An Outlet: Part 6

20 May, 2019.

When I woke up today morning, the only thing that made me believe that it was finally exam day was the fact that I finally woke up at 6AM! Not 9, not 10, 6! Thank goodness!

I went through the sums that I hadn't looked at before. They were similar to the ones I've previously solved so I had no difficulty going through them. I also re-read the theory questions cause everybody knows those 20 marks are going to be the most difficult to earn.

Today morning, I had another type of fear. I was praying that there aren't any cheating incidents (obviously not where I'm involved) this year, at least not in my classroom. I was also hoping that I actually don't have any known faces in my centre cause that would be amazing. And even though there's no way for others (who don't know me) to know whether I'm good at studies or not, I hope that they leave me alone. I do not cheat or help others during exams and that should not pose any problem for me.

My exams are slotted from 2:30PM to 5:30PM. But I ate lunch by 12PM, got ready and left home by 1:15PM because

a) Even though mom had come to drop me and she had already visited my centre last week, I wanted to get acquainted with my exam centre (+ the route to reach the place) and feel a little at ease. 

b) Since I was to travel by road, I didn't want any unnecessary traffic to make me late and make me even more nervous before the paper.

c) It's always better to start early so that you don't get caught up in last minute problems and panic.

As I said before, mom had visited the centre once but she got confused with the route and we ended up taking a wrong one. I had a feeling we were going the wrong way cause my dad had already kind of explained which roads to take and which flyovers to leave. Surprisingly, I did not panic. We had left home early for a reason. And besides, instead of traveling by a rickshaw, we were in the safety of a car (rickshaw drivers can get super annoyed with wrong routes) and found a U-turn in the middle so we reached the centre well before time. 

As my parents had told me, it was definitely a better looking and better situated centre than my previous two centres. Apparently this college did not have a strict system of allowing candidates to enter the classroom only half an hour before the exam so I was able to locate and sit in my classroom well before the exam began. 

What's more, even my mom accompanied me to my classroom and look for my seat. I swear she gets more tensed and hyper than me for my own exam. My seat was along the window side of the room so I was glad. Now that I think about it, my seat has always been towards one of the walls (for all three years). My bench was thankfully bigger this time (I still can't get over how tiny my last year's seat was). It was wobbling a little and even though I was fine with it, my mom kept on asking me if I wanted someone to make it proper. I burst out laughing cause she just wouldn't leave!

There was still a little less than an hour left before the paper began so I tried to revise one more time. At one point I wasn't able to concentrate on much of what I was reading. I just wanted to give the paper right away.

The first good news for the day was when I found out that none of my college-mates are in my centre this year! Yay! Plus there was no one sitting in front of me. Yay! For the first time in three years, no one asked me if I'd help them. Oh please let this continue!

This year, they seem to be using the electronic info recording/marks giving system (I already had a bad feeling about this) with standardised answer booklets for all the courses offered by the University. Which is why we wasted a considerable amount of time trying to figure out how to bloody fill that first information sheet.

Having said that, my paper went well. I had to rush quite a lot tho. I wasn't able to re-check any of my sums so that means I was going to have to be confident with my answers in the first go. 

It is not abnormal for question papers to have some mistakes but wouldn't you expect the corrections to be given towards the start of the paper? The correction for one of the first questions came in after one and a half hour was done! Fortunately, I had already left that sum half way so I didn't have to re-do the sum like some others did.

Okay so I may not fully be able to explain this without coming across as a snob but let me give it a try. Over the past two years of giving these examinations, I've come to realise that this particular course is mostly opted by:

a) The ones who don't have time to attend colleges because of their work 

b) The ones who didn't get the opportunity to study before

c) The ones who come from far off places

d) The ones who don't go to regular University colleges (like me) 

Now my college is one of its kind but apart from us, most of the people appearing for these exams seem to hail from heavy traditional backgrounds and vernacular colleges. That difference becomes pretty evident by the clothes we wear or the way we carry ourselves. 

Maybe it's just my imagination but I've had instances where it felt like people look at me differently/ stare at me after figuring out that I come from a relatively modern lifestyle/ speak english well. 

In order to "not stand out", I decided to wear the simplest of clothes today. Not that I own the trendiest of clothes but it might as well look like it considering most of the female candidates wear traditional salwar kameez. I'm no goddess who nobody can resist but I didn't want to bring any kind of attention to myself. Even then, out of everyone in class, the invigilator only questioned me about my college and residence....

Anyways, after the exam I thankfully got a rickshaw pretty quickly and was back home in a little over 15 mins. I didn't really have any issues with my centre but apparently a couple of my classmates did. Either their centre didn't announce the change in the paper or in the most extreme case, their centre was not informed about the exams altogether. I hope this doesn't adversely affect them. 

I rested for a while and then started with CA by 6:30PM. I feel like I still have quite some bits to revise but I can complete it tomorrow morning.