The MPharm viva

Today, I survived a test. It's called Advanced Pharmaceutical Studies.
I never thought I could actually survive through it ( hopefully I do ).

It's a test which my lecturer said "do no revision on it". Seriously! Because we'll never know what's going to come out in the paper, and the questions can include anything from year 1 to year 4 plus some current issues.
There are three out of 10 (seems generous), and can test literally anything and you are expected to write some essays or answers showing your depth and breath of understanding. Each question is set up by two lecturers from different disciplinary it's gonna be an overarching topic.

Despite his advice I still grab something to read to comfort my anxiety the day before the exam.
Do no revision. Learn your cancer and clinical core unit, and what u did in your project, and use those knowledge to help you. He repeatedly said so.

He claimed that it's a test where bright student can stand out, "to separate the sheep and the goat" and "the taste of the pudding is in the eating".
And it's a 10 credits to our degree. (Our core units only account for 6 credits each)
And I can't believe I just had such an exam in my life where I couldn't prepare myself at all before I sit the exam!

But look at the bright side. I think many students including me have enriched their knowledge about current issues or hot topics in the pharmaceutical field in UK, so it's a good preparation for us to step into the field. But again, it's hard to guess which hot topic will come out in the paper. And this year, the staffordshire scandal has come up as First, acknowledging the importance of this issue to the healthcare profession.

And the questions are not as hard as I thought. At least there are some manageable opinion based question.
Phewwwww. Okay, it's really a paper which you don't need to do any revision, as I looked back the questions. But definitely, without revision, it means some very knowledge-based questions have to be crossed out. And left with some which u are expected to express your opinions on. And it has to be backed with evidence and specific examples in order to score well. So..we ended up not much choice then.

Oh such a unique experience! But there's a price to pay. 10 credits on 3 questions - all which u can only use all you have in your brain to answer, in three hours.

I finally understood what a student leave such a comment: "It's like a viva to me!"