My Last Term at Oxford
Reflecting on my last term at Oxford, I think I spent it well. Perhaps I should have started studying for my exams later, as I was barely even going through the motions in the last two weeks, but at least I felt confident in my answers. I took exams in two subjects: the International Relations of East Asia and Russian International Relations and Foreign Policy. I revised for the first in the usual way: I read through my notes until I was absolutely sick of them, and I copied the most important points onto a word document. Realising that I had learned practically nothing about Southeast Asia during the Cold War, I also studied a few Wikipedia pages and boiled them down into digestible bullet points. Finally, I prepared a few paragraphs of definitions that I could copy straight onto the online exam (which is perfectly within exam regulations).
In contrast, my exam
on Russia was held at the Examination School; it was closed book and
handwritten. Worse still, I had misplaced my folder with all my handwritten notes,
and I kept no study materials besides the syllabus, the class presentations,
and a few reading notes that one of my classmates shared with me. Perhaps this
was a blessing in disguise, however, as focussing my cognitive abilities on a
limited range of readings and topics helped me effectively memorise a useable
list of author names and case studies. Also, since my exam was at the
Examination School, I got to take part in the whole pageantry of dressing up in
sub fusc and wearing a carnation around town. This was more fun before the exam
than after it: I took off my gown and sub fusc because of the sweltering heat
and broke the stem of my carnation in the process.
Outside of school, I
tried to make the most of my time. I visited my friend Lekha in London one last
time and I hanged out with my friends in Oxford over various fun activities. I
organised an IR-themed pub quiz where I pawned off my stash of sweets, as well
as titbits of niche knowledge gathered during my many Wikipedia rabbit hole
journeys. I also had a few music-appreciation sessions with my friends Sparsh
and Sophie. Unrelatedly, after dozens of applications and a handful of
interviews, I landed a six-month traineeship with the European Union beginning
in September.
As for my personal goal
of entering all the Oxford colleges, I achieved it on my penultimate day by
visiting Linacre College. Somehow, I had never entered Linacre despite its
being right on the way from Saint Antony’s to the Department of Politics and
International Relations. Indeed, I had even seen all the Private Halls by then (well,
except for Saint Benet’s Hall, which I had passed by many times but never
entered until it was too late and it went bankrupt in 2022).
Oxford delivered on my most fundamental requirement: that it grant me a master’s degree more marketable than my master’s in history. Whether the marketing tells the truth is a different story, as I feel I have learned very little here academically. The classes on quantitative analysis and programming were too rushed and ill-conceived to teach me anything, and the classes on international relations theory did not teach me anything worth learning. Nonetheless, I learned a lot of life lessons from my fellow classmates, and I have found inspiration in many of them.
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