Picking up from last time –
I requested my proctor weeks in advance. (I’d learned the last time that sometimes places can want two weeks notice.) I took the test at UCLA. (I had a very nice proctor.)
I was more worried than I should be going into this. I’d always thought people were so ridiculous when it came to final exams! Settle down, students. Geez. But now that I was one again, I thought, “Okay, I get the stress.”
I barely slept the night before. Because of various circumstances (including the hours the testing center were open, and the test being 3 hours long), I had to take a morning test. I was nervous about getting up, and taking the test in general. I’m not particularly a morning person. So, I ended up barely sleeping the night before.
Of course the longer it took me to fall asleep, the worse it got, because I worried harder about my brain not being at full capacity the next day.
Eventually, I slept for a bit. Then, I made my way to UCLA. On the bus, I re-read chapters of our book. On the walk to UCLA, I was muttering court cases underneath my breath, trying to review everything I knew.
I stopped at Starbucks and got a Veniti(!) coconut milk peppermint latte. I never drink a Venti. (I didn’t finish it.) But I had a free drink and figured I’d go all out for this crazy, early-morning 3-hour-long exam.
Once I got there, my proctor immediately said, “Aurora?” I must’ve been the only person taking a test that early. He set me up in a room, and gave me the instructions for the test. There was plenty of paper given to me. So, we both were of the mindset I wouldn’t need anymore. But he told me if I did, to let him know. (I totally ended up using more pages.)
The one thing that was so nice about a distance exam was that with no other students in the room, I could speak my answers out loud a bit. I’m sure I could be silent. But I liked being able to talk things out loud for a sec if I needed to straighten out my thoughts. I also liked that when I first took a look at the exam and was confident I knew everything on it, I excitedly exclaimed, “let’s do this!” to no one in particular. I wouldn’t have done that with a class full of students.
…But, I did have to pay $75 to have a 3-hour test proctored.
I thought there’d be no way the test would take all 3 hours. That sounds like a long test, but apparently I don’t know how long finals should me. It took me every minute of that three hours! I was writing furiously. I can barely smell anything, and even I felt like I could almost smell the ink ready to catch on fire or something with how quickly I’d write certain sections.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to check all of my work. But I did the best I could.
After three hours, I turned in my final. My proctor scanned my exam, and had me watch it so we could be sure it got to Harvard on time. I also got a confirmation email from Harvard not long after. So, everybody was all about making sure I felt confident that my test was turned in, which was nice.
Even though I hadn’t gotten to check everything, I still walked out quite confidently. I felt like I was in some slow-mo shot, walking down the street, as the baddest girl in town.
I celebrated by picking up some Native Foods Cafe on my way to the airport. Then I went to Denver with my Daddy (and with practically no cares in the world now that the test was done)!
Late on Christmas Even night, my TA let me know I got an A!
I did it. An A in my first super college-y college class.