Exams, traditions, and cold

A total of three exams awaited me, written, as is the norm in Oxford, after the end of the term itself. Marking and processing of the results by the university will take a while so for now there are several more or less carefree weeks ahead of me as there is no point in fretting about the exams when the matter is out of my hands. Now, all of us can hope that everything went at least roughly according to plan and that when the results are released, there will be no unpleasant surprises of marks below 40 %, which would mean having to do resits of one or the other exam in September.

During exams as well as at other times, Oxford is a place where many old and newer traditions are kept. Among the old ones is the obligation of all students to sit their exams in academic dress, or more precisely, enter and leave the examination rooms wearing it. Our exam dates were marked by pleasant weather so we did not need to undress in the exam rooms as student are said to have done last year during a heatwave. Another exam tradition involves wearing carnations of multiple colours gifted by our college parents pinned to your gown – white for the first exam, pink for the middle ones, and red for the last one.

A rather unusual Oxford tradition is the way the end of one’s exams is celebrated by the so called ‚trashing‘. After finishing the last exam, students are sprayed with shaving foam, colourful dust, glitter and confetti – the act of trashing itself – followed by jumping into the river. At first, I was not overly excited about this tradition but once I got to experience it myself, I have grown rather fond of it. The most fun part of it is by far the bath in the river. However, this part of the tradition became rather dangerous, as despite sitting the last exam in relatively nice weather, the cold river water proved to be a worthy foe for my immunity system and the bath in the river gave me a first-class cold, which sadly most likely won’t be redeemed by a first class in Prelims.

Instead of discovering so far undiscovered hidden corners of Oxford or getting to sit in cafés without having to revise and enjoying post-exam freedom, I spent the last couple days in Oxford in bed with higher temperature, a cold and a cough, hoping that I will somehow manage to fly home in this condition. Nevertheless, I have to say, that even though now, more than a week later, I am still recovering from that treacherous river cold, the experience was worth it.