Racing through the music

In the last fortnight I have worked through 8 weeks' worth of my music course. Phew! That was in an attempt to be able to post some assignments back to the UK by a reasonably reliable snail mail, rather than expensive DHL (who said something about the quality of the Royal Mail?).

Generally it has been ok; starting very easily, but now it's beginning to nip a little here and there. My greatest difficulty is hearing the dratted chords and cadences - I won't say they all sound the same to me, but with some I find the differences very subtle. I can sight read and sight sing most of the music, I can harmonise sung or played music (with one other line) no problem, and I can identify all those intervals and cadences on paper just fine. It's still easy hearing it played on a piano, but when I hear orchestral stuff, I find it very difficult indeed.
Also working at the laptop, I very easily drift off into reading my emails while I am supposed to listen to the music...and I know most of the pieces from which snatches are played, so I find it hard to listen to them differently. Apparently that sort of thing can be trained - and I do have ear training software on my laptop. Perhaps working through the course more slowly would give more practice at the different stages.... I wonder if we will have ear exercises in the exam?

Can't wait to go on to the next bits of work - but now need to prepare a bit for Rwanda.