Victory! And Hugo!

The semester is FINISHED!  I took my last final this afternoon, which went very well, I think.  Yay!!!!  I am now free from homework until mid-January.  It's exciting...but, to be honest, it's a bit anticlimactic considering that I'll be working, writing papers for my internship, and ideally trying to get ahead on work for next semester over winter break.  But at least most of the deadlines have been lifted, and I'll get to sleep in more.  So that's something.

Even though I'm feeling a bit sick, I was determined to celebrate the end of finals.  So, my friend Katrina and I set off for adventures tonight - those adventures being 1) Fuzzy's Tacos, 2) Taking Photos on SMU's Campus (Katrina is shooting engagement photos there tomorrow night and needed to practice camera settings), and 3) Going to See Hugo.  People.  That movie is sooooooo good.  It turns out it's actually historical fiction all about one of the first French cinematographers, Georges Melies.  That makes it sound nerdy, but it was really very, very well-done.  And very accurate too, it turns out, about the details of Melies's life.  It's worth going to see.  Inspirational and educational all in one.

Productivity.

Old Testament Final: Check.

Systematic Theology Final Study Guide: Check.

Memorizing Aforementioned Study Guide:  Not Check.  But that is ALL that I have left for the semester, aside from taking the actual exam on Thursday afternoon.  But two and a half days to memorize four essay outlines?  I can handle that.

I also had some delicious bananas foster french toast today.  If you live in Dallas, stop by Cafe Brazil and order some.  The service there may be horrible, but you can't deny that the food is good.  And, they have no problem with you sitting there for two hours armed with a laptop and a stack of theology books.  It's not my first-choice for a study location; that would be White Rock Coffee, but that was unusually crowded when I drove out there this afternoon.  Cafe Brazil was a good runner up, though.  It's not very often that I can get anything done there, since it's usually fairly crowded and loud, but today was a happy exception.  And it only took me two hours to finish the study guide that has been intimidating me for two weeks.  I'd give that a two thumbs up.

In celebration of overcoming the most difficult part of studying for my Systematics final in a timely fashion, I finished out the night by watching Across the Universe.  Always a good choice.

What Studying Looks Like in Seminary

I had my New Testament take-home final today.  Even though it's take-home, we're not allowed to use any books or anything, so it requires just as much studying as any other test.  Here's what my studying looked like...

One and a half hours of essay prep in the library.

Swift apartment cleaning for study group.

Visual aids:

Philo's significance to the New Testament (with slight error...Philo didn't say Melchizedek was a high priest.  Drat.)

The Four Septets of Revelation

Back to individual studying.

Memory device: "Harry Potter Was Extra Brave When Weasley Slipped By Ravenclaw's Potty."

...which is an acronym for the 11 songs I attributed to 11 of the 12 books of the New Testament on our exam, to help remember the main idea of each book for scripture identifications (Revelation didn't require a memory device, because it has dragons and lakes of fire and is just plain crazy).

Here's the soundtrack, if you're interested:

2 Thessalonians: Heigh-Ho! (Snow White)
Colossians: Pretty Girl Rock (Keri Hilson)
Ephesians: We're All In This Together (High School Musical)
1 Timothy: Eye of the Tiger (Rocky)
2 Timothy: Born This Way (Lady Gaga)
Titus: Wouldn't It Be Loverly? (My Fair Lady)
James: We Can Do It (The Producers)
1 Peter: (The) Smiths' "There Is a Light that Never Goes Out"
Jude: Bad Kids (Black Lips)
2 Peter: Right Here Waiting (Richard Marx)
Hebrews: Prince Ali (Aladdin)

Also, reading aloud/listening to recordings of 10/12 of the books (sometimes in German/Swedish/French/Southern accents)

Study Sustenance:
-Stouffers' Cheese Manicotti
-Garlic Bread
-Fruit Cocktail
-De-frozen Halloween Brownies
-Frozen Yogurt from Yogurtland
-Corndog

One panicked phone call to best friend from college.

20 minutes of jumping around the apartment waving hands in the air, spouting off facts about alleged pseudonymity of deutero-pauline works and responses to persecution from a feminist critique (while waving arms around in the air)

Deep Breaths.

Start test, 10:10pm

Finish test, 11:43pm

Eat a bowl of cereal and watch an episode of "Friends" in celebration.

And that, my friends, is how I study.

You may think it's weird.  You may not understand it.  But it helped me nail this test.  I only missed one scripture ID (I googled them all after I submitted the test), and I feel super confident on the Term Identifications and Essay (even though the latter sent me into a panic trying to memorize all that info).

Three classes down, only one final left!!

Happy studying :)