Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Exam stress

I just finished my psychiatry test just today. It was a bit humiliating, not because of the pertinent questioning of the examiners but the patient decided he would talk in English to help me. I do not need to be reminded my Chinese is crap. There are people who constantly remind me. There are people who are kind about it, just like today with my patient who said, "I noticed you are not fluent in Chinese." There are other people who are not so generous saying, "You're Chinese is crap." It is not just uneducated people who have said that. I've gotten that remark from university lecturers. I just find that Hong Kong people are not very tactful.

Thankfully my test went well and my next (plus last) exam will be in nine day's time. It's a long time to wait but at least it gives me time to rest and revise properly.

During exams, I always wondered why you get stressed. I know examinations are a highly stressful event but compared to war, violence and death it is not life threatening. You know the stress is coming and cannot do anything about it, so why does our heart beat faster and our hands tremble? The whole point of the body's response is to get ready to run or fight - it just doesn't help in a test. So why hasn't evolution gotten rid of this? Why does our mind tell our body to get ready for a fight that is not coming?

At least I'll have some time to ponder this.

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