Exam panic/results - og litt eksamensprat på norsk
My last exam this term is just two days away. To be honest, I wish it was either much further away or already finished. The exam is about Norwegian/Scandinavian literature from the 1890's, and I must admit that I don't feel like I know enough about that topic at all. In this subject, we had to read about 7 books, as well as some short stories and poems. I guess it will be okay to get something about the short stories or poems, because those will be provided if we have to write about them. But for obvious reasons, they can't provide us with full novels...
This is a list of the books we had to read, with a few comments from me. It's all in Norwegian.
De bøkene det liksom er meningen at vi skal ha lest, er disse:
Knut Hamsun: Pan
Knut Hamsun: Mysterier
Tryggve Andersen: Mot kveld
Arne Garborg: Trætte mænd
Arne Garborg: Haugtussa
Selma Lagerlöf: Gösta Berlings Saga
Selv om jeg er glad i å lese, er det ikke denne typen bøker jeg leser til vanlig. Et par av dem ("Mot kveld" og "Trætte mænd") var såpass tungleste at jeg kommer til å få panikk dersom jeg må skrive en oppgave om dem. Jeg kan nemlig ikke gjenfortelle noen handling fra dem, og langt mindre skrive en stor analyse. Jeg blir vel heller ikke spesielt glad hvis jeg må skrive om Gösta Berlings Saga. Den boken handlet i det minste om noe, men det blir ikke lett å skrive om den. De to bøkene av Hamsun er vel greie nok, men "Haugtussa" er den eneste boken på listen som var virkelig gøy å lese. Når noe er gøy, er det selvsagt også enklere å skrive om det. Jeg har faktisk en "halvferdig" oppgave om "Haugtussa" i hodet allerede, så jeg hadde blitt svært så fornøyd dersom oppgaven handlet om den boken.
Dikt og noveller skal også gå greit nok (håper jeg, da), og vi har fått beskjed om at vi kommer til å få to oppgaver å velge mellom. Det er vel ikke mulig at de to oppgavene handler om henholdsvis "Mot kveld" og "Trætte mænd"? Eller...?
End of Norwegian book-talk.
As for my other exams, the results are in already. I got a D in my other literature subject. Since I'm neither interested in nor good at literature subjects in general, I'm happy because I passed. (For those who are used to different systems, pass marks in Norwegian Uni now are from A to E. F is the only grade for a fail). I mean, I got my study points for that course, and I don't mind the grade that much.
My other exam was an oral exam in phonology and morphology. Since that is a language subject, I felt much more confident about that. Of course I was nervous (especially nervous that I would be asked to read and translate some text in Old Norse), but being nervous is natural, I guess. While I was waiting for my turn, I was talking to two of the girls who had already had their exam. They got B and C respectively. Since the Professor told us in the last lecture that "all of you can't have B's on your exam, so you have to study hard", it kind of seemed like his top mark was a B, and A's were more or less out of the question. I was telling myself before the exam to go for a B and hope for an A. But I must also admit that anything less than a B would have been a dissappointment for me, since the subject has been my best one this year.
Anyway, when it was my turn to have the exam, I was extremely nervous. For the first few minutes I even had trouble controlling my voice and putting the words in the right order. But luckily, that feeling of panic disappeared quite fast, as I realized that I could answer stuff without problems. For the rest of the 30 minutes the exam lasted, I felt that I answered confidently to everything, and I had a quite good feeling when I left.
A few minutes later, I was asked to come back in and get my grade. The Professors talked to me for little while before giving me my grade, and since I was kind of excited, it felt like they were talking forever. But I guess it was just a minute or two, really. In the end, they said something like this: Maybe you noticed that we tried to give you hard questions in the end? This was because we wanted to test you for weaknesses. However, you seem to have none in this subject, so we have to give you an A!
Needless to say, I am extremely happy about that!
This is a list of the books we had to read, with a few comments from me. It's all in Norwegian.
De bøkene det liksom er meningen at vi skal ha lest, er disse:
Knut Hamsun: Pan
Knut Hamsun: Mysterier
Tryggve Andersen: Mot kveld
Arne Garborg: Trætte mænd
Arne Garborg: Haugtussa
Selma Lagerlöf: Gösta Berlings Saga
Selv om jeg er glad i å lese, er det ikke denne typen bøker jeg leser til vanlig. Et par av dem ("Mot kveld" og "Trætte mænd") var såpass tungleste at jeg kommer til å få panikk dersom jeg må skrive en oppgave om dem. Jeg kan nemlig ikke gjenfortelle noen handling fra dem, og langt mindre skrive en stor analyse. Jeg blir vel heller ikke spesielt glad hvis jeg må skrive om Gösta Berlings Saga. Den boken handlet i det minste om noe, men det blir ikke lett å skrive om den. De to bøkene av Hamsun er vel greie nok, men "Haugtussa" er den eneste boken på listen som var virkelig gøy å lese. Når noe er gøy, er det selvsagt også enklere å skrive om det. Jeg har faktisk en "halvferdig" oppgave om "Haugtussa" i hodet allerede, så jeg hadde blitt svært så fornøyd dersom oppgaven handlet om den boken.
Dikt og noveller skal også gå greit nok (håper jeg, da), og vi har fått beskjed om at vi kommer til å få to oppgaver å velge mellom. Det er vel ikke mulig at de to oppgavene handler om henholdsvis "Mot kveld" og "Trætte mænd"? Eller...?
End of Norwegian book-talk.
As for my other exams, the results are in already. I got a D in my other literature subject. Since I'm neither interested in nor good at literature subjects in general, I'm happy because I passed. (For those who are used to different systems, pass marks in Norwegian Uni now are from A to E. F is the only grade for a fail). I mean, I got my study points for that course, and I don't mind the grade that much.
My other exam was an oral exam in phonology and morphology. Since that is a language subject, I felt much more confident about that. Of course I was nervous (especially nervous that I would be asked to read and translate some text in Old Norse), but being nervous is natural, I guess. While I was waiting for my turn, I was talking to two of the girls who had already had their exam. They got B and C respectively. Since the Professor told us in the last lecture that "all of you can't have B's on your exam, so you have to study hard", it kind of seemed like his top mark was a B, and A's were more or less out of the question. I was telling myself before the exam to go for a B and hope for an A. But I must also admit that anything less than a B would have been a dissappointment for me, since the subject has been my best one this year.
Anyway, when it was my turn to have the exam, I was extremely nervous. For the first few minutes I even had trouble controlling my voice and putting the words in the right order. But luckily, that feeling of panic disappeared quite fast, as I realized that I could answer stuff without problems. For the rest of the 30 minutes the exam lasted, I felt that I answered confidently to everything, and I had a quite good feeling when I left.
A few minutes later, I was asked to come back in and get my grade. The Professors talked to me for little while before giving me my grade, and since I was kind of excited, it felt like they were talking forever. But I guess it was just a minute or two, really. In the end, they said something like this: Maybe you noticed that we tried to give you hard questions in the end? This was because we wanted to test you for weaknesses. However, you seem to have none in this subject, so we have to give you an A!
Needless to say, I am extremely happy about that!