Adieu Theory exams : My experience with writing exams.

I am so very excited while writing this post. Finally, I am done with the theory exams (or better lame engineering theory exams). I just hated them, loathe, abhor or whichever synonym of “hate” is out there in this universe. I have a problem, I am terribly bad in anything I don’t enjoy doing. And I have never been delighted while writing these exams. No wonder, my grades very well reflected that.

Anyways, I was not always like this. There was a time when I was really good at cramming stuff and used to be very excited preparing for the exams and attempting them. But that was way back till the high school or may be till the 1st semester. Things started to change in second semester when electronics came into picture. To be frank, electronics has always haunted me more than any other subject. Primarily, because the books we studied sucked big time, and we were never assigned any teacher from the EC department, it always used to be some irritating person trying to fake teaching (teachers like them…..I can’t remember their names should be put behind the bars). Anyways, understanding the subject always used to be boiled down to reading the book a few days before the exam and trying out some questions from previous year papers. This scheme used to work for my batchmates, but I don’t know why it never worked for me. I would cram the electronics concepts but would never be able to understand their significance. And hence I found it very difficult solving problems with a slightly new perspective during the exams. I tried adopting various methods to understand electronics, but all were in vain. And then we were stacked with more electronics in third semester, and since my basic concepts were weak, I started to find it difficult to cope up with it. Though I was able to score kind of decent marks, but I started to feel frustrated for not being able to solve the complete paper.

And it was at this point, that I started to loose interest in theory papers. Though in later semesters they introduced some computer subjects as well (though only for the sake that we were enrolled in computer science course- I mean where in the hell do they teach algorithms along with digital mathematics, that too with a teacher like “Ms. Serial Kisser”). Anyways, by the time computers were introduced, I had lost all interest in writing exams. I find it really difficult to do things just for the sake of doing them.

Another reason for me abhorring exams was my “super fast and super phadoo handwriting”. Some of the compliments which I have got from teachers on my handwriting are, “Was there an earthquake when you were writing the paper?”;  “were you ill when you gave the paper” and “I cannot understand any word you have written”. Had I had a scanner now, I would have surely uploaded some piece of my writing. My writing is legible in normal times ( it’s never good though) but it deteriorates exponentially with the speed. So, when it comes to writing in an exam, it’s no more good than “pieces of unreadable alphabets put together”. This was the time when I only used to code and hardly used to write anything in between the exams.  So, writing in exams used to be a tough call, more like a toddler making an effort to write for the first time.

So, in around fourth semester, I was too frustrated with these exams. I just stopped believing in them. Giving exams was a very dreadful task for me. I must admit that preparing for theory exams and writing them around this time was one of the worst times I had faced in life. It was very difficult for me to study for these exams, since I had no motivation whatsoever. I would just sit in the exam-room thinking I had to again go back and prepare for the other exam. Those 3 hours used to be so daunting for me, I would gaze at other people and find they were writing with so enthusiasm as if this was their last chance to write. Each time a person would go and take a supplementary, I used to get more frustrated thinking how can he/she fill sheets so fast, when for me filling each page was a burden. Ah...that was bad, bad time, that’s why I am so elated today.

Anyways, things had improved since the 7th semester. Primarily because of two reasons. First, there were more computers to read as coursework, which I loved (of course barring Expert Systems). Networking I just loved, Forouzan is certainly the best book I have read in my entire college life. Second, I have started making notes for almost everything I read. Note-making is a wonderful habit, helps a lot. This was something I learnt from SushyB and Sakloo (They learnt it at Vidyamandir, shit, they never taught any such cool things in Fiitjee). Since I was writing now throughout the semester and the holidays, writing exams was not such a mammoth task.

Anyways, so though I am left with a not-so-great percentage and some really bad memories (how can I forget 40 marks in Microprocessor and 48 in Power Electronics), but I am very ecstatic that the theory exams are finally over (Read postscripts :P).

PS- 1) Juniors will not like this post.
2) Intrinsic assumptions are that I will pass all the exams with awaited results. And if I decide to go for higher studies, the subjects would be much more interesting and hence I would enjoy attempting exams.