Back from sabbatical

Am back into blogosphere after a pretty long time.What with exams and submissions and things like that these days have seen my adrenaline levels soar to record highs.But the storm has passed over,and all is calm on the study front now.I have a feeling of deja vu,but I am tempted to hold forth on the various stages of exam preparation before a typical engineering end semester exam.Make a few modifications and I wager that the same thing,same techniques are applicable for other professional courses.

Take my case.Our average semester length is about 4 months....never mind the dictionary definition of six months.The first three months are one of the most relaxed ones you could dream for.Sure there are practicals to do,reports and submissions to be made ,but what the heck.We just keep pushing these things with a will-do-it-tomorrow-there-is-enough-time attitude.And when the third month is almost ending notices start appearing in college and departmental notice boards.Dates of exams and opening of new semester start getting released while the teachers get into their element,fixing dates for final submissions and practical examinations.And then ,like the beginning of a bad dream,we realize the amount of time which we had whiled away.And I don't know about others but at these times I really would have loved to get my hands on a time machine and turn the clock back.But having said that,all we can do is to do it the long ,hard way.And so starts the crazy days when one master copy of assingments and programs make the rounds of the entire hostel .One of the bes examples of I scratch your back,you scratch mine.Days and nights become kaleidoscopic bars of black and white during the run up to D-Day.And the best part is that,the majority of the people are totally clueless about the syllabus.So when looking at the past questions the only thought that comes into our minds -we are doomed.However ,with the gradual unearthing of the topics and syllabus,the flower of hope shows its face in the barren snow filled terrain of despair (I know that this sounds horribly cliched,but studying operating systems and Unix and computer networks have blunted my linguistic skills.Will have to wait for some time before the systems are up and running).

Anyway,with the practicals and submissions over,the real exam starts.Typically in most colleges these exams have no gaps in between.For example,we had five exams in five days.And let me tell you ,that was no walk in the park.With our sins of wasting the whole semester coming back and haunting us,the typical situation before each exam was discovering newer and newer questions with no answers.I mean when I were in school the routine was that you revised before exams.Here you saw new topics two hours before an exam.Another thing which I suspect my schoolmasters wouldn't approve of.But as most of the people are in the same jam,I guess that evens out everybody's odds. And the body art part is ,of course always there,along with tiny chits up the sleeves.And no sir,I an saying this not metaphorically,but literally.And since we,as a generation are more savvy than our parents when it comes to, gadgets some use cellphones to write down formulae and stuff.But that is another story altogether.

All's well that ends well,as they say.And in our case too,usually the story has a happy ending,except in some cases where the paper setter was in a particularly foul mood while setting the questions.Then even God will wash His hands off you.And no amount of chits can save you from flunking.Most of us,except the superstars have been through this at least once.But I digress.The moment the last exam is over,you feel as light as a dove.You feel no grudge in wasting 200 bucks watching a stupid flick in a multiplex when you knew before hand you would be suckered.The therauupatic value of watching a movie in a theatre is great,believe me.It means that you are completely relaxed .And it is much cheaper than getting your mind analyzed by a Freud spouting pshrink.And of course for folks living far from home,end of exams means boarding a train or a bus and going home to meet the family and eating homecooked meals.Grrrrr...,sorry that was my tummy.Goes about growling like a grizzly whenever home food is mentioned.Can't blame him,it has been almost 5 months.

I will be back soon.May the force be with you

Exam musings and body art

I am back after a long time.No,it is not writer's block that kept me on the hold.It was the scourge of every student's life.Yes ,no prizes for guessing -exams.

Why is that we students hate exams. It only involves writing down the answers to some questions. Surely breaking your legs or getting a nasty bump on the head is worse than writing from memory.But many people disagree,including yours truly.And as our system goes empirical evidence suggest that the the questions to be asked in the upcoming exams can be guessed pretty accurately by looking up previous question papers

And after knowing all of this,we quake in our boots, our stomachs turn somersaults and palms become sweaty!! And for many others breathing becomes more ragged. Classic smptoms of a heart attack. Don't think I am making this up. You may no longer have to sit in an exam hall but look back to those times and a involuntary shiver will run up your spine.

I have been thinking all about this since exams were over and I guess that knowing what is coming sometimes makes things more fearsome than they actually are.Fear sort of overhypes things.It is just like if we ever had to go to a village many of us city bred types would insist on drinking from mineral water bottles rather than drink the water which comes out of the village well though it does nothing to the villagers.So coming back to our original topic exams put the fear of god in us.And however much you prepare you always feel inadequate.

And at this crucial moment that part of your inner voice with the pitchfork and the pointed tail steps in. We put that good voice with the halo out of our heads and stuff it with a pillow so that it can't disturb us when we invoke our dark side and temporarily become Dr Faust.And invoking the dark side involves rituals which you have guessed by now.We prepare chits in which is written almost in microscopic letters,write on our arms and legs answers to the most likely question asked and wear full sleeved shirts to cover up the body art.Dressed to kill...err to cheat.

And how do we reconcile all this with our good selves when we release it from uhder the pillow where it has been gasping for breath. We murmer hurried protestations, swear on our favorite cricketer's head and the father,son and the holy ghost and on the whole 330 milliion gods of the Hindu pantheon that this will be the last time.

And after six months we again reach out for that pillow. And put it to dual use for the night before the big day.