The Great Exam

A great big exam in the Great Hall of Birmingham University's Aston Webb building this morning! All 360 medical students in the final year. For most of us, it will be the last time we enter the Great Hall until our Graduation ceremony in July. What a fabulous occasion! It was quite a sight, with row upon row of busy beavers; a sight which I would have loved to capture on camera if it weren't for the exam regulations!

The exam went okay, although I always find 3 hours arduous, even with just short answer and multiple choice questions. The setting was quite splendid, with stained glass, high domed roof, university crests adorning every orifice (more on that on a later post) and portraits of all the university's chancellors. I can't wait for the graduation ceremony, the last of which I attended was back in 2003 when Wendy graduated (left, courtesy of Peter Gosling her father!)

Here is a picture of the external of this building at the centre of the university (Chancellor's Court). It is named after one of its architects, Aston Webb (1849-1930), the other being Edward Ingress Bell (1834-1913) and was built 1900-1909. They also designed the law courts, which I hope to show you at a later date. As you can see, I took this last winter! Things are much more radiant and bright at the moment!

All I have to tackle now is 2 scary Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (ie roastings) which will be the icing on the cake for this week's stress levels. After that I have a resit exam in June (hopefully just one!) but otherwise I should be having a magnificent summer as the fine English weather approaches!