An Examination. “Before the exam on Basic Electronics (BE) I was speaking to a friend of mine and she asked me what I was doing. Since I was debating on whether to revise BE I replied, “To BE or not to BE.”” It’s been over five months that I’ve cribbed online about an exam. Well, old habits die hard. College thus far has been little different from school, especially since first years arent allowed in extra-curricular activities yet. People still care about exams, is what I meant. We have a series of 15 mark exams called “sessionals” that last for one hour each. Some colleges may call it “mid sems” and some others might say, “yaar, aaj kaun sa exam hai?” But we haven’t yet gone to those depths quite yet. Oh no, something’s quite wrong about my college because guys are trying to actually STUDY to impress girls. It seems that my 12th standard was wilder than my college life and that’s saying something. Just for the record, the most dangerous thing Ive done in my 12th was watch Dhoom 3 with sharp objects near me. For a week I’m seeing people sweating over the then upcoming exams. In my first semester I have the following subjects: Mathematics, English, Basic Electronics (BE), Mechanics of Solids (MOS) (you’re sleepy already aren’t you?), Basics of Mechanical Engineering (BME) and Physics. The teaching here is top notch. But you know, therein lies a problem. When a teacher is too good, you experience what I like to call ‘Fake Enlightenment’. After actually understanding the first chapter, you develop a confidence in the teacher. And then you start taking everything else at face value. You sit in the class and understand everything perfectly. But you sit in the exam hall wondering whether Engineering was really a good choice for you. There were some very good exams but they all paled before English, the forever-last paper. You know you like English when your preparation for English involves reading Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’. The first part of the paper had a comprehension. We had six multiple choice questions similar to the SATs, but there was a 2 mark question at the end asking us to give two simple straightforward reasons from the passage as to why the author feels India is the next superpower. The ideal answer was two lines. Of course, I wrote a one and a half page passage on the passage, quoting Derozio, deriving a reference from Harry Potter and citing a line by Captain Price from the ‘Call of Duty’ game series. Just Bosconian things. On second thought, I hope I mentioned the actual answer. The last question of the paper was a badly written letter which we had to edit and rewrite. It was by far the treat of the hour. It was supposedly a letter from a girl to the authorities complaining about the nuisance caused by stray dogs in front of her hostel. It went thus, “I herewith humbly beg to state that much nuisance is creating in our hostel front road because of which many many stray dogs. Tomorrow my lady friend was being returned from collage when all of a sudden three four mad type stray dogs attacked her… Respected sir please kindly help we both and all your lady student who is like your daughters only.” I thought, “Girl, if your ‘lady friend’ was being ‘returned’ from college, she has bigger issues than stray dogs.”
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 11:43:47 +0000