Ours can’t be the only household
at the moment swamped by a high volume of stress pheromones.
It’s exam time. There isn’t a
clear surface anywhere in the house – everything is covered with note paper,
writing material, text books. The poor teenager sits with her nose to the
grindstone, morning, noon and night.
I tell her she is doing too much,
she argues she is not doing enough. Revision has become competitive. First thing in the morning she learns from Facebook
that her friend Fred has been in the college library since seven o’clock. He was there
until closing time last night. He will get A*’s, she will only get A’s…
Things have changed a lot since
my day. Back in the 1980’s I undertook one of those new-fangled modular
style courses at the local Technical College.
I accrued passes, and apart from a Business Studies A Level which I took
alongside RSA typing and shorthand (yes – it really was that long ago) I didn’t
have to sit two hour long hand-written exams, regurgitating a whole load of
facts and figures. I wasn’t going on to
university – my life didn’t depend whether I passed or failed, whether I got
that all important A* or just a sad old E, which I did, for my Business Studies.
By the time I left college I already had a job lined up. Those were the days.
Naturally I try and sympathise.
Of course it’s tough, I know it’s important, but it really isn’t the be all and
end all. Exams can be re-sat, careers –
and universities - can be and do get changed. What you want at 18 is not always what you
want at 21, or 30.
I know the teenager will do her
best. I tell her to breathe, take a break.
Brains reach saturation point. There is only so much knowledge that can
be consumed at any one time. Obviously I don't understand at all.
Our whole lives are now on hold
for the next couple of weeks. We are walking on egg-shells, tip-toeing around piles of papers. I provide food and drink upon demand, I am on standby
for the emergency dash to the train station. I have read essays, listened to the re-counting of philosophical and psychological practices, recitations of quotations. I will be there in that exam room with her and I too am stressed beyond belief....
Soon it will all be over and the teenager won't be the only one hitting the vodka and heaving a huge sigh of relief.
Soon it will all be over and the teenager won't be the only one hitting the vodka and heaving a huge sigh of relief.
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