Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2009 8:15 pm Posts: 112 Location: London, UK
Thank you thank you!!
It's all done and finished!!! Even though I am not confident, but it's now over, I have got till August to worry about.
The theory paper is much harder than I expected, the new set of exams are totally different to the old notes, nothing like how to identify 3 red stones. So in comparison, the practical questions are much easier.
Bart, how did you do??
Frank, like I said before, the exam paper are in the booklet form, can't take them out. I will email you with questions that I can still remember.
How crass of them to design exams you can't share with your friends afterwords ... please do send me any questions you can remember
I'm sure you did well.
Hey Bart how was yours?
(bart and Phyllis both sat the foundation course but had different exams since Phyllis is doing the new revised course and Bart is still on the older coursework. Barts exams were longer as well.)
I'm sure you did well too. Did you escape with your exam papers?
Thanks for the well wishes all, really appreciated. Sorry I'm replying so late, but I slept a night over to avoid traffic jams on exam day. And today was 'back to the office' before I had a chance to log in here.
As Phyllis said, my exam was the 'old' style course. I had a few glances at the 'new' papers and the main difference is apparently the questions and some diagrams are already printed beforehand, with people being asked to provide info and fill up blanks. The 'old' exam is just a book of blank paper and a sheet of questions. We had 3 hours while the other students only had 2.5 hours.
Pending the final decision of the jury, I'm hoping for a pass grade. Have a good feeling, but you never know I guess. I did screw up one question of the practical quite badly. I dunno, I've just never seen a peridot with so little apparent double refraction. Double and triple-checked that, but no luck finding anything. The spectrum didn't quite fit peridot either, instead of three bands in the blue-green and blue, I saw one band in the yellow and one in the blue. Ah well, I'm hoping that won't be enough to fail. But... you never know so more news in August
I have the questions of both papers here next the keyboard. I first thought to take a picture of it and mail it to you Frank, but then I remembered the rural french phone lines. Give me some time to type em over and you'll have them in a bit
Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2008 9:09 am Posts: 57 Location: Sweden
A little late for good luck wishes for the exam, so I'll go for a "crossing-my-fingers-gesture"! Hope it went well for you! I know the waiting is a pain, but time flies and soon you'll be holding that envelope in your hands. =)
Joined: Wed May 27, 2009 4:05 pm Posts: 12 Location: Surrey, England
Hi all,
Good luck with the results phyllis and kierkof - i'm sure u both passed with flying colours! from the forums and chat room i know you are both bright- i know you will both do well...unlike scatterbrain me!
i did the diploma paper on wednesday... i thought paper 1 was pretty good...then paper 2 came - my god i have so FAILED....oh well ...best start saving up for resits! :(
i have the practical tomorrow... so much stress...
Joined: Wed May 27, 2009 4:05 pm Posts: 12 Location: Surrey, England
thank you frank!
that makes it even more embarassing! - 60% pass - if i failed it must mean i did REAL bad! :(
6 hours was harsh - my hand was starting to hurt from the writing!
i took your advice for doing stencils and they do help save time!
i've practice all day today with some stone sets purchased from Gem-A....got most of them right but i reckon my technique could be better....i spend waaaay too long looking for loupe observations.. i still have problems explaining what i'm seeing.
i did take the exam paper - i'll try to scan it for you in the next couple of days - what's your email address?
Joined: Wed May 27, 2009 4:05 pm Posts: 12 Location: Surrey, England
Hi all,
have totally finished.....seriously saving up for resits now! :(
real annoyed about how it all went - i didn't have enough time!
i came to do my last stone (the last stone in set D) and someone else had my stone and i only had 12 mins to go.... i didn't get the stone until about 5 mins b4 the exam finished. i asked one of the invigilators if i could have extra time as i had to wait for my stone and she said sorry no! SO UNFAIR! as a result i rushed, got flustered and wrote down some rubbish by forcing a result which wasn't right - if i had just 2 mins more i would have been able to write my test results correctly and identify it correctly! i am so disappointed now as i know i mucked a D stone up badly - i wanted to cry afterwards.
phyllis - my advise would be just to practice, the more practice you have the quicker you will be able to identify the stones - apart from yesterday i hadn't actually looked at any stones properly since january.
in hind sight - if i had started earlier revising, it wouldn't have been so bad..... it's just with 2 jobs, and home and family commitments - studying seemed to always be the last thing on my mind. ... but i guess these are just excuses as other people manage..
well anyways not much i can do about it all now...just have to wait for the results! :(
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