with knowledge from other Tripos papers or even before. You know what I mean - lame questions along the lines of "'All political careers end in failure.' How far do you agree?". I personally wouldn't gamble entirely on that strategy, but it just goes to show you that you shouldn't worry about it that much. I revised for HAP less than for my two other Prelims but I did better in it than for one of my other papers!

I understand that you don't have much time, but if there's one thing that I'll recommend it's the John Tosh book The Pursuit Of History, if you haven't read it already. It's truly fantastic - it's lucid, it's concise, it's really up-to-date and it gives really good, colourful examples. All of the essentials of historiography are in there. Look at the most recent edition that you can - I used one from 2006, I think.

Also, I didn't once look at any of my notes for the HAP sessions or for the lectures. This might just be me, but I didn't find them very useful.

There are certain historiographical topics and debates that it's worth thinking about, such as objectivity in history, history and moral judgments, the importance of the individual, perhaps history in the public consciousness (heritage, the social uses of history, history in popular culture, history in education). The real HAP reading list is huge and it's way beyond what anyone would need for prelims; the History AEA reading list, however, is very useful. You could read some of the History Today articles it mentions. Sadly, the website doesn't always work and most of them require a subscription, but I paid for an online archive subscription and it's been of real value for me. In any case, History Today is in the Seeley so you can look at the articles there.

The main thing, however, is not to stress out about it. I know that it's easy for me to say now, but when you're approaching the real thing, you realise just how small fry prelims are. Also, keep in mind that for HAP, you've got three hours to answer one question. That's a lot of time to scrape the recesses of your brain for relevant information and arguments. Reading about historiography will definitely boost your answer - it certainly boosted mine - but you don't have to go overboard. After all, we're all here because our tutors recognised our ability to 'think outside the box'! Good luck and I hope at least some of this information has been useful. :smile:

Reply 4

smilepea

Back in good old Cambers and off to the library. I'm so cool. (Disclamer before anyone says stop saying how much work you're doing remember I did NOTHING last year because I was so ill so being able to say I've been working makes me feel so so so much better and clamer so please forgive me :puppyeyes:

)

Reply 5

Craghyrax

OP

17

smilepea

Back in good old Cambers and off to the library. I'm so cool. (Disclamer before anyone says stop saying how much work you're doing remember I did NOTHING last year because I was so ill so being able to say I've been working makes me feel so so so much better and clamer so please forgive me :puppyeyes:

)

Why would anybody try and tell you how much work they'd been doing? :confused:

That would just be really moronic...
If somebody mentions they've been doing work in a post unrelated to your comment, that's different. But what you're suggesting is pretty improbable.

Reply 6

generalebriety

16

Craghyrax

Why would anybody try and tell you how much work they'd been doing? :confused:

That would just be really moronic...
If somebody mentions they've been doing work in a post unrelated to your comment, that's different. But what you're suggesting is pretty improbable.

I think she wanted to make sure that no one would tell her off for going on about how much work she is doing... which I do remember happening last year.

(5 is fine. Might have fluffy hair.)

Reply 7

alex_hk90

19

smilepea

Back in good old Cambers and off to the library. I'm so cool. (Disclamer before anyone says stop saying how much work you're doing remember I did NOTHING last year because I was so ill so being able to say I've been working makes me feel so so so much better and clamer so please forgive me :puppyeyes:

)

When I read "Disclaimer" I was expecting something on your so-called 'coolness', then I remembered this was CamChat and it all made sense. Has the 'Exam Stress' Thread been created yet?

Reply 8

The West Wing

18

I am VERY stressed, exams are 6 weeks away :frown:

.

Reply 9

sonofdot

8

I'm so glad I'm getting back to Cambridge today, revision at home has been a massive fail :s-smilie:

Reply 10

It could be lupus

12

sonofdot

I'm so glad I'm getting back to Cambridge today, revision at home has been a massive fail :s-smilie:

I agree with that though I'm not back until saturday. Anyways, back to trying to revise...

