I have a "laborious flying" dream like yours. In this dream I have discovered that I can fly, and think it is amazing. Nobody around me notices, however. I can only fly a few feet above the ground, and it is like swimming--it is very hard work and I can't keep it up for long. I fly with something like a swimming breast stroke.
I have an "examination dream," even though it has been forty years since I took an exam in school! In my dream, it is almost the end of the semester and I suddenly realize that I signed up for a course but completely forgot to go to any classes. And it is the day of the exam and I need to get to the exam on time. Unfortunately, I am lost in a very big school building with corridors that extend for miles and miles and miles. The building is made up of combined parts of many different real school buildings--my high school, my college, grad school. And people keep giving me conflicting directions, and I am not sure what floor of the building I need to be on. And there is about two feet of invisible maple syrup on the floor making it difficult to walk quickly.
I don't think these dreams mean anything in particular.