You know in the movies, when everything goes silent and you can just hear the thudding of your heartbeat in your ears?

I had one of those moments today. Was all psyched up to do my Writing & Culture exam today and caught the express train to the city, making sure that I was there in plenty of time. I arrive at the city campus and go to the exam board to find out what room I am in for the exam - and here's where the world fades out and I can hear my heart beating faster and faster - and I find that I have been studying for the WRONG final. Somehow I managed along the way to transpose this Wednesday's exam subject with next Wednesday's exam topic, so with three finals you can imagine how prepared I was for this exam a week away (uhhhh, not at all). I sat on the floor outside the test room, closed my eyes and brought back all the knowledge I could remember on the texts we'd studied (I have a semi-photographic memory - i.e. it only works when I focus) and just kept running over it in my head for half an hour. I kept doing my breathing exercises as I did this and went into the exam where I answered all three necessary essay questions in the allotted time - now it's just a waiting game to see how well I did, but I feel confident that it was a passable effort (even if it isn't as good as if I had actually had the chance to study. As much as it was a idiotic mistake to make, I'm feeling quite proud of the way I handled it. I didn't let myself panic, I realised that nothing much could be done to fix the situation and I spent the time that I had left before the exam constructively. If I wasn't such a moron, I'd pat myself on the back LOL.