It doesn't matter how many exams you've taken, you always feel nervous.
Last night, my sleep was broken by visions of circling magnetic fields and spatial charge density functions.This morning, we took a walk as a diversion and, after much fussing over pens, calculators and maps, I was in the car to Winchester at 1.15 p.m.
There were 13 of us in the examination hall, and from the moment we started, at 2.30 p.m. there was absolutely no letup. The SMT359 Open University paper is relentless: read the question, write the answer straight down, next question. Three hours later I was still putting the final touches to answers as time was called. I had had no chance to review any of them.
I had spent a month revising, and had been using the time to attempt question after question. Thankfully, most of my answers today were straight off that revision production line. I shudder to think how anyone coped who hadn't put their time in.
Results due at the end of December and will be posted here, no matter how bad!*
Rather than have a rest, I will immediately start work on special and general relativity through to February when SM358 The Quantum World begins. This time next year I'll be doing it all again.
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Note added in 2009: I got a distinction in fact.
