Exam Fun....

At the Exam Hall

This interesting conversation was overheard by me at the exam hall in a recent exam…..

Journalist (J): hello there, how are you doing?

Student (S): doing? Doing? Can’t you see that I am pulling out every last one of my meager and disappearing stock of hair on my head? 

J: Why? Is the paper that tough? I see that you have been reading and re-reading it for the past 5 mins.

S: Tough? Tough? You know what tough is? Tough is doing a 100 free squats at the gym and then walking home without grimacing every step of the way. This? This? This is the demented writings of a crackpot with a massive chap on his shoulders.  A work of pure sadism.

J: so you were caught absolutely unprepared with this one? Anything in there look vaguely familiar? Any old friends hiding there in new/different clothes?

S: I don’t think so. As you know that one week ago I sat down with a book called the question bank, full of previous years question papers?

J: yes, so anything came from there?

S: wait for me to finish. Don’t put words in my mouth.

J: so what happened?

S: well there was this last year’s paper, the very most recent paper. And as you know the examiner should know, or any decent examiner should know that you should never repeat a question from the most recent question paper. Students know it examiners know it everyone knows that’s the most decent thing to do. But guess what this examiner did?

J: uh! Let me guess. Repeated a question from last year’s paper?

S: not just A question….but the Essay question. Tell me, Is that cricket? Is that fair and just and playing by the rules? Who does he think he is?

J: uh! The examiner? He thinks he is God and he is right....anyway what happened to all your preparation?

S: as a matter of fact I did a lot of hard work on my preparation but sometimes things don’t go your way do they? You just don’t get a break…

J: you studied long and hard?

S: you bet….i studied that damn book top to bottom a hundred times..Went all the way from cover to cover- as soon as I bought it- right in the beginning of the semester itself.

J: so you must know all the answers.

S: answers? What answers? it contained only questions….where does it have the answers?

J: what book are we talking about here? Just to check that we are both on the same page.

S: the 5 year question bank…..that’s the one I studied cover to cover a hundred times- trying to predict what would come today.

J: (Aside) so there you are ladies and gentlemen..another student bites the dust….just goes to show that nobody beats the system, it wins every time….signing off here from the exam hall…..

If you have ever felt like this in the exam hall, then you must know that both the Journalist and Student, who were talking in mind-voice, were yours truly……..and I am sure everyone has a variation of this story in their own lives