Journalism vs Sociology

Oh dear- it has been an entire month since I last wrote my blog. And I have hardly any excuses. In mid February I had my NCTJ Essential Law exam and the NCTJ Reporting exam a day later. But apart from that I have frivolously wasted away my time, neglecting my poor blog for more exciting reading and writing, such as my experience of speed dating (I did it for my career and I won't hear any more about it!).

So the Essential Law exam... Honestly it has been that long that I've forgotten what happened with it! There were a couple of short answer questions which I had never known the answer to- the head of the judiciary and what "taking the silk" means. But thankfully I feel like the other questions were passable at the very least. In the week leading up to the exam my brain had no capacity for anything other than McNae and even on the day of the exam I felt like I had not done enough. But the questions fell in my favour and I feel i've done enough for the pass at the very least.

The next day was the NCTJ Reporting exam and what a kerfuffle that was! The problem was we needed computers for the exam, obviously, and apparently had not booked a free computer room. Thirty minutes after the exam was meant to start we were still trekking round the maze that is the media building at Salford University trying to find a room to do it in. Eventually we came across a room of Mac's and with one guy in the group owning one we were soon all set up. This was a 2 and a half hour exam and after 90 minutes I was finishing up, went to add a header to this (bearing in mind I don't know how to use a Mac) and the computer crashed. I had saved it after the first of two questions, but not since so I had a major, but silent, meltdown. Thankfully the technician came and saved the majority of it, missing off the last ten minutes of work. So I finished up and got out of there before anything more could go wrong!

Since then I have thrown myself into my final semester which consists of entirely Sociology modules, apart from shorthand. Unfortunately I chose to do a course including sociology on a whim because I had discovered I was good at it during A-Levels. Let me tell you, for a journalist who wants to be writing news stories and features, not essays, five years of sociology is too much! It is becoming harder and harder to switch my brain between writing stories and writing essays and the harder it becomes the less I wish to do it.

Since the exams I have learnt that I passed my NCTJ Court Reporting exam. With a low mark but a pass is still a pass and that's all that matters. It worries me slightly that the one I was confident on came back with a lower mark than I was expecting, makes me nervous about the other law exam which I am far less confident about. But only time will tell now!

As for shorthand. Well! I had originally planned to take my first exam tomorrow, the 3rd of March. Unfortunately, despite my commitment to working at home this semester, I still do not feel ready, still yet to continually complete passages at 60 words per minute. So my teacher and I have agreed to postpone my first exam by a month, by which time I am hoping to sit the 70 instead of the 60. Then the 80 in May and 100 in June. Right? Right!

Anyway, very little to report, unless you want me to rant about the unreliability of Arsenal but I'm sure you don't want to hear about that!!