Exams - the nightmares of the students around the world

 Ever since I know myself in school (that is almost 21 years), I had not a single year without exams! Every year, in summer, winter, fall or spring exams were knocking on my door calling me to follow them (yaickssssssssssss)!!!

Primary school, secondary school, high school, colleges, Project Management School, Social Counselor School, Professional Skills Evaluator School, Trainer for Trainers School  and now... Human Resources Management School - all have 2 things in common: studying and exams!!!

 Piles of past exam papers, study guides, notes, summaries and texts lay on my desk.  On the wall, I had drawn up a revision timetable and was miles behind schedule. :(((((((((( Yes folks, I have exams... Well let me share you my vision over exams!

When I hear the word "exam" in my mind starts a real battle of huge proportions and turns into a thriller film category, a kind of "The Death of the World" with me, playing the main role as victim and the teacher the serial killer...

Exams require full energy from us and do not let us sleep at night, as usual! Sure all of you have noticed your colleagues' facial expressions when pronounce the word "examination". They will be relay on pure luck or will be constantly agitated to pass the exam with high marks.

As a student (which I am including now because of the schools I take to improve all the time my work and keep myself up to date) I can tell you that I know and share all your thoughts and feelings that you as students try every day of what is called the session of exams or work exams, anything that has inside the word "exam".

You get the most intense feelings, from anxiety sensitivity, reconciliation with oneself and the knowledge gained to total indifference and abandonment, but every time you know that beyond the EXAM your life will be back to  normal, as it was planned by you.

The advantages of the era in which we live helps us to express quickly our frustration about the exam, but in the same time help us to obtain the missing information. If you lose your schedule or it the courses are not found or even you lost your themes that you have such a short dead line to hand over, more and more questions appears - these things push you to the teachers (the best source to provide answers); the access to them should be facilitated. 

For all these issues, forums, groups or any other form of communication are a great help in the challenges encountered during the exams. (even when I was not having classes I could speak with my teacher and my colleagues on net, on site, on the phone and this is a very good thing). 

In fact, why we are all so freak out when we have exams???Maybe because when it is about exams, all what we keep say that we run out TIME, that we don't find some subjects, that we have a lack of memory and maybe we will forget that or that... STOP! 

All the concerns that you have are related to planning. You'd be surprised to find that most of the problems you had during this period is related to how you organize things. Exams are just some stages that embody your work done before. Infernal projects and preparation before the actual exam - it makes you feel dry of power and often your mental clock fails.  

Do not worry, you're not alone in going through the emotions of listing in your mind: "exams, exams and over, exams" ... 

Get the session of exams as a challenge, as the person that you most hate and wish to overtake you by force of mental tests. The strategy is simple, it works with me (of course after years of keep searching the best way and after so many nights feeling desperate in front of the hundreds of pages thinking that over 1 month or 2 the ogre called EXAM will come).  

So, disconnect yourself from daily faults and advance in your work before the session starts in an organized manner. Start by reading jokes or watch a cartoon or a science fiction  - whatever will attract you more. Maybe a walk and an evening spent with the beloved one in front of the big screen at the Multiplex will motivate you to get over the psychological barriers of the exam. 

Emotional state before the beginning of this hellish process of learning and study exam session will improve in the sense that you will no more give a serious note to minors incidents from your life and all the attention will focus on your action. Opening synapses, because to this issue we refer when we talk about biological connections, lucid thinking and memory, all these will be made instant and your efficiency will lead to much more effectiveness.

Shortly, plan your time, disconnect yourself from negative energies around your cortex and forward to the final destination of endless exams ... VACATION! Sounds great, right? 

To be honest with you, this so waited moment - VACATION - is my purpose to get off with the exams in the moment I have it and not let this agony to be extended - you know what I mean - failing in exams and going again to pass these exams! YUCK! No way! 

As the weekends, weeks and months flew by and the final exams approached, nervousness became motivation.  My motto these days is: If you're ready to put in the hard yards, anything's possible.  And I'm ready! 

A little joke before we close the subject and go back to study: 

The father is asking his girl:

---- Tell me my dear, in how many exams you failed?

The girl is answering:

---- With the one from tomorrow, to all daddy :))))

P.S.: I HAVE EXAM TOMORROW FROM 15:00 to 21:00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PRAY FOR ME!!!

Allah's signs in the world - part X

Allah and Muhammed on Fish

 

 

Glycerine Aloe Cream Recipe

My previous recipe for Glycerine Wax cream had worked out quite nicely, so I was ready to try again. This time I wanted to make a cream that was a bit less waxy, but had aloe vera in it. I began with the basics. 

