Although it is not my first day studying literature, I have been engaged in it since I started my MA. I've covered so much of the content and syllabus that it doesn’t feel new to me. I am familiar with the names and works of many authors, and I remember some of their works well. However, my grasp of the information in my mind is quite fragmented. Since the last time I assessed my knowledge, I have been trying to gather and organize the information I have. 

I’ve been so busy reading and understanding that I forgot that an examination requires a different kind of preparation. It demands revision, practice, and learning, and unfortunately, I did not prepare adequately. My head is pounding right now. I took a different approach after a long time, and it made me realize that I need to reflect on what went wrong. 

I reviewed the paper from my recent exam in June 2025 for the English NET, and to my surprise, it felt like I was reading the question paper for the first time. I recognized some of the writers and questions, but my brain was unable to retrieve that information at the moment. There were several reasons for this. First, I panicked during Paper 1. My math skills are poor, and I wasted too much time on that section, which left me short on time for the rest of the exam. This created stress and triggered my headache, making it difficult to focus. I realized I was likely going to fail the examination and this panic led me to randomly select answers without properly reading the questions. 

Now, as I review my performance, I can see that I've encountered much of this material before. Out of the questions, I found 14 or 15 that were completely unknown to me, which I marked in the PDFs I've prepared. The rest I was familiar with, so I take responsibility for my performance. I know I need to improve.

I have attached two PDFs: one is my analysis of the questions, highlighting what I knew and what I didn’t, as well as which units the questions were based on. The second PDF is a pie chart that helps me understand the weightage of questions from different units. It demonstrates that some questions overlap between literary criticism and non-fiction. Most of the material I encountered is covered, so I am determined to get this right.

PS- don’t mind my ugly handwriting today, I m on 2 disprins and my head is killing me 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵

Day 1