Study Skills Seminars

Over the course of the term, I have attended a number of study skills seminars for postgraduates offered by HuSS (my school at Exeter). They have covered topics such as citations, essay writing, effective reading, what professors expect in seminars, how the British academic system works, etc. Several of them have been deathly dull; however, most have been at least somewhat interesting. Granted, the interesting part hasn't always been in the material.

Take today, for instance. Today, shortly after the seminar began, the fire alarm went off. Everyone dutifully gathered their things and walked down the stairwell, up the hall to the main lobby, and out the front doors, then across the porch and down the stairs to stand along the street. It turns out that this was an unannounced fire drill. "Unannounced" fire drills are different from "unscheduled" fire drills in one important way: Although the students and professors get no advanced warning, the fire department does. As a result, we at least didn't have to wait for the fire department to clear the building before we were allowed back inside. All told, the fire drill took about twenty minutes, which meant that we had to hurry through some aspects of today's workshop.

In archery news, my shooting was quite a bit better today. I shot an average of 8, 6, 3 tonight, with a total of 128 on 24 shots, or an average of just over 5 per shot. Not counting my opening round, when I was still trying to sight my bow properly (in which I shot 3, miss, miss), I shot a 125 in 21 shots, or a little shy of 6 per shot.