All the annoying things about Heriot-Watt during exam time

Exam time is without a doubt the worst time of the year for all students. Everybody is stressed, everywhere is twice as busy as normal, and our moods are at an all time low.

All any students wants is that euphoric feeling we get when we put down our pens at the end of the final exam, knowing that we've got what seems like a never-ending amount of freedom ahead of us.

However, before we get that far, we have to fight our way through hours of soul-destroying revision, staring blankly into books, always feeling a bit hungry, a bit stressed and a bit dehydrated.

When we are at rockbottom, some things about Heriot-Watt can really grind our gears.

The library is under maintenance

The one thing that all students long for at this time of year is obviously the library. It's such a crucial facility for all of us writing essays and trying to revise, so not having access to it is such a nuisance, to put it lightly.

The fear of the commute on the morning of an exam

There is no greater fear on the morning of an exam than missing the bus. Multiple alarms have been set in preparation for the 9am exam, but if you sleep in and run to the bus stop, you could soon realise there isn't another 25 bus for twenty minutes. The only thing worse than sitting an exam is being late for one, and for those of us that don't live on campus this is a nightmare.

Sometimes the printers don't work

Managing to get a printer to work can sometimes feel like a great achievement. This is a problem year round but it's a lot more stressful at exam time. Most of the time you go to print off revision notes and either your student ID won't work, there's no paper, or you don't have enough printer credit, which brings us to the next annoying thing.

Printer credit

If you actually manage to find a working printer, you've only got £15 worth of printing credit to use. £15 is not enough for a whole semesters worth of printing for most courses.

The lack of variety in the library café

The library café is the smallest eatery on campus and possibly the worst. It doesn't have a lot of choice and it's only useful part is the Red bull machine which ensures you can stay awake for your panicked last minute cramming session.

You can never find the books you need

Good luck finding a book you need for revision, because a lot of the books you need will already be borrowed by someone else. You will probably never see this book until after your exam, or possibly graduation.

One person taking up an entire booth to themselves

These people are the worst. The people who take an entire booth for themselves, despite the fact there are hardly any booths available in the first place. Getting a seat in the library during exam time is a difficult task, so seeing one person take up a booth is the most annoying thing ever.

Finding SH2 is a mission

It's happened to most of us, you get your exam timetable and don't recognise the name of the building. Buildings like SH2 and the Conoco building aren't used by undergraduates very often so when they pop up on your exam timetable it can cause a bit of a panic.

For the record, SH2 is the old sports hall near the bus stop, and Conoco is the Petroleum engineering building close to Leonard Horner and the Marriott Hotel.

When you've been on Vision so log that you get logged out

This isn't a big deal really, it's just super another little thing that is super annoying around this time of year. After spending hours studying in the library, the last thing you then want to see is that your Vision page is no longer available.

At least we've got alpacas.