The set text for my exam were an excerpt from Room with a View, something I didn't even glance because the author was US American and I'm an anglist (turns out it was a quite interesting short story by a gay POC author on freedom), and The Solitary Reaper by Wordsworth.

William Wordsworth. Huh.

Obviously, given his popularity, I prepared pretty much everything BUT him.

Also, my professor is a big fan of texts being "very much concise and to the point", and I think that my 17-page, rambling, at times essayistic text quite cuts that. Gnaagh.

The Solitary Reaper
William Wordsworth

Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound
Is overflowing with the sound.

No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.

Will no one tell me what she sings?--
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and may be again?

Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;--
I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

According to the awesome staff at the exam registration office, they'll send the corrected title to my address ASAP. The person in charge of the registration phoned me soon after writing the mail - before I had seen his response, in fact, asked what the right title was going to be and apologised for the mistake.

Whoever copied the title can't know a lot about English literature or thought the title was intentional - and the mistake arose because, as he put it, "your examiner has beautiful handwriting, but sadly, it's not legible to anyone". They're going to change it now even though, as he said, he would have been more interested in a paper about snaps.

It's strange, because whenever I discussed signing up with other prospective teachers they kept telling horror stories on how unhelpful and unfriendly this particular person is supposed to be, but I have never experienced him anything other than very kind and extremely helpful. I also know that he is not a teacher nor, in fact, ever studied, so I can imagine him getting a lot of crap from students who think that they are superior to him, as it is not likely that anyone can have that many bad days. Huh.