Fourth (and final!) exam

That's my last exam of the year out of the way (Animal Behaviour). One of the ones where you don't know if it went well or not. I finished just after the last half hour, so I couldn't leave the hall but had to sit there, bored.
Well, travelling back to Plymouth on Monday for a few days, so I've had a bit to organise such as snake sitters and bonsai sitters. Luckily the snake shop will babysit Draco for the week. I have to take him there tomorrow (I'm at work all weekend so won't have a chance then) in a pillowcase. He's going to be so annoyed.
Gotta go and back my ticket home, then going to enjoy a bottle of wine and do some scrapbooking to celebrate end of exams. I might go to the pub briefly with some people on my course. Still deciding as I'm not good with people and end up spending half the time worrying!

Third exam

Thats the third exam out of the way (Animal care and welfare). I actually quite enjoyed that exam! I was able to answer a question on dog training, so I was in danger of overrunning the time I'd allocated that question!
Gareth had some bad news from home, and has had to travel back to Plymouth to sort things out. He doesn't know how long he will be back, but I will probably be going back for a few days next week. Frustrating it can't be longer as I'd like to be there for him, but I still have to work my notice at Homebase.

I have a photo of Draco enjoying his new hide which I'll post when I can - I started feeling guilty that he only had egg boxes, so splurged out on some (expensive) plastic - mould into a shape and you can double the price it seems. He seems to like it anyway.

second exam

Just finished my second exam (Biology and control of infectious diseases). Hmm. Not really sure whether it went well or not! I had a really good question that I think I answered well, and a really bad one that I know I answered badly, the other two were somewhere in the middle! I guess I'll find out soon enough.
I'm taking the rest of the evening off from revision as I don't want to burn out; I'm going to compose my notice for work and deliberately not do anything else!

Exams

I've just finished my first exam of this set (Marine ecology and ecosystems). It's my worst subject - not due to the material so much as the volume you're expected to retain! - and I don't think it went too badly. Although I did have verbal diahorrea for the last question (four essay questions in three hours; I guess it's not surprising)!
Anyway, not much aside from revision going on, which would make pretty dull reading. I'm handing my notice into work in the next couple of weeks, so I'm quite excited about that - I think spending a year of working 7 day weeks with not much time off is catching up, so just another couple of weeks and I can try and relax a bit before fourth year takes hold!
Just off to take a couple of hours off before revising some more for Thursdays' exam - still, at least I can forget about exams tomorrow during Kung Fu.

Revising

Quick note

Still trying to arrange a project for honours. I need to think of a project title for the tick job, to be honest I just want to try and get something sorted so I can focus on revising for the exams which are in two weeks.
I haven't really done much the last couple of days aside from uni work or Homebase. So not much to write about!

Honours update

In all probability it looks like I will be doing the Tick job as an honours prokect. It will probably work out better than the dog one as I figure it's easier to get solid data - the problem with working with canine olfaction is there is a lot of subjectivity, and you cannot control what scents invade your study area! I'm still going to talk to through with with a lecturer.
The tick job will allow me to do PCR (polymerase chain reaction) which amplifies DNA and aids identification etc. of species - just one of the applications of this process anyway! It's a valuable skill which will help with future jobs/studies.
All in all though I'm not too impressed with how the honours allocations have been handled. It's basically just a mad scramble for whatever you can get; there is no choice system - I could've ended up doing something with plants despite my degree being in zoology. If I hadn't got this studentship then I would probably be stuck with a topic I had no interest in. Whinge whinge whinge.

Blair Drummond

Blair Drummond was pretty good. A lot smaller than I was expecting, but at least the animals looked happy. Except for this penguin receiving a beating:

Though I have to say my highlight of the day was the meerkats. As they aren't used for breeding, the park kept 6 males as a bachelor family. They looked rather podgy and I was reminded of the Budweiser adverts a lot of the time!

The world hasn't ended!

I've found out that the studentship I applied for has been successful! Very excited - bit odd I guess as it involves trapping ticks and mashing them.

I've decided that not getting the honours I wanted isn't the end of the world I thought it was at the time. There's a possibility that I can make up my own project (with guidance of course!) so it may work out better. I've hoping to do something with the dog's sense of smell; probably a preference test, but we'll see. If that doesn't work, then I may be able to do something with the tick job.

Well, I've got a field trip to Blair Drummond Safari Park now, so gotta go get on the coach!