This is New

Today, I'm picking up my Con Law take home exam. 24 hours of driving to and from school, searching for the answer, and writing. In years past, the night before exams I've studied 'til I fell asleep or couldn't study out of frustration. Last night I stopped studying because I felt ready, and bored (which probably tricked me into feeling ready). I watched two episodes of the Simpsons, paid bills, and fell asleep.

This morning, I woke, went to the gym and showered like I used to do every Tuesday morning during the semester. I just spent at least 30 minutes trying to plan my next trip to visit my father (Do I take the train or drive? It takes more time on the train, but I can study. It takes less time in the car, but I can't study. I can, however, listen to PMBR CDs and don't have to rely on others for my transportation to and from the train station. Still debating.)

I'm leaving to drive to pick up the exam shortly. If the last 5 semesters had any predictive value I'd be nervous, or reviewing, or something. But no. Apparently, exams (or at least this one) have become common place. I think I've finally accepted that there's no real correlation between ridiculous preparedness and doing well (at least for me) so I may as well save the effort. I've gotten A's on as many exams for which I've been underprepared as exams for which I thought I was prepared. Similar story for Bs. The only C was for an exam for which I felt VERY prepared but misread the question. Perhaps if I'd had more sleep and been more relaxed I wouldn't have misread the question. Who knows.

Anyways, this last time around, it appears that exams are just another thing in life to check off, but nothing to stress about or cause to alter my ordinary life. I vaguely remember feeling this way about exams in undergrad. I wonder how this will affect my final transcript. I guess I'll find out.