J F Vernon Blog

This is my mind dump, something I lay-off onto a sheet or sheets in the first 10 minutes of sitting down to a written exam. In this case the few gaps I had covered by the afternoon when I sat the exam. What had taken me 20 even 30 minutes took me 10 minutes on the day as I produced something even more cryptic than you see here, only adding the detail once I’d chosen the questions I would answer.

My exam for the module ‘Creativity, Innovation & Change’ B822 of The OU MBA took place in Hove Town Hall, a 45 minute train and walk-it from Lewes. The last time I sat something like this? Finals, June 1984. There were fewer of us, some on other subjects, the desks were miniscule and bizarrely I found food and drink permitted.

I was also surprised when someone on our module left after 90 minutes. I suppose if you simply turned the question paper over and immediately wrote you response to each question this would explain it; I gave between 45-60 minutes to preparation, selecting the question and creating a mindmap for each as an essay plan.

The reality could be that I do well at exams, but can’t handle the assignments getting into deep mud as a consequence of having too much time. I should set myself parameters. I could only have learnt this from sitting an exam, the value of locking myself away for three hours with a blank sheet of paper and then editing this with course books and notes to prepare an assignment.

Each to their own.