Examination fever

The Christmas revelries are over and so are the New Year parties and it is back to business yet again. The winter break precedes the not at all awaited and much disliked examination weeks – it is the time of the year which marks the arrival of the much dreaded semester exams. So, there are far fewer Friday night parties, no more gossiping on the steps of the lecture halls and no more back-to-back movie marathons. Everything is put on hold until this period of eclipse in our social lives comes to an end.

It is a time of the year when you find Murphy at its best. One would find a hundred per cent attendance in lecture sessions in anticipation of getting the remotest clue for prospective questions (I remember someone recording the revision lecture session for one of the modules and running it again and again just to make sure he had grasped each and every word of the lecturer). You’ll find most of the course books, journals and periodicals in the library list on loan for the last minute go-getters and especially the ones you badly wanted (and a hold or a recall for the books you had somehow managed to lay your hands on in the eleventh hour). There is hardly any chance of getting any of the workstations free… most of them would have been reserved at the break of dawn when the usual ‘hardly working’ students become ‘hard working’ (…just kidding!!!). You would struggle to find a seat even in the remotest corners of the top floors in the library. The photocopy machine is utilised to the fullest at this time of the year with students taking hordes and hordes of photocopies of the notes of their hard working colleagues.

It is a time of year when time is a priceless commodity and still you would find yourself craving to watch a soap you don't even like on the television or that football match you would otherwise never have cared for. One loves to read anything other than the course books. Some insane people like me prefer to read the notes of some other module just hours before the exam and not of the module to be examined. Life becomes bizarre and colourless. It turns into a large cup of coffee and the caffeine starts getting to your head.

You could well have realised how much I hate exams. In my three decades of life, I must have taken more than a hundred exams and believe you me I have never liked it even once. I have never liked it even if my preparation was extraordinary… and definitely hated it when I was ill prepared. I have always found that period – once you start the exam preparation and once it culminates - to be very taxing, demanding and agonising. A shiver runs down my spine whenever I think of those nights spent in front of my laptop with cups and cups of coffee. The sooner this agony is over the better – I have always believed this.

As the University has donned a snow-capped look and adverse weather warnings are being circulated, I really sympathise with the strong student community of my beloved University neck deep in preparation despite the adversities of weather. I wish them fair weather and following seas and hope that the steam never runs dry!

Rohit