Monday, July 13, 2009

Exam Phobia

I was/am not a good student. I was not that type that prepared notes, listened actively to what the teacher was saying, 'competed' with the top notch students.. never did any of that thing. The maximum position I got was 6th I guess in my class and that was not even the Final exams. The worst if I can remember was 16th position. So I was one of those that teachers do not remember. They only remember the good and the bad. Thank God my mama does not consider me 'ugly' and I'll take that as a popular opinion too.

The way i fared in exams was due a lot to way my father approached it:p He never ever asked me to 'do excellently' in exams. He had only one question to ask 'Did you clear?' and my answer was always 'yes'. Thats it. I do not know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing for me because it definitely had one impact one me - I got no exam pressure. The bad thing, 'perhaps', is that I never got serious for exams. You know, good students get opportunities kinda stuff?

Talking of exam pressure, different people get different treatment 'from' exams. Some get tense, some people cant sleep, some people have upset stomach.. mine was pecuilar. I got abundant supply of sleep! If i sleep around 12 at midnight, in exam days I would be asleep at around 10! I have absolutely no idea why! Perhaps it was my escapism but whatever the case, most of the times I would want to sleep. In the most important exam of a pakistani student, the 10th grade Final exam (board exam) is considered to be the first major battle. I remember, in preparation for this exam, I had a small diary with me alongside a transistor! yup you read that right, a god damn radio! I had noted all the frequencies of various radio channels. Apparently, i was not just content with that because I had also 'drawn' the frequencies with needle position alongside the noting!

The country's elitist exam, perhaps, the Civil Superior Services - I gave that too. People spend almost a year preparing for it. How did I prepare for it? A month before when the datesheet for exams came. Thats the reason I could not make it to top 100. Thats the reason I am writing this blog post :p

The approach to exams did change I must admit. Since my arrival in professional world and in this day and age of competition, one is forced to take professional certification exams. And they cost like hell! I have undertaken more than a couple of them and man they require more than a weeks preparation! Money is after all thicker than everything! I was not afraid of the exam but the thought of losing such humongous amount of money made me quiver! One is tempted to ask "why the hell did I do so?".

I believe our older generations were much better than ours. Seriously. They finished school, college and university. Thats it. No more studies. To hell with exams and everything. We, on the other hand, keep singing this song.. 'imtihan hay, tera imtihan hay'.

Sigh.

6 comments:

Pinky said...

nikkammi jaan :P

a fan said...

Hope i don't end up writing a post here ;)
I was one of those used to be good students. After entering into college, i felt that i lost the art of preparing/studying for exams...So, the amount of preparation used to be indirectly proportional to my marks at the end of the day, with the amount of prep always on the higher side. Infact, numerically,there is a 20% percent difference between 10th,12th marks and college marks :)

I did have pressure and generally have upset stomach for the first exam :) But the worst thing is the superstitions...In college, there was one particular exam dress.
And I remember for my 10th and 12th exams, i used to have beliefs that if i see this number of cars while walking from home to school, then i'll do well in exams or some other stuff. So there were 2 instances, where i have actually stood outside the school counting the number of cars :)

And yes, i agree with you. In our generation, there seems to be no end for exams. It is not only money which goes waste, even precious years...

PostMan said...

counting number of cars?! Here. take this *giving you the winners trophy*

a fan said...

:):) Thanks. Do i see a cash cheque with that? ;)

PostMan said...

*sigh*
You, in general, have 'counting' issues... whether cars or money.

Sophi said...

hahaha acha this is what you were saying to me time and again 'imtihan hai tera' I didn't listen this song. I think it's before my janam :P