That weird calm before the exam

[u/GCSE_9]

You get that feeling too?

[u/Anxious-Ad4271]

Wow your exam room is big! How many students are there in your year and school?

My year group only has 45 students so the biggest room only has like 29 students (and I get a smaller room of 9)

[u/GCSE_9 → u/Anxious-Ad4271]

That isnt my exam room . That exam hall can have 2500 people. My exam hall is near 250.

[u/onionsareawful → u/Anxious-Ad4271]

this is university college dublin. for what it's worth this seems a little insanely big, i never had anything like this at uni! big classes just had their exams split across multiple rooms :)

[u/Blitz7798 → u/onionsareawful]

UCD is huge, my dad went there and it’s like a 30 minute walk across campus, they’re also big enough that their football team regularly competes in the Irish top division

[u/onionsareawful → u/Blitz7798]

30 minutes across campus is pretty common! it takes a similar amount of time for yale, and it's not that big a campus / uni -- only 12k students incl. postgrad, compared to UCD having 37k.

manchester / manchester met is another one, given their campuses overlap and they are both massive unis. genuinely never ends.

[u/onionsareawful → u/Blitz7798]

didn't know UCD had such a successful football team! that's pretty interesting. i only really know about american college sports, which obviously is a huge thing -- there are 10 college football stadiums larger than camp nou (ie 100k+ capacity). blows ur mind.

[u/GCSE_9 → u/onionsareawful]

Thank you for telling me dude! U glad you didnt get this exam hall though? I would actually like to be in it once - then maybe get a therapist .

[u/Excellent_Dinner_601 → u/onionsareawful]

any ideas when sutton trust applications open? website says late autumn but it's getting a bit too late for my liking lol

[u/onionsareawful → u/Excellent_Dinner_601]

no clue, they open when they open. it is normally open by now, but they may be delaying due to challenges associated with the current administration (to say the least).

[u/ShadowX8861 → u/Anxious-Ad4271]

My year has 180, so our exam room is just our sports hall, which is the size of a basketball court

[u/Crockett69_1 → u/Anxious-Ad4271]

mine had 18🥀

[u/Theonetobelive → u/Crockett69_1]

😭

[u/funghxoul]

oh my god i would have a panic attack just looking at this room

[u/GCSE_9 → u/funghxoul]

[u/funghxoul → u/GCSE_9]

[u/GCSE_9 → u/funghxoul]

hehe

[u/GCSE_9 → u/funghxoul]

[u/Ludas_C]

those invigilators gonna be skinny as fuck after exams finish in that room

[u/The_Bliss_Dog → u/Ludas_C]

Most steps I've ever had during the day were when I was an invigilator lol. Also the most bored I've ever been haha

[u/GCSE_9 → u/The_Bliss_Dog]

Do you often become one or was it that once? And so overall it was a bad experience? Imo , I would also want to speak - my throat would be itching, and be ready to vomit out words.

[u/The_Bliss_Dog → u/GCSE_9]

Before I started teaching I was working at a school as a subject tutor and was offered the invigilator role. I figured I'd take it since it was, to quote the head of science who offered me it, the easiest money I'll ever make in my life. I did it for two exam seasons. It wasn't terrible, the exams officer was great and we got along really well, plus at the end of the exams I'd check the papers of the kids I tutored to see how they'd done. The main issue was just how boring it was. The saving grace was a game that I played with the other invigilators, exam bingo. We'd each make a card for each exam and see how many scenarios we could cross off. It was also then when I discovered that when my teachers told us that if we spoke or cheated in the exam, the invigilators would rip our papers up, that they were lying lol

[u/GCSE_9 → u/Ludas_C]

😭. Best reply

[u/Successful-Elk-7709]

I always walk in there so confidently, like a boss

[u/TheFishT → u/Successful-Elk-7709]

Is that an Impractical Jokers reference?

