Finally a blog post. It has been almost a semi-year or semester since i have written something. At last i find time to sit before this magical-notebook, establishing connection to a server about whose location i barely have any idea, through a magical wireless internet service. And in this magical world i find more magical things happening. And the magic doesn't end here. At the present moment i am supposed to be writing my mid-semester exams. Just before the exam i find i have magically got 19 on 20 in the previous mid-sem. Even more magical is the fact that i got exactly the same mark in the first mid-sem, an exam which reminded me of the deadly maths exam of the first year (in which i got 10 on 50!). Of course there is a lot of difference between this magic and the previous one. So this gives me pretty good internals and and technically reaching the optimum threshold level of 45. So i bunk the exam!
So instead of writing exam i writing about exams. Well, i have been writing exams for the past 16 years. I have written all types of exams: ranging from the normal Q&A exam, the one in which we have to fill the answers in question paper, the one in which i make some meaningless design by shading on a special sheet ,which a computer reads and decides my fate and finally the one in which i sit in an AC room and keep selecting various options given by the computer and after 3 hours of playing this game the computer displays a random number(and that is supposed to be my score!).
So many types of exam but the one i have been doing for 'looooong' time is the normal question-paper-and-answer-sheet exam. So how do i write exams? Anyone who knows me would say i am a slow writer. In most cases i finish the paper at T-ZERO and in some unfortunate cases i helplessly try to complete the paper only for the invigilator grab the answer sheet from me. I hardly remember any instance in which i had finished the exam very early and left the exam hall before my class mates.
So does it mean i am a slow writer? Well lets see. There have been instance in which i had finished the paper. Note the phrase 'finished the paper'. For instance i had my social studied quarterly exam and first-grade keyboard exam conducted by Trinity college of London on same day. Obviously I couldn't miss either of exams, so I had to complete the keyboard exam first then travel from Mount road to Adyar to the write my school exam. I managed to enter the exam hall but i was already late by 45min. Though i was granted some extra time to compensate my delayed start, i managed to finish before most of my friends.
The second instance is when i was writing Basic electronics III mid semester exam. I had to score marks cos i managed to screw up the first 2 mid-sems. I started the exam and as usual i took my own time to write the first 10 mark question. Suddenly i realized that there was just a fraction over half an hour left and i had to answer question worth 40 marks. It was a do or die situation. For a second i thought i was doomed but managed regroup myself and in the end finished the exam.
Third instance was when i was writing the III midsem of Electrical Machines paper. Same do or die situation. I was sitting happily and writing the exam. Half an hour gone, I completed half of the first 10 mark question. Then the invigilator asks for my I D card. I open my purse, petrified to find that the I D card is missing. I go to the ppl in-charge of exam-wing, they say i cant write unless i have my I D card. Surprisingly, i was allowed run back to my hostel, get the card. I showed it to the ppl in exam-wing, magically got their permission to continue the exam, came back to my class. The equation was more than 50 min over, still around 45 marks worth questions to be answered. And i complete the paper.
So lets get back to the question. Am i a slow writer? Well i find my writing speed as a function of time. Usually i start with a big-question, keep writing with for almost 45 min, then realize that half of the time is over, then speed up things. Some how i am automatically tuned to the available time and manage to complete the exam on-the-dot. But as long as i complete the exam i am happy and there is nothing to worry about.
Some of the exams are really interesting in which you enjoy writing the exam. You really feel the question and answering that question makes you content. There are some question that really tests you and answering it makes you really proud and knowing that others were scratching their head for the question you have answered, you feel happier.And while writing such a exam i get so involved in answering them that i even fail to notice even the basic things like who is the person next to me or how many of my classmates are writing the exam.
But there are some questions that are really boring. It may either be because the subject is boring or because you do not know anything. In such a situation i suddenly start thing about some crazy things, something like 'why am i writing this exam...'. Sometimes i wish i could throw away the exam sheets, and just go away from everything as Swami Sivananda did, but i hope i at least become a doctor like him... well i can become a Phd type doctor na!(for those of you who do not know, he was a Dr in Malaysia before he became a monk.) But i feel god has given me lot of creativity and i prefer to use them first. Well thoughts are thoughts and they come and go within a fraction of second. And such thoughts gives you a nice little break. And after this i "wake up", i look at my watch and i continue to do what i am supposed to do: answer the questions.
By this time i should have completed the last technical mid-sem exam of my bachelor degree because next semester we will be studying only management papers. Nice way to bid adieu na:-)
[Well this blog should have been published on 31/09, but i wasn't able to do it because of some Wi-Fi problem. Well today was the penultimate Lab of my B-Tech program and i'll be wearing khaki for the last time tomorrow i.e my last lab.... well what shall i say.]