Reply 11

Lidka

13

Argh argh argh dissertations argh unwritten argh whydoIdothistomyself argh. :argh:

Edit: since this is the exam thread, I hope it will bring comfort to other finalists that I haven't even begun to think about revision yet, and won't do ' til the 20th. :biggrin:

P.S. ARGH.

Reply 12

Sejanus

7

nirvathema

Sorry to suddenly jump in here, but if there are any 2nd/3rd year historians around.........could you give me some advice for HAP Prelims? Or how did you revise for it? I have no idea how to study for this and have very very limited time to allocate to HAP at this rate :frown:

Was going to pick topics to revise like gender but there is no way in HELL that I could learn enough historiography shiz in time for the exam.

should have probably made an effort to go to the lectures...

Have you had any supervision or classes on HAP, or were you just meant to go to the lectures?

I would suggest having a good look at the past papers and seeing if there are any topic areas you are really interested in, and then thinking through what you have studied this year (and previously) and constructing some ideas of how the specific things you studied fit in with the broader themes of HAP: for instance, if you have studied any social or economic history then that might give you ideas on how to approach economic history, gender, religion etc. Beyond this, try not to worry too much: Prelim is really more of a practice run than anything else, and this is really very true for HAP given that you won't have to revisit it again until third year.

Reply 13

ukebert

13

I'm guessing that the rule against saying how much work you've done doesn't extend to "Oh my God I have done virtually none this entire vac"? :wink:

Yeah, things not so good. Exams uncomfortably close. It's already nearly May for goodness sakes.

Reply 14

Melz0r

16

Revising for oral exams = how?

Reply 15

mwiko

Lidka

since this is the exam thread, I hope it will bring comfort to other finalists that I haven't even begun to think about revision yet, and won't do ' til the 20th. :biggrin:

P.S. ARGH.

Ditto!
Apart from my source of ARGH at the moment is pupillage applications. 2 down, 10 to go.
Oh, and I'm supposed to write a few essays before the 20th too.. cripes. :woo:

Reply 16

Chubasco

1

Melz0r

Revising for oral exams = how?

It's difficult...revising grammar and vocab is probably a good place to start. Obviously, if you have the opportunity, talk French and German as much as you can. If you can get hold of the texts from previous years (they might be in the past paper books in the MML library or your lector/lectrice might have some) then work through those and learn any vocab you don't know. And, if like me, your accent isn't amazing, then try working on it.

But at the same time, don't stress too much. They're only worth 1/3 of a paper (they combine with translation to make one paper) and if you've worked well throughout the year then you're probably going to do ok. I got a 59 on my French one last year and still got a mid 2.1 overall (and I honestly think that the reason I got the 59 was due to me saying stupid things because I was nervous, not for any other reason).

Reply 17

Zoedotdot

18

Melz0r

Revising for oral exams = how?

Prepare a little thing about what you did over the holidays, they tend to ask it at the beginning. Other than that, just cram grammar and vocab and make sure you're confident enough to speak aloud. I got 54 in Spanish but think that was partly down to the fact that to answer a question I did it essay style, starting off with a totally irrelevant point that was going to lead to something relevant, except they wouldn't let me get that far and kept telling me I hadn't understood the question, which. Basically, know the format and answer the questions and you'll be fine :p:

EDIT: Would like to say that despite this calm message I am TOTALLY freaking about Russian oral next week.

Reply 18

gethsemane342

11

I'm just worried that i don't even know WHEN my exams are. I have a sneaking suspicion they're 24th -27th May but i can't find it written down anywhere. So ... does anyone happen to know when Law Part 1A exams are? :smile:

Otherwise ... i have the feeling i'm going to fail ... if i try past questions and look at the answer scheme, I find my answer was so wrong, the examiners didn't even consider any of the things i wrote about... I think that might actually be anti-revision :p:

Reply 19

FadedJade

15

Just wanted to pop in and say good luck to you all, and enjoy the benefits of finishing early on the other side - I will be around in may week too :smile:

Tripos Exam Stress Thread (Cambridge students only)

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