SWOTVAC or Death Week?

Today marks the beginning of SWOTVAC. Well, technically tomorrow morning, Saturday, is when SWOTVAC officially begins. In true law school fashion I have no classes on Friday (I've only ever had one class scheduled on a Friday in my 6 semesters), not that there have been many classes taking place this week!

For some reason I decided to look up SWOTVAC, finding that it is often known as Dead Week in the US! I think this aptly describes the week of torture!

After having inadvertently fallen asleep after I set my alarm for 5:30am, I slept in. I did a few jobs ini the city and began to print out the reams of paper that I plan to place under my pillow each night! After queuing up all lecture slides, legislation proofs and learning guide pages for two of my three law subjects. This proved rather difficult, just because of the great amount of documents I needed to print.

Of course, my amazing laser printer ran out of toner after a few pages. I quickly placed an order at a computer store and waited for my confirmation so I could go pick it up. After an hour, the time it usually takes to have an order confirmed, I got an email saying that the toner was out of stock. Disappointed, mainly because the price for my usually expensive toner is quite reasonable at that store. I grabbed my car keys and headed out to Officeworks where, despite the price being at least $40 more, I knew I could always find what I needed.

After two and a half hours of driving around, traffic, and odd jobs, I finally returned. My printer does this funky thing where it chucks a hissy fit and prints gibberish on the pages, usually when it stops printing, like when I run out of ink or paper. In the process all of the documents I had queued up were cancelled and I had to start afresh. Right now I'm at the point where I believe I got most of it but can't be sure. In fact, just as I was standing up to grab the latest pile of print outs I noticed a pile of printed slides that hadn't fitted on my desk. As I leaned down to pick them up I couldn't help but notice that both piles were exactly the same. Of course. Story of my life!

With two open book exams my life, hopefully, won't be too bad over the next few weeks, although I'm still rather scared. The last open book exam I had was this time last year and I found myself bringing in much more than every other student. I made a point of taking textbooks (why I don't know because they never get used), all lecture slides, my own note summaries and my question and answer books.

As an English Literature student, my focus over the next few weeks can't be devoted solely to the ins and outs of the law. Instead of an exam for English, which I would usually be wanting, I have yet another essay. Of course, this essay is due right in the middle of all my exams. Yay! My plan, or should I say my idea, is to get my head down and work through the essay over the weekend, hopefully finishing it off by Monday. The likelihood is slim, but it is definitely worth a try. Through the course of the semester, thanks to my nasty sinus infection and recurring nosebleeds, I missed a few of my english tutorials which, unfortunately count for part of my mark. Thankfully my tutor has been kind enough to allow me to hand in some notes on the literary theorists that we studied in the classes I missed so I've got that to do too. Thankfully I have notes from some of the readings I did so I just have to put them in a more legible form.

So that brings me to now, 9pm and I am still printing out the things I started printing 8 hours ago. Even after my sleep in this morning, I just want to go to sleep and wake up bright and early before heading up to the libraries at uni. I will most definitely have to be up there rather early if I want to sit somewhere other than the floor, just like I have before. Somehow I doubt that, even if I am there at the ridiculous weekend hour of 8am I will struggle to get a good desk with close proximity to an electrical outlet.

The weather has been rather good lately, perhaps I will spend time with Butler, Kolodny and Gilbert & Gubar in the beautiful sun!

To other law students facing the wrath of exams in the next few weeks, good luck!