1 cup olive oil
2 cups distilled water
3/4 cup aloe vera
1/4 cup glycerin
1 Tbsp + 4 oz beeswax
10 caplets lecithin
1 tsp vitamin E
12 drops lavender
4 tsp UltraMaize 

I started out by heating the olive oil alone for 1 minute in the microwave, then mixing together the water, aloe vera, glycerine, 1 Tbsp of the beeswax and lechitin and nuking those for 1.5 minutes. I whisked the two together quickly to begin mixing them, then I blended them with a hand blender. No good - it was soupy. I added in the vitamin E, lavender and UltraMaize but the UltraMaize didn't help with the soupiness. 

The reason I had used so little beeswax to start is I have a hard time shaving it and my boyfriend was addicted to a video game. I finally got frustrated and pried him away from the game to chop up an 4oz container worth of dried flakes of beeswax, put it into 1/2 cup of the "soup" and nuked that. You can't really nuke solids, so this was a way to help it melt better. Then I added that back into the main mix and blended it. Voila!! Now it thickened. Now of course I had put TOO much wax into the mix, and as it cooled it got a little TOO solid. It was still usable, but a bit too waxy. Also, the water separated out almost immediately. I had 1 1/8 cup of water that was left when I scooped out the ending cream, which is over half of what went into it. Still, the cream was quite nice. Waxy, but nice. 

The lesson here was to add in more lecithin, and more beeswax from the start. The reason I hadn't added more lecithin this time is (again) my boyfriend was busy - and we only had caplets that had to be cut open with a knife and have their insides squeezed out. The caplets are rolly and I had ALL sorts of trouble doing this. I was lucky to get the 10 caplets into the mixture. In experimenting afterwards, I found if you drop the caplets into boiling water, they pop open and you can then fish out the caplet part, leaving behind the insides pretty easily. So that's my plan for the next batch.

Glycerine Wax Cream Recipe

I have done a number of trials to create a hand creme / lotion that is smooth without being sticky or clingy. Here there is a recipe that you could try:

2 cups distilled water
1 cup olive oil
3/4 cup glycerin
4 caplets Vitamin E
10 caplets Lechithin
10 drops lavender oil
3 Tbsp beeswax 

Start by mixing all of the items together. For the caplets, cut them open and squeeze the liquid inside into the mixture. Microwave in a glass container for 2-3 minutes, stirring every 1/2 minute, until the beeswax is mostly melted. You have a smooth liquid at this point. 

I initially tried to blend it right away. Then I began cooling it. It began to separate as it cooled, as you can see here.

 You have to add in 10 more Lechithin caplets worth of liquid and now that it was more solid,  I tried blending again for a few minutes. It got much more creamy now, although there was still some liquid left in the mix. 

The cream itself was *great* - very smooth, moisturizing, and didn't leave a sticky residue. For me it was slightly waxy. I will try another run (as soon as I use this batch up) with less beeswax to see how that affects it. Also, I obviously have a little too much water in here. I will drop down to 1 cup of distilled water to see if that is still liquid enough. 

The final result does not smell much of lavender, even though the initial mix was very lavendery. It appears you have to add the oils in after heating, to allow them to keep their fragrance.

Glycerine Olive Oil Lotion Recipe

There are a number of recipes that fall into this category. The basic idea is that you have glycerine, distilled water, olive oil, and then random other items for vitamin or fragrance. So here is the specific recipe I tried: 

1/2 cup distilled water
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup glycerin
4 caplets Vitamin E
4 caplets Lechithin
10 drops lavender oil 

This is a recipe that just like the basic Glycerine Lotion Recipe involves very basic ingredients and no heating. In this recipe's case at least you do have some oil in there, which gives the lotion a little (but only a *little*) thickness. The lechithin is supposed to act as an emulsifying agent, to bind the oil and water together.

You mix all ingredients together - which means for the caplets that you cut them open and squeeze the liquid out into the mixture. Be careful when you do this! They are quite rolly.

However, whether I shook this up by hand (which some recipes instruct) or whether I blended it for 2 minutes straight (a la other recipes), it still separated out rather instantly. It had the consistency of ... a slimy soup. It was still exceedingly drippy. This recipe might do well in a spray bottle, to spray on you as a mist, but it really doesn't cut it for what I consider a lotion to be.

So if you spot these recipes or give them a try, be forewarned that they are VERY drippy.