
My master's exam has come and gone, and many people have asked us how it was. The short answer is, it went okay. But I do not know. I do not want the results for a week. "Do you think you passed?" ask.This it is a difficult question. The short answer is, yes, I think I passed. But I'm not really sure. What worries me is that the written test and oral interview are given equal weighting. Fail one and you are not the whole thing. I think I aced the written test. The interview, not so much.The test left me feeling confident. The interview made me feel shattered.Pass or not. I am now out of the hands. But no matter what happens, the experience drove home a few important one lessons.Lesson: I work best under pressureA few days before the exam, I was a nervous wreck. I could not sleep. I could not eat. I was terrified that I was over my head. I would not be able to answer a single question in the test. I was with fear and self-doubt plagued doubt.This is nothing new. I'm always a nervous wreck before a big event. But if the experience has taught me what it is that worrying about something that is not controlled it well. I lost a lot of time and energy worrying that the test would be with issues that I do not know the answers to be filled. And as always, turned my concerns are as groundless.I do this a lot. I worry about things I can not control. I'm worried about the plane crash, I am me overboard. I'm worried I'm struck by a car when I will cross the street. I worry about the past. I'm worried about the future. All this worrying is pointless. It is a complete waste of time. It's like an acid that eats you from inside. If I could stop worrying, I would. I just do not know, as opposed to how.But unnecessary worry, I do not think that is nervous before a big event as a bad thing. I think it means that you invested in the results, and you care what happens. The trick is, the nerves to your friend Gilles advantage.My channel has taught me how nervous energy as a positive thing, if I swim in order to be competitive. I used to have quiet a lot of trouble to me before a race. I was with fear and doubt themselves being consumed. I was so nervous that my stomach would be shut down. I would fall almost the blocks, because I shook so badly.Gilles has helped me to understand nervous was a good thing. Your body vibrates with energy, he said. This nervous energy towards your body prepares for the fight. Your muscles are humming with tension, explode like coiled springs. Just turn off the brain and let your body rev up into the gun goes and then release the tension in the explosion from the blocks and swimming as hard as you can. You'll be great. You always have do.And it's true. I do always under great pressure. Pressure drives me to do my best and try my hardest. I've never cracked under pressure. The pressure-filled moment, is not itself a source of anxiety. There is concern about the pressure to me first to disentangle causes. What makes no sense, because if I know I would thrive under pressure, then I get worried, why at all about this? But there I was, nervous and stressed on Friday morning, waiting for the clock strikes at 10 and begin the test. I mentally checked out of the classroom and I was asked at the beginning of a triathlon instead. I saw myself standing waist-deep in water with hundreds of other competitors waiting for the pistol at the start of the triathlon off.The-go is a bad thing. Once the gun goes off, you will get punched and thrown through the arms and legs thrashing as a swimmer fighting for a clean line of open water. Someone (who once used my head as a lever while swimming part of a triathlon. She pushed my head with his hand and swam to overtake me.) You must keep your wits about you and not to panic. To absorb the kicks and blows, do not try to swallow any water, stay calm and swim. Finally, the material is thin, and then be in a groove.Don "sedentary t panic. Do not give up. Fight and everything will be alright. This was the mantra I repeated in my head before every triathlon I raced in. It seemed like an appropriate song before the exam. Finally, I was preparing myself mentally in the head a few questions.TH clock struck 10 and it was the auditors ordered us to start. I took a deep breath ( "This is it!") And pulled the check from the envelope. There were four essay questions. But we only had two.Bam answer! The first question gave me a kick in the head. "Describe an engineering technique used to reduce industrial air pollution, with examples of blah, blah, blah …" Engineering! I knew immediately I had this summer. There was no way I could falsify. I know about engineering is that it wears a ring on his little finger and the development bridges.Pow go! The second question that struck me in the stomach. It was about the fisheries and the highest yield and some went like this: "If the x and y means that a whole series of numbers mean something other means, please calculate blah, blah, blah …" Math! I will be immediately passed to this option is not on the list. I would not even know how to fake something like this. I know about math is that I can not step twice in high school and as a result developed a lifelong aversion to numbers.Since I had already passed two questions from the list, it meant I could not do the two remaining issues no matter what. I walked my fingers and hoped that I be in a position, she had to answer. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw was one of the questions on Biological Diversity. The best of my ability, I thought. Which is ironic, because until about a week ago, I knew almost nothing about biodiversity.I spent the last few months studying in the library and one of my favorite techniques hesitation (besides going out to eat carrots) was to walk and browse through the books in the English section. So last week I was wasting time in the library, browsing through books written in the English section when I stumbled upon a collection of essays on the biodiversity of EO Wilson.The essays were well written and totally absorbing and I ended up reading of the book cover-to-cover study rather than on that day. Well, the book until the end to save my ass in the test. I could write a pretty decent (in my opinion anyway) article on Biological Diversity and was capable of specific examples of how to give the various ecosystems work. Who says procrastination does not pay! The second question asked us about