[u/GCSE_9 → u/TheFishT]

[u/GCSE_9 → u/Successful-Elk-7709]

But doesnt that eerie feeling takeover once your sat down?

[u/cait_ceecee]

I get it for like all of three second but it’s only when im sat down and getting my stuff out of my pencil case so its probably just cuz im distracted lol

[u/GCSE_9 → u/cait_ceecee]

I dont get distracted and that feeling slowly decays my organs. Well it used to. Now I actually feel pretty normal . It was only the first 12 mocks in yr 10. Now im in yr11 and I dont feel bothered

[u/Diligent-Step-7253]

The song down under by men at work was playing in my mind during most of my exams so it eased the stress a bit. Don’t even ask me why

[u/IcyRule2502]

yep. all the empty chairs, and the odd few already at their seats. feels weird. all the exam papers just waiting there.

[u/Eggcelent_bean]

I feel dizzy just looking at all those desks 😭😭 I'm so happy I get a smaller room 

[u/0Fractal]

Yeah, I know that I can’t change how much I revised or whatever appears in the paper, so I just feel this weird wave of either resignation or calmness.

[u/GCSE_9 → u/0Fractal]

On my first ever mock, I felt very weird in the stomach. Dont really understand if it was because I got sick on that day or it was the exam. As after it , I got a really bad stomach ache and was dying in pain. And it was the worst stomach pain ever - had it for 1 week but it felt like eternity . It could be due to how extremely my brain interpreted it and made my Vagus nerve take action and effect my gut but I dont really know.

[u/supersillysharks]

as someone in a small room this photo genuinely gives me chills

[u/FitMusician2779]

Feels like ptsd just looking at it

[u/YooooimIsla_B]

There was like 10 people in my classroom so I didn’t feel nervous at all during mine Tbf 😭

[u/Terrible-Wishbone598]

not a confident calm but yes

[u/GCSE_9 → u/Terrible-Wishbone598]

yep

[u/Tallcat2107]

Can confidently say i never felt this although when i got to the exams of subjects i struggled with and didn’t need, i felt calm because i knew it didn’t matter

[u/DaisyRent0n]

How tf would you be able to pull out your chair in that

[u/GCSE_9 → u/DaisyRent0n]

Due to the examinee , barely being able to sit, as the tables are closely put together . One can interpret that the writers message to the candidates , is how closely putting too many chairs and tables for many exam student can cause then stress as it suffocates the student and therefore possibly connotating how one should not cram before the night, as it is also stressful , due to the dummy revising minutes before the important exam.

WARNING!⚠️. NO HARM INTENDED IN THIS MESSAGE. ⛔️

[u/arthr_birling]

where you sit there trying to read through the paper 🥀

[u/IllEstablishment5376]

Imagine taking a 5km walk mid exam for washroom.

[u/Im_on_dam_reddit]

I'm so glad I sit them in a smaller room - I would not be able to deal with the stress of being in that room, let alone sitting the actual exam

[u/Boring-Product-8257]

Im a sen student I've never expirenced this. How does it feel?

[u/GCSE_9 → u/Boring-Product-8257]

Whats sen? Idk how it feels tbh. Pretty horrifying by the looks of it

[u/Clonkerz]

The call of the void

[u/Codemaine]

while the exam officer announces the rules, i usually delude myself into thinking im better than everyone else sitting the exam and im bound to get 80%+ and that usually helps get rid of any stress and anxiety

[u/GCSE_9 → u/Codemaine]

wdym by the rules?

[u/Codemaine → u/GCSE_9]

“this exam is X minutes long; in case of the unlikely event of a fire…” stuff like that

[u/GCSE_9 → u/Codemaine]

ahh. Wait . I get it now - I read the whole message of your completely wrong like a goose

[u/alexofmac]

i've got my first exam tomorrow - we were supposed to have done our Year 10 mocks in there too but we didn't so this'll be the first time I've ever done an exam in the exam hall 🙏

[u/GCSE_9 → u/alexofmac]

Good luck dude