Post-holiday blues

Well Christmas holidays are technically over and of course that means the onset of exams and more people on Facebook during the day writing statuses asking why they didn't pay attention in lectures, if it were possible to invent the pen in Harry Potter that gives the right answer or the latest in procrastination theory.

And this time i join them. I had been looking forward to being one of the lucky few that did so much work during the term that i did not have exams but then i realised that taking NCTJ classes means at some point i would have to take NCTJ exams. I have been doing NCTJ classes for two years now and have left it to the last term to take the exams. So here i am, writing another blog entry rather than revising because it would seem that even paying for an exam and having to do so again if i fail is STILL not enough motivation for me to revise.

In the past week i have written approximately ten flashcards about Contempt of Court and i see no more flashcards in my immediate future. Why is revision so difficult to do? Once i get started i am happy to sit down and write out dozens of flashcards telling me that section 4 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 gives me a defence for writing extraneous articles as long as they are contemporaneous and in good faith. Well look at that, i learnt something! And yet, the motivation to stop watching re-runs of Friends and Come Dine With Me, get out of bed, switch Facebook off and open McNae's 'Essential Law for Journalists' is severely lacking.

I am destined to fail this exam and pay another £44 for the privilege of trying again in 3 months or feel the burn when i sit in an interview and explain that no, i did not take my NCTJ's because i was learning how to cook a rack of lamb on Masterchef!

And shorthand. That pesky little language that i am supposed to practise every day for thirty minutes else i won't be able to take my 60 words per minute in March, let alone 70 or 80. So by my estimation i have neglected to do approximately 15 hours of practise and have a class tomorrow morning in which i will be competing with the MA's who work 9-5 every day and in their lunch breaks discuss the best way to shorten sentences in order to pass the 100 exam in March!!

Okay well, i have definitely panicked myself into some sort of action now so i am definitely going to do something pro-active with my afternoon. Oh wait- Man United vs Spurs in 45 minutes? Ok, after that i'll do something. Promise. ;)