Thursday, November 29, 2007

English Exam

This post was originally posted at my Windows Live Spaces blog. [View original post]

MarkKB's Blog - Thu 29 Nov 2007

I hate myself. [1]

Last Thursday we had our NCEA[2] English external exams. I did an almost complete repeat performance of the practice exams, where I did Unfamiliar Texts and Formal Writing[3], and then ran out of time. But that's not why I hate myself.

After the exams, I hung around a bit outside, catching up with some of my friends in the English 100 class, who were also taking exams that day[4], as well as some of the guys I had taken our exam with. We talked, joked, and so on.

By and by, I decided to walk home, like I usually do when I go home from school mid-day. (Study leave is awesome.) As I was making the turn just past Gallony Avenue, I saw someone lying on the ground, moaning, with tear-filled eyes. (I think she's from my English class.[5]) Evidently, she had twisted some part of her foot, or something was making it unbearable for her to walk. So, like the dolt that I am, I asked her if she was OK. She didn't answer, possibly because she was in too much pain to do so, but more probably because she was too busy considering whacking me with a large mallet. So, announcing that I would go back to the school (to look for any of her friends that were still hanging around), I proceeded to do just that.

Now, sometimes when you're focused on something, it takes a while for your brain to process your surroundings. And so, it wasn't until I had reached the school gates that the cogs started whirring: Didn't I just pass two guys?

Looking back, I saw the afore mentioned dudes turning the corner. I backtracked, and sure enough, the two were doing what I should have done: they had flagged down a car and were now helping her on. At least, I think so, and that's what it looked like.

So, tell me: did I do the right thing?

Footnotes:

[1] By "I hate myself", I, of cause, mean "I hate the course of action that I'd taken", not "I'm going all emo".

[2] If you're not from New Zealand, you probably won't know what this is. It's the national certificate for New Zealand, and it's based on arbitrary levels of achievement designed to show your knowledge of a subject. You can either achieve (A), achieve with merit (M), achieve with excellence (E), or not achieve (N). Markers often write up a grid, showing you how much of each you got, which forms the word NAME across the page.

[3] Unfamiliar Texts is answering a bunch of questions on poems, extracts from literacy, "visual texts" (static images) and the such. Formal Writing is writing a x-word essay, where x=~200-300 words, choosing from an unknown list of subjects. The other two sections are film and book essays, the former being What's Eating Gilbert Grape, directed by Lasse Hallstrom, and the latter, Alex, by Tessa Duder.

[4] I am not in the English 100 class, instead I am in one of the many 101 classes, which are basically mid-range. Apparently, the reason I wasn't put into such a class was my lack of organisation, a decision with which I can't find fault with. You should see my room...

[5] Not naming names, of cause. I mean, it was rather embarrassing.