Marvellously Mediocre

Round one of exams : Done

Status : Two to go

Emotional status : Apathy

I wonder if it is possible to feel both anxious and confident at the same time?

Aine’ (pronounced onyah) was my examiner for the day. Hardly the scariest of tutors around, yet my nerves were starting to betray me as I walked into the huge conference room in the basement of St Vincent’s University Hospital.

Yet despite my heart threatening to dislocate itself from its connecting arteries, the conscious part of my brain was surprisingly calm, almost confident that there was no way I could inherently screw this up.

I had put a lot of work in perfecting my case, endlessly editing, re-editing, and re-re-editing.

I knew she wanted it to be concise yet detailed. No beating around the bush. It is understandable that after listening to 10-20 people present their cases, one’s concentration would tend to drift. This meant that it was a matter of sentencing and word choice, which would determine a huge percentage of marks this time around.

“You did well, good job,” said Aine’

Applause?

Neh.

I’ve learnt over the years that in UCD, to “do well” means, “Congratulations, you didn’t screw up, but that doesn’t mean you’re getting an “A”. So a C would indeed suffice.

Soldiering on, an MCQ and an OSCE to go.