the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities defined change" as in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It was not something I specifically looked at, but I felt like I the stuff inside and out knowing that the two UN conferences on climate change worked and I realized that actually the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" (in Action or, more precisely) into inaction. After an hour, was the general knowledge about the test and I was left feeling like I moved. My essays may not have been perfect, but I thought they were solid and convincing, and coherent.After a short break it was time for the second test – the specific skills test. As the general knowledge test was this test is an essay-style test, but in contrast to the general knowledge test, it was just a question. They would either know how to answer or wouldn'tI examining the hull removed. The question was simple, but complex. It was a quote on that Raymond Williams, "To truly radical is to hope rather than despair convincing possible." The task was to discuss this concept in terms of environmental communication.Now we speak! None of these math and engineering bullshit. I spent 15 minutes drawing up a list on a piece of paper and spent the next 45 minutes completely absorbed in the act of writing. I filled four single-spaced pages before the end of the hour. Again, I do not think my essay was perfect, but I thought I had done a pretty good job in answering the question of a clear and compelling way.I left the class feeling like I had shaken both tests. I felt stupid, so much time and energy to worry about how it would go before losing. I am sure that other people answer the questions better than me, but it does not matter. I proved to myself that I knew more than I, I thought. And that I thrive under pressure.Lesson two: My Japanese is Shiti got the opportunity to test in Japanese or English. (I may be a masochist, but I'm not an idiot – I have it in English.) I was lucky. Most of my friends have no choice. They have had their exams in Japanese.It 's one thing, a master's exam on a very specific scientific topic in your native language into account, it is quite another to do it in Japan. My friend Sergei, for example, had to take his master's exam in Japanese. Sergei is a film studies major. The fact that he can write, read and talk about obscure concepts such as direction and lighting and angles in the 1950s, Japanese cinema in Japanese is the mind-blowingly impressive. Sergey is a language genius. He is a native Bulgarian, he is also fluent in Russian, English, Japanese, and his own invented language, Sergey-go.I'm about one fifth as smart as Sergei. I thought about it, what would have happened if I had to take my exam in Japanese. I thought about the question of the biological diversity, and I thought about how I answer it in the Japanese and the only thing I could come up with went something like this: "I like nature. It is very important. I especially like big cats – lions, tigers, cheetahs, leopards and black. "Epic fail.Lesson three: I suck at academic interviewsI've always done well in job interviews. I think it's because I know that the people you interview to judge you are not just your skills and experience, but also how well you fit into the team.No you want someone with a flat personality or poor posture rent. You can look good on paper, but if you do not have energy, enthusiasm and a sparkling personality, you are probably not job.Turn available on the charm and make people laugh, always has been, as I mentioned job interviews. It is not scientific, but it works. I do not have any job that I got asked, but if I do the interview stage, I know the job is mine. I have every job I have ever interviewed for.Well experienced guess, what I am? As likeable and charming in an academic interview did not work. Professors are not looking for someone who can tell good jokes around the water cooler. They are serious people who know whether you become a good researcher and be able to come with an interesting and original thesis want. Do you have the intellectual chops to make it to the world of science or not? I'm afraid I went briefly to the properties that they have searched. It did not help that the interview room was (deliberately, I think up), to be like an interrogation room. The room itself was very large. There was a long table in the room before. Four professors sat together at the table. Looking at the table, away from a minimum of 15 feet, was a small desk and chair, was asked where I was sit.It intimidating. And I think that the point. This was not a nice conversation. This was a serious interview panel. The professors are right to the point. No time for small talk and share with me on ease.They asked asking hard questions. She pointed out the holes in my research before and asked me to fill them. I have the answer "I do not know," more time than I wanted. The longer it lasted, the more confused I got.I would be better prepared. You can not coast your way through an academic interview charm alone. Learned.Lesson Lesson four: I'm not afraid of me stretched out there There are a lot of things about myself I do not like. I am obedient. I am unsure. I'm lazy. I make stupid mistakes. I repeat the same stupid mistake. I ruined a lot of things open only through the mouth. The list goes on.But there are also a few things about me I do not like. And one of the things I like most is that I am not afraid to put myself out there. I will do, and try to hold everything. I love a good challenge and I am not afraid to fall flat on your face.If I want something I go for it. I let nothing hold me back. And I will not give up. I am a little persistent fucker.Maybe I'm not smart enough to be a master's student. But that will not stop me trying. Life is short and you must put yourself out there and just give'r. (For non-Canadians reading this "only give'r" is a popular, low-brow expression, which means everything to loose and Taking Care of Business as awesomely as possible. It also means getting wasted and rock out so hard as possible, but I'm not in use in this context here.) Perhaps my test was not perfect and perhaps the interview was not great. I do not know if I passed or failed. But I know that I am so good I could not. And I can not do better than that.I just wait and see if my best is good enough for the University of Kyoto.
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