This was an interesting turn of events for Jaren, who had been wondering if the practical would have required tangling with a plant which possessed far too many supple vines and sharp venomous thorns. At the same time, practical Potions--where the list and instructions were laid out for him--was his strength. He scanned the list and picked out the lines where the ingredients were implied--well, Professor Virohsa had asked them to gather these items during classes, so he was fine and only had to sequence them properly and worry about the properties of the potion later.

Setting the water in his cauldron to boil, he carefully and steadily prepared the ingredients in the order they were to be used. He'd scribbled a small letter in the corner of each label previously to remind himself of the nature of each plant, which was an asset now that he was in an exam. As calm as always, he meticulously sliced each plant matter into fine lines, or as long pieces as he could manage with some, and attempted to make them more or less the same size for each time of plant matter. The pollen he left alone entirely, since it was near impossible to slice powder.
Once the water had boiled, he added the earth-based element and began stirring counterclockwise, timing himself.