Well, the examinations are finally here. Actually not ‘finally’. I haven’t exactly been looking forward to it and the speed at which it has come really surprised me. I got a bit worried about my lack of experience with LSE examinations and decided to read the examinations procedure just to ‘pacify myself’. And LSE really has a strong marketing and branding team whose influence infiltrate even the least public documents of the school:
Please note that examinations are intentionally difficult, and feel more so under the pressure of timed conditions. The cachet of LSE degrees, in the eyes of other universities and employers, is at least in part based on the School’s rigorous academic standards. You should not therefore be surprised when your examinations feel more difficult than the previous years’ papers from which you have been revising. Examinations may contain questions that surprise you and that are unlike past examination questions. This is intentional: the examiners want to test that you have understood the material well enough to cope with new types of problems. Though challenging and difficult, the examination will also be fair. – Examination Procedures for Candidates 2011
I do hope the whole affair is quickly done and over with though. And that, is the life of an LSE student. It’s just that I am a little atypical.
